|
Post by Joliette Thorne on Dec 27, 2006 12:05:16 GMT -5
_______The Crossroads_______
Tenebrae, to anyone who didn't know her, would have looked exceedingly odd just then. Well, probably to those who knew her, as well, but at least they might have some inkling of what she was up to. Not long past midnight, really, and the necromancer was stood at the crossroads, pallid skin almost silvery in the moonlight and every exposed inch other than her face painted with spidery, eldred sigils. Sword, staff, cup and disc were laid the center of the meeting of roads, below the featureless signpost, its directions long weathered away. Also quite plain to sight was the white chalk circle in which lay the bodies of what, if one were to make a closer inspection, would prove to be two dead crows. One of the bodies was clearly in a somewhat advanced state of decay. The other was fresh, feathers still glossy and slightly iridescent ebon, a trickle of fresh blood staining the ground below. Tene was dancing, bare feet slapping the dampened earth in a rhythmic cadence to match the soft, sibilant chant she sang, the language unintelligible to any who'd not lived a millennia but haunting in refrain nonetheless. Her gracile frame swayed and leapt, twirled; ebon hair fanning around her face, painted limbs moving in intricate and graceful steps. Her fingers twisted to arcane gestures; the more recent of the two corpses twitched, shuddered. Tene's dance came to a slow finale, the vampiress smiling down at the bird. "Bit happier with that one, I hope. Honestly, I don't see why you insist on leaving it so long, every time."
Leoxander was a wanderer. Therefore, it wasn't shocking that he should be wandering generally her way, when he noticed Jack's ears perk, and his attention lift. Silent footsteps had him following the animal who could be silent, when needed, and it was from the swamp to the west, just a shadow in the bog amongst dark trees, that Leo emerged into range to see the light, hear the language, and recognize the shape, height and details of... her. Sinking into a casual crouch, he didn't move, and devoted his attention to secretly watching that spell casting dance, so foreign to him. He wasn't noticable, unless that diamond band on chain happened to catch a glint of reflection from arcane lightshow, or if Jack gave him away, which was likely.
Tenebrae's arms were folded, a brow was arced in delicate disdain and an expression that stated in no loose terms that the necromancer was unimpressed by ... something. Within that chalk circle, now slightly scuffed at the edges by the movement of her feet, the now undead crow had struggled to it's clawed feet, and was looking to Tene with a familiar and baleful glare. "Don't you dare put the blame on me, Maladroit. I wasn't the one stupid enough to be cursed. I didn't make you the way you are. And if you keep going, you nasty little goblin, I'll be sure to leave you in the next one while the worms finish it off. Again. And we don't want a repeat of that, do we?" The bird glared in silence, and pecked fretfully at the barren earth. The vampiress' lips parted, about to say something else, when into that odd scene wandered Jack, who with an utter disregard to ritual propriety barged into the chalk circle and began nosing at the former - and quite odiferous- body of the necromancer's familiar spirit. Tene blinked. "Oi, you! Leave off that, uck! And where's Leo?" Her eyes were turned to the darkness, searching.
"Never far, Mistress..." Came the obvious and well scripted reply in a murmur of deep vocals that seemed amused by himself, if nothing else. The mask prevented warm breath from fogging in the night air, where the murky swamp atmosphere broke way to cleaner, colder breeze. He'd not wanted to disturb or get near... whatever she'd been doing, but now he would stand, tall silhouette a black clothed movement against green tinged background of an appropriately spooky marsh.
"What was all that about?" He'd question as he approached, slow and warily. "The chew toy finally gettin' some new feathers, huh?"
Tenebrae narrowed those pale, jewel-hued eyes at the rogue's familiar and lanky shape, though the smirk that fought to spread to her lips had half won its battle. "He's not a 'chew toy'.." Patently, Jack would disagree at that moment. "He's a familiar. And yes, I've just done the transmutation ritual. Poor blighter." She bent to scoop Maladroit up, the crow for once uncomplaining as she set him to her shoulder. "Not that he deserves a lot of sympathy." All the same, she canted her head to brush her porcelain cheek against the sleekness of those new feathers. Her eyes had never left Leo. "What are you doing down this way in the dead of night?" She wasn't all that amazed. It -was- Leo, and he danced to a tune all his own.
Leoxander drew his hood from his features as he came closer to her, the usual mess of hair falling over his eyes, but he looked right through blonde at her as if undisturbed by it. "Maybe I was followin' you..." He murmured this in some of his better suited deep vocals, a hint of malevolent jest to a suddenly sharper stare devoted entirely to her lovely eyes. He didn't even bother to look at the crow. "Gotta cure for boredom?"
Leoxander 's dog would probably take care of the old crow body when they weren't looking.
Tenebrae said to Leoxander, "Yes. Yes, I have two. One of them I'm fairly certain you wouldn't like very much. The other..." Tene shooed the newly resurrected bird from her shoulder as she bent to retrieve her various ritual objects. "I'm pretty sure you would." Her smirk was hidden as she turned to stow objects to pack, sheath and strappings. "So perhaps it's best I leave it to you, to think of something for us to do. What are you in the mood for?"
Leoxander shoved his hands in his pockets, his bow strapped to his shoulderblade, eyes lifting above the cut of the mask to roam the area he took a few casual steps to walk around and observe. Even while he answered her question with a smirk. "Oh, Lady, if I told you what I was in the mood for.." A nonchalant and vague tone, and he looked toward the east, where prairies rolled into the distance. "You might just go looking for some more polite company." Fortunately, the cloth hid his grin, but he glanced back over his shoulder toward her, as though he'd been talking to himself. "What's your mood? You lookin' for somethin' to beat up?" He wore a look that suggested he might just volunteer, amusement squinting the corners of his eyes.
Tenebrae nodded, laughter a velvety chuckle in her throat. "I am now." She made her way to the nearby well, drawing up the bucket, peering to the murky quality of that water, nose twitching dubiously. "There's a swampland nearby. Wouldn't mind taking a poke around in there." Tene took a clean linen cloth from her bag, dipping a corner to it before rubbing at the lines adorning her left arm. "Just give me a minute to tidy up." Because the swamp creatures would be so disappointed, if she didn't.
Leoxander found something to settle on. A stump, or stone, maybe. It had one footpropped higher to elevate a knee as an arm rest for inked appendage, his left wrist bandaged still. "Tidy up to go trudgin' through a swamp?" In the time he'd wait for her, some of his own things were removed to be resuited, mask and hood pulled aside to reveal his shaven features, wearing the smirk. "I'll never understand women." That nearer knee lifted to his chest, unbuckling and rebuckling the leather straps of thick boots tighter around his feet. It was only then that he tore his eyes from watching her, allowing her some privacy.
Tenebrae's limbs were soon clear of the odd and finely-worked designs. She snickered softly at his words, eyes lifting now and then from her task, toward him, not long in noting his smooth cheeks and chin, and the bandage on his wrist. Again a brow was lofted, her sidelong glance a study in nonchalance. "What's happened to you, then?" Tene's eyes were on the bandage, her tone a little clipped. "Found yourself another vampire to feed?"
Leoxander didn't realize what she spoke of, at first. With spiked leather bracers, fingerless gloves and torn sleeves, only some of the bandaging cloth and ink of tattoos were evident, patches of tanned skin showing through the damage of black attire. And there were always tears and holes in his clothing. Different colored eyes glanced to follow her stare, looking down at the hand that draped off the rest atop his knee. "Not exactly."
Tenebrae's teeth clasped to her lower lip, biting back the next enquiry. Not wanting to push the issue, she raised her gaze to meet his mismatched eyes. "Um. Alright. Feel like a little stroll, then?" She hefted the strap of her pack on her shoulder. "Best we walk carefully, though. The ground gets awfully soft in these places. Can suck you right under." She reached to her back, darkly stained oaken staff slipped from its strapping and brought over her shoulder. "Might be a good idea to prod about with this as we go."
Leoxander would reveal things when he was ready. He seemed to have quite a bit of patience in some matters, especially when they came to himself being the subject. Climbing to his feet, he unstrapped the cursed bow that would probably whisper cryptically to the Necromancer, since she understood the language of death that the human did not. "Would you like me to carry you, Mistress?" She'd see his smirk as he started to head toward the edge of the swamplands, where fog hung around waist level and darkened already impossibly dark surroundings.
Tenebrae's breath was exhaled audibly as she stepped after him, eyes rolling briefly to the night sky, barely visible through the canopy of twisted marsh-willow branches overhead, their silhouette an eerie knotwork against the moonlight. "No, thanks. I think I'll manage." She kept the staff to hand anyways. Might come in useful, should he happen to fall in the bog.
Leoxander smirked to himself at her reply before he crept forward on silent tread, leaving a small wake of arrows in a neat line along the thick body of the anaconda that he'd spotted in the distance, swimming swampy waters. Each of them sported black feathers, much like that of Maladroit's new ones. With Jack trudging through muddy, mossy bog that came up to the dog's chest, Leo took a different path, jumping onto the large roots twining in and out of the wet soils, taking advantage of stones, and showing some impressive branch climbing skills learned as a kid, when he sometimes crossed difficult terrain by way of intertwining trees. He was scouting ahead, as the rogue had been known to do, a glance over his shoulder searching for the vampiress he hoped to keep safe, even if she could take care of herself quite well.
Tenebrae wrinkled her nose as the air thickened, the pungent soup of mud and rotting vegetable matter giving rise to that characteristically foetid swamp odour. Even her keen eyes could barely keep track of Leo, the rogue moving through the rank terrain as though born to it. Only the odd shift of shadow, or soft squelch of soft ground sucking at his boots gave him away. Tene was a bit less concerned about his safety now, though she did keep an eye on Jack, the thoroughly muddy mutt struggling now and then to keep pace. She was awfully glad she'd gone barefoot, those heels definately a minus in this situation. Batting her way through a maelstrom of gnats, she spoke, soft voice carrying oddly loud in the thickened air. "Leo..."
Leoxander paused just before the path, or what could be possibly considered such, led them further south. He crouched low on a branch a few feet above eye level, weight resting onto it hesitantly and cautiously, before a leg dropped down, dangling in a casual sway of mud dripping boot, several feet in front of her. "M'yes?" He grinned from the height above, looking down for her through some weeping, mossy foilage and leaves.
Tenebrae made the mistake of looking up. Face screwed up against the glob of swamp-muck that splattered on her forehead upon the forward swing of that boot, she raised a hand to wipe it away before it might run to her eyes and stepped back a little."If anything were ever to ... happen to me, I'd like you to have the ship." The back of her wrist rubbed the last of the mud away, and she paused a while to watch him there, looking somehow younger, more boyish than he did when prowling the streets of Kelay or Cenril. Maybe it was the way he sat, that casual grace, or the grin. She shrugged inwardly, eyes turning to the seek a clearer path through the wetlands' tangled growth. Her words would be heard as she melted into the darkness, staff poking gingerly at the ground ahead. "I'd not like to leave you high and dry."
Leoxander sat there a few minutes, confused by the words, a frown of wordless apology coming when he lifted his foot and braced it to the texture of the branch again, leaning back. His shoulderblades pressed to the bark along the side of that tree, and she had him kinda stunned, until a crack sounded behind her and his weight collapsed on the muddy, sludge soil with a grunt. After picking himself up with a rough throw of the large branch into the side of another tree, which proceeded to scare Jack into the darkness, he brought himself to running after, catching up. "Wait.. wait... You're not serious, are you? You don't even own it alone. Castellian'd have a whole new price on my head for that one.." Once along side her, he'd slow his pace, mud smeared across his cheek with a wipe of hand against it. "Nothin's gonna happen to you, anyhow."
Tenebrae stopped, turned to him. Licking the pad of her thumb, she used it to rub the smudge from his cheek, palm opened to pat the smooth skin of it after, gently. "You just never know what the future'll bring, Cap'n. I just want to make sure you're looked after." She dropped her hand, the other slid to the top of her staff, clasping over it. "I don't think Caste would want to keep the ship. It'd be yours." A faint smile was offered him, by way of reassurance, before she faced away to the path ahead. "You're probably right though. It'd take a lot to get rid of me. Not as if nobody's ever tried."
Leoxander lowered his eyes to the ground quietly for a moment, forgetting to be careful and suspicious about his surroundings. He didn't speak or hold decent conversation with many people, but it was easy to speak to her. "Tried and failed.." He'd point out, glancing over in time to see Jack get snapped at by the giant alligator blending into the terrain. A yelp sounded throughout the area, but he had hooked his bow back out of the way, and scrambled for it. Leoxander 's arrows barely missed Jack's hind foot, and impaled snapping jaws instead. Managing to only upset the giant... yes... giant alligator, Leo had to stumble back several feet to put distance between them, firing swiftly nocked arrows but barely piercing scaly hide. Eventually, just a lunge distance from reaching him, one last arrow between the eyes made it fall, still.
Tenebrae smirked, cast a look down at herself, fingers tugging up the front of her bodice a bit. He might not have heard her soft, "Well, duh..." over the yelp. Eyes widening, she sought sign of the dog being alright, slipping after Leo as he moved in a fluid blur of motion toward the archaic reptile. As the soft whistle and thud of arrow after arrow ensued, she sped as best she could through the muck into the tangle of vegetation where Jack had fled. Finding the frightened animal not too far in - he suddenly brave enough to let fly with a panicked volley of snarls and barks as the sound of arrow-strike ceased - she knelt, heedless of the mud on ground or mutt, to circle him in her arms. "Horrible thing...", she chided, dark stare narrowed in the colossal 'gator's direction. "You alright, Jack? Poor baby.." Jack shivered, let out a last whining growl, and tucked his face under her arm.
Leoxander hooked his bow over his shoulder with a sigh, unable to sucessfully pull his cross barbed arrows from the thick hide. Instead, he headed toward the west, where Tenebrae had run after Jack's fleeing shaggy form, and he sighed when he got near enough, watching the canine cower. "You sure as hell don't coddle me like that when somethin' scares me..."
Tenebrae was busy making boo-boo faces at the dog, who was quite obviously lapping up the attention, though she spared Leo a brief glance. "But you're Mr. 'I'm-So-Tough-It-Hurts', and he's ..." She looked down to those deep brown eyes. "Just a widdle doggy. Ain'tcha? Huh? Ain'tcha?" Jack's dog-brows almost furrowed at that, sidelong glance to Leo paid.
Leoxander gave a rather bored look at the dog, and then at Tenebrae, one brow faintly quirking up behind the mess of hair that hid his eyes. "...Right." A slight roll of different coloured (there...) irises, and he was trudging through the muddy terrain on ahead, shaking his head to himself... "...Bloody mutt." Jack got all the attention...
Leoxander would slow to a stop when mud and moss became something of more stable terrain, even if the ground was still wet and squished under his weight. He stopped on that rise of ground and looked out into the distance where the trees cleared for that sinking city, buildings aged and decaying, half swallowed by the earth, itself. A low whistle of appreciation sounded, having never been so deep into the swamps to see this before.
Tenebrae appeared at length, Jack trotting behind her and having an easier time making that pace now the earth wasn't so sodden. She, too, was astonished to find this ancient, deserted place. Following Leo's line of sight, she gazed in awe at the great stone edifices cracked by the roots of gargantuan swamp trees, surely almost as ancient as the ruins themselves. Carvings were cut to a few of the buildings, in base and low relief, the figures telling stories of a once-great civilisation. Little was left of them now. Tene wandered about the fallen blocks of stone, climbing steadily upward. Turning back over her shoulder, she grinned to Leo, some ways below now. "Think I'll explore a bit. You coming?"
Leoxander crossed his arms at the vision unfolded before them, a hint of unease at the wonder of what occupied the city when it stood. He was hoping a place like this wouldn't be full of bad karma, or magic. "...Yeah, I'd better keep an eye on you, hadn't I?" With this, he started to walk toward her, prepared to follow her lead like a bodyguard. Leo couldn't help it if he wanted to protect her...
Tenebrae saw him start upward, moving over the great stone blocks with ease, gaining on her steadily. He might have heard her laugh, as she scrambled to keep ahead of him, turning their ascent into a race, if he'd be in it. Tree roots were both hindrance and help, the thicker ones' slick bark providing little grip even for her bare feet, the thinner ones acting as guide-ropes for the steeper parts in places.
Leoxander couldn't stop the grin from melting onto his features when, half crawling up that ready to topple wall, she skittered ahead to keep away. He had no mask to cover the expression, and his gloved hand reached out, ducking forward to skim her bare ankle on the upward angle they climbed, until reaching the peak of that collection of roots and stone, plantlife having overgrown to entangle and overpower the man-made buildings. A pause would let her get away, a head start, if she insisted on playing hard-to-get.
Tenebrae was laughing almost too hard to keep ahead, a little shriek of mock-fear given as he grasped at her ankle. She managed to stay ahead for the entire climb, and when they'd nigh reached the peak looked back again over her shoulder, finding Leo wavering in the chase. Slowing to a halt, she paused, too. "Something wrong, Cap'n?" The laughter on her lips was hesitant, as she looked to his hands, curiously.
Leoxander snapped the compass she'd given him closed in his palm, before it was tucked into his belt. "Oh no.. not at all..." At the peak of that tilted building, he turned, and started to stalk toward her, since she only had the edge and mud behind and beneath her. "In fact..." Tenebrae was being cornered at that edge with a smirk. "I think you're the one 'bout stuck in check mate. Where'd you expect to run from up here?"
Tenebrae's quick glance about her indeed showed that she had little option but to stay put and suffer whatever consequences the rogue may dish out ... until her gaze fell on the vista laid before her, their altitude providing a panoramic view of the lands below. A forefinger was raised, to point to the scene behind him. "Leo...look!" His glance would reveal a continuation of the city rising from the miasmic swamps and gradually becoming less of a ruin than a thriving settlement.
|
|
|
Post by Joliette Thorne on Dec 27, 2006 12:09:10 GMT -5
Leoxander almost laughed out loud, and didn't look right away. Her point and exclamation was something people used as a diversion, and to expect the rogue to lose sight of her so easily was underestimating him. His head turned slightly, eyes darting a glance in that general direction, but he was waiting for her to use that moment to run. Whether she did or no, she wasn't escaping the corner he'd trapped her into, and dark eyes shifted down to take note of the thick, soft, but possible deep mud a step or two backward would land her in. One step forward was taken to near her, coaxing her further toward the edge with a dangerous smile. "What would you do in such a situation..? Sacrifice..? Or step into my arms to hold onto me..?" Mischief swam the stare that lowered coyly to icy greens, his head tilting with blonde as ever, in his eyes. Leoxander would open an arm to catch any attempt to run, or try to. He was looking to coax her into an embrace, even if that meant chasing her down to hold her hostage on a ruin cliff.
Tenebrae's options were indeed slim, she realised; Leo had her backed into a corner - or a potential mudslide- and was showing no sign of mercy. Eyes shifting to gain a better view of her periphery found no avenue of escape that did not entail being caught by the rogue... A wicked gleam flashed across her eyes, before that unsubtle gaze was brought to bear directly on his own. Stilling her body to gather back dignity and with serene poise, Tene did her best to saunter in bare and very muddy feet toward the pirate's waiting arms. "Best you hold me, then, or we'll both wind up down there..." She tilted her chin toward the mud-bank, head turned aside briefly before that gaze so boldly fastened on his again.
Leoxander wasn't sure how serious she was, or if he was risking some clever retort to his threats, but a smile caught hold of Leo with his body relaxing somewhat, seeming to believe her peaceful approach. His hands lowered with a moment of thought, not often the casually physical type, to be honest. But if Tenebrae allowed, with no one there to judge the move, and hopefully no one present who would critisize the moment he let down his guard... he would actually wrap his arms around her, pull her carefully against the front of his chest and abdomen, structure hidden by layers of leather and cloth. If the Necromancer made no protests, the Rogue would honestly take that moment in their discovered ruins to quite simply... hug her. If course, with that wicked gleam, there was always the possibility she allowed no such thing, and lulled him into a false sense of security to give him a mud bath.
Tenebrae moved steadily forward, no sign of feint nor flight, to stand a scant few inches from Leo. All the while her eyes lost their feral glint, a softer expression in them locked to his. Tanned and tattooed arms closed 'round the vampiress; as the rogue pulled her close, her own arms twined around his torso, palms pressed to the firm muscle of his back. Tene had no other thought at that moment than how immensely safe she felt, how comforted; the maelstrom of her mind lulled to calm as she laid her cheek to his chest and closed her eyes.
Leoxander searched for his ease, when his arms wrapped around her, unfamiliar with hugging someone so close, for that long. But her lithe frame, he swore, fit his as if meant to be pressed against his defined ribs, even through the leather armor that padded his structure. Eventually, his jaw touched down to rest tentatively atop black hair, careful of the purple jeweled pins he'd noticed glinting in murky green moonlight, earlier. Nearer her temple, she'd feel the warm of his breath stir ebon mane, and he couldn't help thinking that was how things should be. "...I'd keep you safe forever, y'know..." The murmur escaped him with a will of it's own, before he could prevent it, or stop it. It was as if, unmasked, he didn't have the control on keeping his thoughts so very silent. Duo colored eyes stared elsewhere, toward the swampy ground far below, a little haunted at what he heard himself say near her ear.
Tenebrae didn't answer right away, allowing that feeling to go on. Finally, she drew back to meet his gaze, restraining the slight shake of head, the soft words that sprang first to rosy lips and were bitten short: "No, Leo. Not forever." Instead, a small smile curving them, those lips parted to speak a lesser truth; one that was truer, at least, in his own terms. "I know." She cupped her palm to his cheek, stroking skin that had the first burr of growth, before pulling away, packstrap taken up. She turned to look at him in silent pause, before stepping toward the downward path, such as it was. "Might head down now."
Leoxander was spared a broken heart when she didn't repeat the words she'd said one night, to try to end his feelings toward her. It hadn't quite scared him off, but he realized the error of his ways when she pulled away and removed her hand from jaw. Releasing her took every ounce of will he had, but he barely resisted that want, and fingers curled to drag against the fabric at her side before she stepped completely out of his hold. His arms dropped, watching her rather than the path, eyes slightly narrowing. Fine, play along, thief... spoke the voice in his head. "Yeah, that would probably be for the best." He turned, to find a different path, leaping the edge to catch hold of a vine that swayed him a few feet out, then snapped under his weight. On the landing, however, the rogue automatically dropped into a roll that prevented a broken leg. He pushed to his feet with a grin upward, and brushed himself off. Leo loved the bittersweet taste of risk, no matter how much was consumed at once.
Tenebrae did shake her head then, a soft laugh giving light relief to the tension within as she watched his adroit recovery from the fall. She was still turned to him as she took was she supposed to be a relatively easy pace downward, the angle of her brief glance to the terrain leading her to presume the next stone block closer than it was. She had been about to say something, the light of jest still in her eyes, when of a sudden that downward step simply was not there; and then, neither was Tene. A shrill cry from below was cut short, and then there was silence.
Leoxander looked up toward her in time for his foot to sink into some mud on a first step, watching her bounce down steps with youth only their time alone seemed to allow to shine through, in her. Still grinning, he winced and looked down at his boot, swallowed by thick brown greenish liquid, and a sudden cry brought Jack to a sudden halt, at a distance from the pair, wandering. Both Leo and Jack looked toward where Tenebrae had been standing, and suddenly wasn't. "...Tenebrae..!" A loud, demanding yell of her name, a little panicked, expected a response. But he was trudging through mud at that point, scrambling to get to the ruins that appeared to have swallowed her up. "Are you alright?!"
Tenebrae was alright, she just couldn't say so at that moment, the fall - or rather the landing, rather awkward on her pack - having knocked the wind from her lungs. The shock passed rapidly, eyes staring wide to the darkness, until she managed a hoarse: "Yeah.." And a moment later, rising gingerly from the lumpish mass of her overstuffed bag, she ascertained there to be no real damage. "Fell down a hole.."
Leoxander grimaced as he trudged through that thick wake up to his shins, trying to get as fast as he could through the marsh swallowing up half the ruins, as though everything had overflowed and flooded, at one point. His eyes were up, toward the decayed stairs that must have opened to a floor below, or so he'd guess. But suddenly, on a step that sank him to his knee, having been looking up where she fell and not where he was going, had his body jerking to a stop. The ground gave way beneath him quickly, melting away to drop him deeper. Jack was trying to jump up those large block stairs, so that he could peer below at the edge of where she'd fallen, to bark into those hollow confines for her, as if that helped. "Bloody he-... Are you gonna be okay a minute..?!" The yelled question came a little panicked, when his other leg sank down, and mud swallowed his lower torso, nearly touching that heavy belt.
Tenebrae couldn't know of Leo's predicament above; she was just relieved to hear his voice, and Jack's bark. From what she could see, she was in some kind of oubliette, the exits to whatever room she'd fallen into blocked by crumbling masonry and the lower portions of the massive tree roots above. "Sorry to be bother..." She could make out Jack's shape, the silhouette of his pointed snout against the moonlit sky. "I'll be alright." She assumed he was looking for some way to get her out of there.
Leoxander probably wasn't doing her any favors, but he couldn't move, and actually... when he thought about it... that mud seemed to be getting higher on his waist, nearly to the hilts of blades. "...Uh... Good, because I might not be..!" The yell came after Jack's low whine of doubt with a look down at Tenebrae. Standing, the dog bolted over to the human, skidding to a stop where stone became mud, grass and algae. Trying to stay as still as possible, he began patting his sides, the outside of his legs, unbuckling a strap of leather just above his knee by diving a hand underneath the mud. A large but sleek weapon was pulled out from that slop, dripping brown and green gunk. A curse might be heard above the sound of Jack's impatient growling.
Tenebrae's voice held a hint more than concern at that. When did Leo ever admit to not being okay? And the edge in his own cry had her pacing the darkened chill of the stone-lined hole. "Leo? Leo! What's happening?" She searched the sides of her erstwhile prison for some means of escape, and though thick tree roots did descend to her, and beyond, the tendrils on thier slick surface were brittle and snapped under her experimental weight. The stone was too steep, too smooth at her level to provide hand or foothold. She raised her face to the moonlight. "I can't get up there... What's happening?" Leoxander tried to keep the worry out of his voice as he yelled out, breaking the silence of that forgotten city to be heard. "Stay put! Jack!" A sharp whistle brought the dog's attention at the edge, and he untangled rope after extracting the hooked end of the weapon to jerk it from the useless, muddy launcher. Gripping onto the rope near the heavy iron end, a swing sprayed a splatter of mud on him, and around, before the hook was thrown to catch onto a root not far from the dog. Biting onto the rope Leo began to unravel, his tail wagged furiously at the chance to help, and with the hook in hold, he bound up steps back to the edge where Tenebrae could see the heavy barbed business end dangling from maw. A muffled bark for attention, and that anchor brought the metal dropping heavily, hopefully not on her head. It snapped tight in Leo's hold from his distance. "You got it..?!"
Tenebrae shouted back, "Got it!" She'd been expecting the rope end, not the hook that feel with a metallic clang to the stone floor, chipping at some crazed and time-altered mosaic that might once have been the floor of some rich man's home. The hook end. She sought a likely place to anchor it, a pile of larger blocks among those piled against the higher walls suiting. Tene raised the implement above her head, bringing it down hard in an inward sweep, tugging hard and praying it held fast. Her first attempt failed, and the second, until at the third the pointed ends wedged in some crack and stuck fast. "Good to go!" He'd hear her voice rise faint but distinct from the cavernous hole.
Leoxander felt the slack tense when she anchored the heavy end, having left himself enough rope to latch it around his tattooed arm, palm to elbow, a few times. He hadn't expected her to anchor it onto an object, and one firm tug revealed she hadn't gained a hundred pounds, so he yelled out with frustration. "No..! Hang onto it, woman! Sheesh!" He was sinking deeper, but Leo also knew that his weight and the pull of her weight up the distance she'd fallen into, would likely help them both out just a bit. Needless to say, when she unhooked the grappling end and held the curved ends in her hands, he'd start collecting and binding rope, until her hands were above her head, and the weight pulled from her feet. The rope cord grinded against the edge of the hole near Jack's paw, and her weight, until she reached the edge to climb out the rest of the way on her own, kept the mud just above his belt, below his navel, rather than up to his chest. Gloved hands reeled her up, arms skimming the surface of the muddy bog of quicksand he'd settled himself in, before inked appendages were devoured, too.
Tenebrae had to kick that thing pretty damned hard to dislodge it. "You might've said so!" Feller throws a hook down a hole, a girl's going to assume he wants her to... The first tug put an end to her grumbling, had her fingers tightly gripping the steel; a few more pulls had her bare feet planted to vertical stone to steady the jerky stops and starts of her ascent. "What the blazes is happening up there?" She was scant feet from the edge by then, and the lack of reply did nothing to assuage the panic creeping through her. The edge of the hole threatened to crumble further as the hook did catch at the edge and she dragged herself over it, hoisting arm and leg over to pull herself free. The necromancer's eyes sought in vain for Leo, the rope leading not the rogue standing firm with rope in hand and a mocking smile as she'd expected, but downward to ... "Oh, crap!" On her feet in seconds, Tene had the coarse fibre in hand, her weight dropped backward in the effort to haul as hard as she could. Jack yipped nervously, dancing around the mudhole with a look of utter canine distress. Careful not to land herself back down the shaft, the vampiress backed up, step by step, until with a horrendous sucking sound Leo was drawn from the bog in a single motion, almost completely free of the mire.
Leoxander was pulling even as the end hooked, and she pulled herself up and over the edge, Jack dancing around her and willing to be clutched onto to play the part of Lassie, if she so chose. Trying to watch her, muscles in his arms constricted and he worked to drag himself toward the edge, moving in slow motion from the quicksand belching at the bottom of his ribcage, now. Once she was safe, some relief washed over his features, and his eyes turned toward a root extending out, barely out of reach. Quickened breathing was all he could open his mouth to do when she realized the state he was in, and since he was squirming and moving, the mud only made to swallow him down quicker. He just gasped his last in preparation to go under with an arm outstretched, when the rope in his other hand went tight, and her pull brought him into reach of the root. Clutching on, those sounds of victory came, though.. he didn’t look very triumphant as he crawled up onto solid ground, stumbling over the root and dripping foul smelling mud and moss. It dangled from the rope he still held onto, catching his breath and looking toward the pit that ate up the launching gun for the hook.
Tenebrae was at his side, heedless of the muck, scraping it from him in handfuls as she fussed about. "Silly man. Look at you..." Her fingers left pale streaks of skin showing through the mud of his face. Her voice had a tremor to it that might have spoken more of her concern than her actual words. "Could've been drowned... How'd you get stuck in the mud like that?" The whole time fingers plucked sodden weeds and detritus from his face and torso. Her own were kind of dusty, though a certain amount of slime from the fungous growth covering the roots and stone in the oubliette. "You okay, Cap'n?" She wasn't going to stop fussing, for a time.
Leoxander stood up straighter when she approached, no mud covering his eyes, fortunately. Wiping it off the front of his body, he paused at the touch of her hands on his face, and shook his head at her fussing before letting his eyes look over her dusty garments. "You bloody scared me..." The deep murmur seemed a little irritated, having felt his heart in his throat when he looked up at her scream to find her gone. Refraining from touching her, his hand flicked toward the ground, splattering mud across the stone rubble that had been coated in mud many times before. "I'm fine, what happened to you?" Different colored eyes drifted toward the hole, giving the rope he held some slack then a jerk to pull it from it's hold. The muddy rope dropped with a splat.
Tenebrae winced a little at his tone, brow furrowing. "I .. er.. fell." There was something of abashedness in her own voice, the necromancer pointing vaguely in the direction of her mishap. "Down that hole." There really wasn't much more to it than that. "Pretty lucky really, I landed on my..." And pale jewel-green eyes widened then, and she shrank a little. "Pack." The pack that quite obviously wasn't on her shoulder.
|
|
|
Post by Joliette Thorne on Dec 27, 2006 12:11:19 GMT -5
Leoxander stood in a puddle of half of what had been covering him, watching her, until her eyes widened and he knew at once she'd lost her pack. A sigh escaped him, muddy spikes of hair hanging in his eyes, streaking his cheeks a bit until one hand reached up and brushed it back, a few spines sticking into place, others landing on his nose. Leaving prints on stone, he headed toward the hole, picking up his hook on the way. "Let's make sure we can get back out..."
Tenebrae nodded, though he wouldn't have seen the gesture with his back turned to her, and followed him. Leaning cautiously to peer over the edge of it, hand clasping to one of Leo's biceps by way of support for the endeavour, she groaned faintly and pulled back to a safer distance. "Are you very cross with me?" Tene turned to him, looking up to meet his mismatched gaze through thick black lashes, wearing her best 'please don't be cross with me' face. "I'm going to have to go back down there and get it, you know. I have everything in there." It honestly wasn't that great an exaggeration.
Leoxander was starting to hook the grappling end in the opposite direction, to toss the rope down that hole, when she stopped him with a clutch to his arm and brought his eyes to hers with the look she wore. It made him smirk beneath the smear of mud sticking to his jaw. "I'm not at all cross with you, Lady..." Oh so casually, Leoxander leaned in, tipped his skull and placed a muddy kiss on her cheek. Then, after her non-exaggerated statement (he'd seen her pull enough out at once to know it to be true), his head dipped in a nod and he anchored the hook to a curled root, jerking on the rope to sink metal into the wood for security. "I know, I know... but you're not goin' down there again without me. I might find somethin' shiny..."
Tenebrae's teeth bit gently on the smile she wore, when he kissed her cheek and the irritation dropped from his voice. Looking decidedly more cheerful, she rubbed lightly at the spot, streaking the dark splotch that he'd left across her a little more, and with a grin reached out a finger and poked him lightly in the ribs. "Yeah, sure. Shiny."
Leoxander grinned. "Don't jinx my luck." He walked to the edge to slide gloved hand along the rope, leaning to stretch and test it's durability, and make sure it would hold. A slight wince was given when he saw the distance she'd fallen, peering over the edge. "I'm surprised you didn't break your damn ankle..." Looking back toward her, he clutched the rope and prepared to climb down into that pit of darkness.
"I told you, I landed on my pack." She was laughing, though a hand was rounded toward that infamous behind, rubbing the bruises she'd sustained. "Just as well I never get round to cleaning it out. Though next time, I swear -- no large bits of hardware or spiky articles of..." But she was talking to the air, Leo already over edge and halfway down. Sighing raggedly, Tene knelt, backing to the edge. She glanced over her shoulder to call to Leo, down the hole: "'Ware below. And don't look up."
Leoxander couldn't help the grin that crept onto his features as he listened, and slid down, releasing to land along side the shadow of the pack he saw on the ground beneath that rope. A silent landing, and he looked around, automatically looking up when she told him not to, aware of the skirt she was wearing. "...Honestly, lady. Must you destroy -all- my fun?" Jack, seeing them leave to a place he could not follow, mysteriously wandered off.
Tenebrae landed beside him not too long after that, her descent somewhat more hurried by the lubrication of the rope by the mud he wore, and her haste to avoid what she was sure would have been at least -some- scrutiny. "Right..." She wore her best 'down to business' expression, if a little reddened, and headed to retrieve her pack.
Leoxander had been looking up with a smirk, despite her plea. Hell, he'd seen her in a bikini before, and expected a punch on the shoulder from his mischief. But by the time she landed, he was a little wide eyed, and looking ahead into the darkness, adam's apple dipping with a swallow after her word, and only when she bent over to get her pack, did he dare the quickest sideways glance at posterior curves, daring to breathe an exhale before looking away.
Leoxander squinted ahead into the darkness of that room, trying to... take his mind off other things and concentrate on the new adventure at hand. "...Is that a hall or a tunnel..?" His murmur was asked when he noticed the room expanding underground, leading into the unknown, and he was already taking slow steps forward away from the dangling rope. Tenebrae straightened quickly, yanking at the back of her skirt and looking 'round to the direction of his voice. "What?" But he was already on his way toward that dark space, that she hadn't noticed, in her panic. "Oh. Right you are." She hurried after him, taking a quick glance about. "Tunnel, I'd say." She shouldered past the rogue, eyeing him as she went, and strode ahead. Well, it was best she lead the way, being able to see in the dark and all.
Leoxander gave a handsome smile to the threatening look she gave as he followed casually. Talk about following an angry bear into her den! Even in the dark, his innocent yet mischievous look could be charming, but it soon faded away with the blackness to swallow the human up. "...I can't see a bloody thing." His quiet voice echoed unnaturally deeper, louder in the obvious tunnel they were in. He reached a hand forward hoping to find her, wherever he may grab. "...Tene..? Really, I can't even..." Nope, that wasn't her. Part of the wall crumbled after the grunt of surprise left him, making good contact with the stone. "Hell..." Leoxander felt along the wall a bit to make certain he didn't get turned around, his steps still quiet, though not as silent as usual since he'd walked right into a wall. He'd continue toward her (hopefully), trying hard not to embarrass himself further. Sure, he'd walked shadows before but this tunnel was blacker than the darkest night he'd ever roamed in.
Tenebrae thought it not too bad a pity that Leo was sightless down here, as she walked backward - to enable better viewing of his bumbling about - with footfalls silent as a cat's, longer steps taking her out of range of those grasping hands. Grinning, she took a glance back over her shoulder now and then to make sure the path was clear. She was going to enjoy every minute of this. That'd learn him... A soft squashing noise, cloying, noisome stench and a horrible squelching sensations as something cold and viscous was pushed up between her toes put a hurried end to her amusement. "Uck!", was her distressed cry. "I stepped in something!"
Leoxander was still clinging to the wall with one hand outstretched her way, moving at slow pace, when he heard the sound and her reaction, smirking to himself, unaware she could probably see his expression. "That's gonna stink down here, damn..." His eyes squinted, glancing back to see if maybe he could spot light from the way they'd come, but no such luck. He was in total blackness, now. "You want a pair of boots or something? They might be big on you..."
Tenebrae was unable to reply, just at the moment, as she was holding her breath and rummaging frantically in her pack for a bottle of tequila at the same time. Stepping out of the - well, she was pretty sure what it was - nose wrinkled and cheeks puffed, she was once more glad Leo couldn't see a damned thing. Hopping backward now a few paces, expelling that long-held breath, the necromancer uncorked the bottle and hastily poured the entire amount over her foot, reaching for another even as she spoke. "Dragon poo. There's -nothing- more disgusting."
Leoxander dug into his pack after a moment, reaching in for a pair of shoes tied in a loose knot with the laces to hold them together. They were tossed in the general direction of her voice. "Heads up." Hopefully she wasn't hit in the face with them.
Tenebrae was prepared. He'd given her the heads up, after all. She caught the boots by the lace that joined them, and donned them quickly. "That explains the walls up here." If Leo were to put a hand on that surface as he walked on, he'd see - or feel, rather - what she meant. Much smoother than the rough-hewn tunnel a short distance back, almost glassy to the touch. "Vitrified." Tene's voice wasn't such an echo as she neared him, taking his arm. "Obviously a dragon that both poops, and breathes some pretty damned hot flame."
Leoxander said to you, "Well thank you Captain Obvious." Look who was the captain, now. He paused his movements, leaning back against the wall with his arms folding over his chest, and his voice kept quiet. "So, can I expect we'll be walkin' up on this thing if we keep goin'..?" A turn of his head was futile; he couldn't see into that darkness at all.
Tenebrae shook her head - pointless really, as he wouldn’t see it - and said, "Couldn't say. The ... evidence was quite cold. Who knows, though. It might turn up again and find supper home-delivered. I think we should get a hurry on." She took his arm again, tugging him forward. "No time to stand about looking dashingly nonchalant." She enunciated that last part very clearly.
Leoxander wasn't convinced, and wherever he was at that moment, likely against the wall still, he made certain he was standing upright. "In that case, let's keep moving." Unfortunately, he wouldn't be doing much movement until she decided to be nice enough to take his hand, and lead him through a darkness his mortal vision did not penetrate. "You gonna help me out or watch me stumble around like a fool slow enough to coax a dragon to dinner?" In the direction he'd thrown the boots was the direction he looked, in general. But it was only touches, scents, sounds he could go by while they remained underground.
Tenebrae already had him by the arm, it wasn't all that much effort to slip her fingers down to twine with his. "Of course I'll help you. C'mon." Tene kept him close, even her eyes straining to see more than vague outlines in the pitch blackness. The air was musty, thick, and she doubted any breeze had ever blown a cleansing breath down here. She led him slowly, fingertips gliding across the solidified molten-rock wall now and then. The sound of their voices seemed oddly flat, as they walked what appeared to be a steady decline in the path. Those boots he'd lent her felt strange, but despite their being a little outsized, oddly comfortable compared to those five-inch heels she was so fond of wearing. A sound from ahead, an as yet faint and sibilant rustling noise, brought her to an abrupt halt, her fingers tightening in his grasp. "Leo..."
Leoxander had been following along when the distracting noise was heard even by his rounded ears, and she'd feel his body shift with a clean snip of metal; two intricate blades leaving the sheath at either hip. "I hear it.." His deep murmur was quiet, a sound that vibrated more than it was heard, with a step forward that brought the front of his body touching her back. He'd released her hand to grip his weapons, but kept his appendage near for a hold onto his wrist or arm, if she preferred. In the darkness, with his soft breathing near her ear, he strained to hear a telltale sign of what they faced. Obviously, something was out there...
Tenebrae was silent, every sense straining to gain knowledge of what the source of that sound might turn out to be. The shirring of Leo's knives being freed, his sudden warmth against her back went some way toward providing her with the courage to investigate; a hand reached over her shoulder to pat gently on his cheek was the signal to move on. As they trod the path that sussurating hiss became louder, bourgeoning to a steady roar, and Tene was very glad it was Leo she was here with. Fingertips kept contact with the rogue, guiding his steps as they moved steadily onward, through the inky depths of the tunnel. A slight turn in the path had them creeping flat to the wall, Tene peering around the edge of it, her palm flattened to the rogue's chest in trepidation... and then she sighed her relief. The necromancer turned from the view, bringing herself close against Leoxander to be heard over the hubbub as she leant up to speak in his ear: "Bats! Leo, it's only..." And the roar became unbearable as a maelstrom of what seemed millions of the leather-winged creatures took flight toward the pair, possibly startled by their scent -- or triggered by some source of disturbance at the other end of the path.
Leoxander listened intently to the sounds, with his steps matching hers to keep his body just a step away from her, his eyes useless as they darted the utter blackness they were exposed to. Brow furrowed at the sound in the distance of the tunnel, almost seeming to grow louder, nearer as the seconds ticked by. Her sigh of relief didn't reassure him any, not when he heard leathern wings tearing through the air in their general direction. The human might not be able to see in the dark, but he knew how to survive in it, and by the time her words were overpowered by the flood of winged rodents, his arm was around her waist and she was tackled as gently as possible down, not quite smothering her frame beneath his, but dropping her in time to avoid the wave of critters that flew above them, a few wings clipping her hair and the back of his head buried against her upper chest and throat even though he'd flattened them to the stone floor. Hopefully it was void of anymore dragon droppings.
Tenebrae had been standing one moment; the next she was pressed to the cold stone ground with one arm thrown across her face and the weight of a thief holding her down. The other arm came across his shoulders in a protective gesture, she curling herself as tightly to him as she could. Even then, a few of the sharp-clawed critters managed to crash into them, leaving the underside of her forearm scored with scratches and at least one tangled in the silken length of her hair. A lesser woman might have panicked, but Tene was too relieved to be overly worried about the thin-winged animals' feeble struggles. Plus, there was Leo ... His breath warmed her skin, and she allowed her fingers to roam through roughly cut blond hair, her gesture reassuring in intent. As the last of the horde passed over, Tene risked uncovering her eyes long enough to pluck the panicked bat from her hair. The rogue was obviously still concerned with the protection of his own eyes, judging by the way his face was buried against her... He might have felt Tene's body tense suddenly, her fingers leaving his hair to clench to his shoulder. The necromancer's voice was soft but insistent as she bent toward his ear. "Cap'n? Don't move. Don't get up, don't make a sound..." She dared say nothing more. The drow warriors that stood over them, death-lances poised and blood-red eyes glaring down, demanded her silence.
Leoxander didn't move save the heavy breathing he used to slow his heartbeat, every exhale fanning the cool flesh of her upper chest and throat, feeling the scratches and irritation from the creatures that had passed overhead. A lift of his head, and he felt the spear point of the death-lance press into his lower spine, causing his breath to catch on an inhale, held. Obeying her whispered words as he felt the grip into his shoulder, the spidery language of drow conversing angrily behind him made his insides shrivel with dread. The thief had been around Hollow long enough to know and experience the friendly behaviour of dark elves, and he didn't expect good things from that point on. The whisper of a roguish curse escaped his lips before ice cold hands clutched into the material and armor at his spine, suddenly hoisting him roughly to his feet and twisting his arms behind him painfully, weight removed from Tenebrae, whom was likely next to be brought to an upright position. In the dark, Leo could see nothing, and despite knowing what sort of beings were already beginning to bind his wrists and tie his mouth off with something... he felt a tinge of panic in that utter lack of light.
Tenebrae might have better off were she, like Leo, unable to see. As the rogue was bound and gagged Tene was kept at lancepoint, there being no question that the poisoned blades would cut her unnatural life short should she as much as raise a finger in his defense. The few words she caught of their rapid speech - of course she'd know a few - were enough to bring a sheen of sweat to her brow. And the one that rung loudest in her ears, brought her heart to her mouth was 'or'shanse'. Sacrifice. As Leo before her, she was brought to her feet, hands tied roughly behind her and a thick cloth forced between her teeth and tied off behind her head. The largest of the males hissed, "Mumbaro!", and the captives were shoved ahead to set the pace of their enforced march.
|
|
|
Post by Joliette Thorne on Dec 27, 2006 12:19:11 GMT -5
Leoxander protested when the drow took hold of the blades he'd been gripping, those cherished dragonfire forged daggers that came in a pair. Understanding none of the hissing, yet somehow elegant language, he jerked in the hold of his captor with a futile effort to break free, take his weapons back, and drag Tenebrae along in escape. His plans, however, were cut prematurely short when a sudden weight - the hilt of a blade, was dropped against the back of his head, and Tenebrae would see the rogue's frame sag against the arms of the dark skinned elf holding him less than gently, knocking the human out cold to be all but dragged along on stone floor.
Tenebrae's voice was soft, her speech a halting mixture of dark elven and common speech. "The Underdark? No, no. Ol zhahus restored, long ago. Siyo, l' Scourge gone alus, Usstan assure dos d' ol...." If Leo were to come to in time to hear it, he would find himself bound still, though his gag had been removed. He'd also find Tenebrae free, and sitting cross-legged on some kind of raised couch across the room opposite a pair of drow, male and female. The male sat on a low seat, beside the woman who was obviously the senior in rank of the two. "This is truth?" The female drow's accent was thick, her stare a scarlet intensity aimed at Tene's cool green. The necromancer nodded gently by way of reply, her gaze drifting toward Leo. Those peridot eyes widened as she found him conscious, her rapid turn back toward the drow hopefully a warning for him to keep quiet.
Leoxander felt a dull throb in the back of his head where the slightest hint of warm blood had drizzled down the back of his neck, and when his eyes finally slitted open to dull glimpses of blue and red, he saw white spots dance in front of his vision. Tenebrae's voice was nothing unfamiliar in his dreams... he was tormented by her sweet come-hither dreamscape attitude on a daily basis. But when the ache of reality mingled in, it had him suddenly, acutely aware of the fact that his hands were bound behind his back. Laying on his side with his head tipped toward the ground, he was too smart to move, when he woke up. Tenebrae wouldn't even notice he was conscious, unless she caught sight of his eyes, which had shifted to focus directly toward her, the slightest hint of panic in that mortal stare. The only thing that changed about him was his heartbeat, faster, likely heard by a vampire who fed off a pulse like that. Physically, he remained collapsed upon the ground.
Tenebrae accepted the goblet of dark wine offered by the drow male who'd entered not long after Leo's painful awakening, pale fingers curling to the stem of it to bring it close to her lips. Though it wasn't likely poisoned - the deathlances could have done that more easily - she still took a moment to sniff discreetly at the cup, before taking a slow sip. The conversation continued a few minutes longer, both drow and vampire glancing over to Leo now and then, the rogue obviously being among the topics of discussion. At last the dark elves rose, Tene lowering her chin in a deep and courteous nod, before the pair swept graciously from the room, beckoning both guard and slave to follow. In that small but well-furnished room, Tene was left to tend her companion. Unfurling herself from the couch, she carried the wine with her as she hurried to his side.
Leoxander remained deathly still until he was certain, by the reflection of expression in the necromancer's eyes, that they were truly as alone as they would get, wherever they were. His eyes darted to his left, up toward the ceiling of a room nearly as dark as the tunnel they'd walked in. Wherever they were, he still couldn't see much. A hand moved, and then one of his legs shifted to press a knee to the ground, and after several moments of silence had passed he was suddenly moving, low to the ground, as though one of the vague shadows in the room had picked themselves up to relocate. His hand clutched into her thigh, and knelt upon the ground with his worry revealing in quickened breaths that had no mask to block them, his whisper sounded a bit frantically with a futile glance at the door. "Wh-where are we..?!"
"Zaneerh.. At the other end of Gualon, sweetness, that city we saw from the ruin. Are you alright?" Her eyes ran over him quickly, the wetness that met the palm of her hand as she cradled his head cause for concern. "I managed to convince them that you would make a very bad sacrifice to their Spider-Goddess. I told them you were my property. And that the Scourge that drove their kind form the Underdark was defeated long ago ..." It was a long story. She cut it short. "Basically, they've all been here in Gualon a very long time, and didn't know they were free to go home. As the bearer of good tidings, they let me keep you. Lucky me, I guess."
Leoxander leaned forward against the couch, still perched on his knees and likely convincing any drow spies that he was, indeed, just a piece of Tenebrae's property. With his chin against the couch, he pushed a shoulder forward to sit up a bit, squirming in attempt to use rogue-born dexterity to escape the bindings. They were secured tight, however.. drow didn't fumble their knots. "Good. I'm all yours... now... untie me." A bit of a pathetic whisper, really, and he crawled on his knees a little closer to the vampire, so she could easier lean forward to reach behind his back. "..S-s...spider goddess..?" A bit of a face with a shudder wasn't concealed by the mask he did not wear.
"Yeah, that's Lloth. High elf goddess that went bad. Made the drow, and then turned into a big bag of spiders... or somethin'. You were about to be her dinner." Tene swung her legs down from that couch, heels planting to the boards below. Leo was before her, on his knees, bound; those astounding dual-coloured eyes fixed in gaze to her own. Tene couldn't have helped biting gently on her lower lip as she reached her hand out, to stroke his cheek, the touch tender. "You sure you're alright, Cap'n?" The necromancer slid from her seat to drop thigh to heel, bringing herself level with the rogue. Leaning forward, her slender arms slipped around him, fingers plucking at the apparently Gordian knot that kept his arms tied behind him. "We seem to have a knack of finding ourselves in compromising positions, don't we?"
Leoxander's expression only darkened at the details of his narrowly avoided predicament, a grimace touching the corner of his eyes at thoughts of being sacrifice to a giant spider goddess. Had he mentioned his loathing for arachnids? Her extended hand, an unexpected touch, had his eyes still lifted to hers before he tilted his head against it, cherished the attention she gave, even if it was while he was bound and at the mercy of some dark skinned rebels. Remaining still on her movement, his weight rested to his own calves when she leaned forward, hopefully, to free him. "Can't ever say our lives wouldn't be exciting together..." The whisper back was a daring one, and it had him smirking, a shiver coursing down his spine even as he felt the knot of his restraints loosen. The scent of her hair was something to be savored, in those brief moments he would at last be allowed.
Tenebrae drew back to look again to his eyes, her nose almost nudging against his. Of course, this meant forsaking the knot, just for this moment. Her arms weren't -that- long. "They are now, Leo." He was a part of her life, after all; and quite a significant one. Smooth fingertips traced the tattoo on his chest, rose-hued lips brushing his lightly as she continued. "Don't you think?" Seemed she wasn't in all that much of a hurry to untie him.
The Rogue could have sworn he was still unconscious, dreaming, to witness what he might think sultry actions, her shyness and restraint flung aside like a well worn cloak. Still knelt at her feet, his arms remained bound behind his spine, his eyes lifting to devote to her with the tip of his large nose, many times broken, nearly skimming the tip of her own. "...There's nothing wrong with that..." Despite their situation, captive, among drow, he didn't feel at unease in her presence, restrained. And that was definitely the first time the thief could admit to being a prisoner, and not uncomfortable. The brush of her lips against his ignited some long-cold fire inside him, and it wasn't panic that quickened his heartbeat this time, as he stared up toward icy green hue. He was anxious to devour her mouth in a kiss, but instead, trained to hide his feelings toward her... he restrained himself to merely licking his lips to enjoy the subtle taste she left behind.
He might've missed the flick of her own tongue against his, the first time, so light was it. But the second was more insistent, and he'd definately be aware of those soft, pouted lips as they pressed to his, briefly. "We're locked in, 'til the scouts they sent return for Tristoth, verifying my news." Those lips descended to the base of his throat, tasting the lightly tanned skin there. "No-one could know we're here. I find that sort of..." Her eyes were heavy-lidded as she raised them to meet his again. "...exciting. Don't you?"
Leo didn't miss much. But his breath caught in his throat and held as he studied her by whatever candle light might have possibly existed in those rooms. And if it was as black as the tunnel had been, it was memory of her exquisite features that served him well. By her second 'kiss', his mouth pressed a little firmer against hers, daring to believe this wasn't another dream; or if it was... perhaps it was the most fragile of such. With his mouth just an inch from hers, he felt the warmth of her unnecessary breath tease his lips, and his eyes slitted to a watery color of blue to stare hard. No one knew they existed in that captive hold they had no options to, for the time being. His hands were still bound behind his back. The rogue was weaponless as far as he knew, and somehow the necromancer had managed to talk the drow into some form of civilized conversation. Enough to spare him from a spider-god. What could be more exciting than that? Maybe the kiss to throat from a vampire... "...Tenebrae...?" Leoxander's soft spoken question - her name, came hesitant.
Nothing was making much sense to Tene at that moment; and everything. The warm, familiar scent of him, the danger they'd been in, and not least the fact that he looked so damned good, right now... In the flicker of the candlelight, he looked both strong and vulnerable, and the vampiric predator's lust for the hunt was triggered. Triggered but ... transmuted. It wasn't blood she wanted. The sound was throaty, vague, her gaze still intent on his and her lips quirked up a fraction at the corners. His skin was smooth, even, under her hands. "Leo...?"
Leoxander's eyes drifted amongst hers, a contrast of color to the minty green he found there, more familiar than most. It was in that position, an inch between his face and hers, that he lingered, searching along that lurid leafy hue as if it held the answer to his unspoken question - he'd only managed to speak her name out loud. With grip flexing to whiten his knuckles just above the base of vertebrae, he took his chances by leaning in, still knelt, to manage another kiss. This one, he hoped, would linger; he pressed his mouth roughly to hers, and the hint of his five'o'clock shadow was like sandpaper compared to her soft complexion when his mouth sealed to hers. The slightest, aggressive tilt of his head and a gentle lean forward would immediately make some desperate attempt to hook her into a kiss he could enjoy, one that had his jaw shifting to try to experience warmer tastes of hers. It would only succeed if she didn't pull away in disgust, and leave him bound near the couch alone for the rest of the night, but his eyes automatically closed to enjoy it.
Tenebrae's eyes closed, too, as lips were brought to hers, and for a brief time is was as though the world had fallen away ... Her response was tentative at first, hesitation borne by the knowledge that what she did was an act of betrayal. But it would also have been a betrayal to refuse him, of her need and his, so long denied, and thus she allowed Leo's kiss. And as a decision was reached, she responded with the sudden ferocity of a restrained passion unleashed in full. Smooth cheeks abraded further by the roughness of his, Tene ravaged the rogue's mouth with her own lips and tongue, losing herself in the feel of him, the taste. Pausing to meet his gaze a moment, her eyes blazing like the northern lights and ringed in deepest ebon, the necromancer wrapped her slender arms around Leo's shoulders. Melting her slender frame against his, fingers clasped to his hair, she leant in again. "Leo, I ..."
But his mouth had swallowed her words, and they were soon forgotten anyway. It was when he felt that kiss permitted, and encouraged to deepen, that Leo finally exhaled the breath he'd been unintentionally holding, through his nose with his lips so very occupied. The very next breath he took was one from her own lungs when his mouth opened to taste warm oral confines, and even that oxygen seemed sweeter, from her body. Finally allowed, Leoxander pressed demandingly against her in return, even with his hands bound, to keep their lips sealed so that she couldn't easily break it sooner than he wanted. It would take her at least two attempts to actually pause that liplock in the first place, and he was panting for breath with a glazed, hungry stare when she opened her eyes to meet it. Knees pressed into the flooring he still knelt upon, as if in reverence to the woman he, coincidently enough, called Mistress sometimes. Always trying to get closer... At the sigh of his name, he exhaled a barely audible whisper of words the Rogue didn't speak often, at all. This time, he seemed to be praising the gods that Tenebrae was finally allowing him to love her, in one way or another, out loud. "...Thank y-..." They never fully escaped - she was giving him more of the flavor he wasn't satisfied with. His chest and body pressed firmly to hers when she embraced him, hands working and clenching behind his back furiously, tensing inked biceps. He was trying to get free, to touch her.
Cruel of her, perhaps, to leave him bound in those first moments. But she'd wanted to be sure... and were he to have his hands on her from the beginning, she could never have been sure her decision was made within the bounds of reason. Now, as the rogue's hungry kiss once more had his tongue twined roughly with hers, her teeth closing to nip gently at his lips when he paused to catch breath, and her soft sounds of pleasure reverberating through his mouth and hers alike as he claimed her once more, her hands slipped from his shoulders down the inked length of his arms to his hands and the cords that bound him. The evidence of his own pleasure was already pressed hard to her svelte belly, the sway of her body against it both a deliberate act and a necessary one, as she worked to release him. Tene shivered slightly, the last knot unravelled, cords uncoiling to the floor. And reluctantly she parted from their kiss, drawing back again to look at him with eyes that told him he'd gained more than one kind of freedom.
|
|
|
Post by Joliette Thorne on Dec 27, 2006 12:26:33 GMT -5
Leoxander enjoyed a dreamless, restful, and deep sleep. He couldn't remember ever feeling so warm, or every breath tasted during that slumber so sweet. Finally, his mind started up once more, in the dull, dusk atmosphere that had long since lost it's candlelit status, wax melted far down beyond the wick. Only a few hours had passed, and her body still covered his like a soft blanket, an arm having remained stable to keep her cradled and captive against his warm blooded torso. The only indication he awoke then was the slow rise of his chest and the subtle sound of the deep breath taken, held for just a brief second, and exhaled in a deep whisper of a sigh. Then, quite abruptly, his eyes slitted open for just another vague trace of color. Beneath her, his body ceased of all it's natural movement and tensed slightly, muscles shifting from a relaxed mold to something less comfortable to sleep on. Always the early bird, Leoxander saw no indication of any drow pointing spears at his throat. In fact, the room was empty, eerily silent, and it was difficult to tell what hour of what day they were nearing. Apparently, scouts had not yet returned, but he doubted they had much longer to enjoy their temporary sanctuary. The human would never look at the drow race the same way; they had given him... so much, those rebels who bound and gagged him. That thought brought his eyes to Tenebrae with a very subtle and slow turn of his head. Tene had been dreaming; perhaps he'd felt her body twitch and shudder in the night, if he'd not slept too deeply. She was dreaming still, as his arm lay around her and her limbs stayed twined to his wiry frame.
It was the day she'd surprised him at the hotspring and her hands were soaping his back. He'd made some joke or other, and she was laughing, disapprovingly, at his wickedness. She wanted him, so badly. It was all she could do to stop herself sliding her hands around from his back. And then, this being a dream, her hands were on him, and he'd turned and kissed her and she ... But suddenly there were spears all around them, faceless shrouded forms standing above, and the blades were plunged down, over and over. She felt nothing, only saw the water, with crimson plumes spreading across the pool like a flower blooming...
She woke wide-eyed, lungs drawing desperately for breath, to find those differently-hued eyes on her; Tenebrae's arms curled 'round Leo's chest, her face buried in his throat. "Damn..."
Small lines etched vaguely at the center of his brow, above the bridge of his nose still smeared with a bit of mud that sweat hadn't quite washed away, and a faint pattern of spots darkened all the more in sunlight. Her features were studied carefully, his eyes relaxing open a little wider by the time he felt her slightly tremble, and his head lifted in surprise at the gasp of breath that came with her sudden consciousness. Possessively, and protectively, tattooed appendage tightened against her spine, crushing her ribs against his still bare torso just a little harder. "Hey..." The low whisper, in a deep hoarse voice that made it seem as though he'd screamed his vocal chords raw the day before, was an attempt to get her attention and reassure her they were okay. Obviously, she suffered the same vulnerability to dream-filled sleep he did. With her features smothered to his neck, his head tilted to touch his lips high against her cheekbone, the exhale of warm breath fanning the fine, unseen hairs just in front of her ear, below her temple. Just some soft kisses in a pause of silence that would give her time to calm her breathing, and relaxed in the heat of his embrace once more. The next words he spoke were even quieter, with his lower lip skimming the lobe of her ear. Leo was soaking in and absorbing that moment, before something went wrong. "I've wanted so long to wake with you in my arms..."
The arrhythmic pounding of her heart was settling, that crush of strong tattooed arm and the soft press of lips to her face going a long way toward dispelling the nightmare. Tene allowed herself to remain there a little while longer, revelling in the closeness, the skin-on-skin sensation of their embrace. His words had her mind once more descend into the warmth and security she'd felt all through the night before. She murmured some soft sound by way of reply, a smile curling to the lips that were brought to his briefly before she disentangled herself from him. Fingers scraped ebon hair back from her face, as the necromancer brought herself upright, eyes unashamedly wandering the nude rogue's taut, well-toned body. Hell, who knew when she'd get to see it again? "Just a dream, Cap'n, only a dream." The words of reassurance were more for herself than for Leo. The next were his, though, her tone still breathy: "I've very often thought about..."
The scrape of key in lock cut her words short, her pale features turning toward the door to find a drow slave entering, bearing a tray containing what looked like a breakfast of various delicacies and a bundle of some sort, wrapped in a soft black suede cloth and bound in some decorative knotwork with a cord of the same material. Tene didn't rush to cover herself; the drow were immune to nudity by custom. She accepted the tray with a curt nod and silence. The slave made his way out, the door left unlocked. "The scouts confirmed my story, obviously. We'll be free to go, any time." Laying the tray down on one broad arm of the raised couch, she handed the suede-wrapped bundle to Leo. "That'll be your knives. Perhaps we should get dressed..." If her tone was a little clipped, it was because the dream was ending, and soon the uncertainty of the world would take them back. She raked her eyes over the rogue one last time. "Gods, Leo. You're so beautiful..." Then her legs were swung to place feet to floor, and she was heading for her pack. The remnant of her leather bodice was kicked aside, with a soft smile, as she reached for her emerald-green brocade corset.
The click of lock had another jolt of tension tightening his arm slightly around her, before the concubine had entered. Partially using her to shield his nudity, though the rogue wasn't all that modest, and somewhat hiding hers in that embrace, it wasn't until the drow slave neared with no violent intentions that he somewhat relaxed against the couch, his eyes carefully, warily following the male's movement, to the point he'd left the room in silence. Hey, an assassin could look like anything, after all. Different colored eyes roamed to the tray, particularly eyeing the suede-wrapped bundle with a twitch of fingers against her ribs, anxious to have his weapons in reach. Releasing his hold on her reluctantly, inked arms uncoiled to let her stretch back somewhat, but while her eyes roamed him, he couldn't prevent doing the same, his lips licked absently with one hand lifting to cup the lurid flesh of her nearer breast, softly. Her body; the rogue's new-found temple, and he was loath to give up the sensation of tender, flawless flesh beneath his work worn touch. Calloused thumb grazed the center where he knew he could coax the skin firm in moments, but the contact was brief, and his hand slid down her ribs and side before she turned to crawl away. One last deep breath was taken with his leisurely posture on the couch, never removing his eyes from her, his pants still down around his thighs, shameless even when she wasn't covering him. But a press of boots to the floor, and hips lifted, hoisting belted pants higher on his narrow waist, with the rattle of buckle manipulated near silent with his practiced fingers.
She could still feel that hand on her breast, the rough sweep of his thumb almost painfully good, as the corset - front-laced, for sheer practicality - was hoisted up over cream-pale skin. Her glance back to him, over her shoulder, had her turn and gaze a while longer. So wanton, her thief, with his bed-tousled hair and lean, inked body; the way he lay there, leonine indeed in his lazy grace... Damn. Tene watched him buckle his pants, as she sat on the nearest handy furnishing to change into her heels. Not more comfortable than the ones he'd lent her, but a hell of a lot more dangerous. "So... where are you headed, once we get out of here?" Armour was removed from her pack and donned. She'd almost slipped and included herself in that, the collective 'where are we' hastily amended before it could escape her lips. She'd learnt never to assume anything when it came to Leo. Hell, he was just as likely to disappear, or find his interest drawn elsewhere now his craving had been fulfilled and she was no longer forbidden fruit. Heading to the door, she slipped it open quietly, peering cautiously to the corridor beyond. A puzzled noise sounded in her throat, and the necromancer threw him a quick glance. "There's nobody there." There should have been guards, at least, but the hall was empty.
Eventually his gaze would drop, and he moved from that warm comfort of furniture to collect some of the clothing strewn in random locations; over the back and arm of the couch, on the floor. He picked up his worn jerkin by the threaded shoulders and noticed the other sleeve gone, as well, some limp shreds of cloth hanging from the seamline. Already patched and laced a dozen times over, it was still useable, and his arms rose to shrug into it, latching a couple laces at the side tighter to fit the center of his frame better. Tattooed arms were exposed on either side, when he finally pushed against his knees and stood, a brief cautious glance on the tray of breakfast he wouldn't be eating, even if it did offend them. Leoxander didn't accept food from strangers very often. Not making the same mistake she did, because he had no intentions of their parting just yet, his eyes roamed the room searching, on their way back to her he spoke. "Well, I thought we could go find Ja-.." The dog's name wasn't finished, because he quieted at the news of the halls being empty. "...Maybe we should find another way out.." So he was skeptical, but he didn't ever think it would be quite so easy to leave a rebellion drow camp without some interrogation to whether or not he was a spy. He sure as hell looked like one the way he dressed. "...Nobody? No guards?" His mind was on the same track of hers, and he grabbed the leather encased daggers swiftly, hastily collecting the rest of his things on a careful approach her way, toward the door.
"Nobody." The place was silent, but that told her nothing. These were drow, silence was their way. But the lack of guards was bizarre. "Surely, someone should have come for us, by now?" Tene closed the door quietly, brow furrowed slightly as she sought his gaze. "Find Jack, were you going to say? Sure. That's if we get out here alright..."
Leoxander paused behind Tenebrae, merely a subtle brush of nearness against her back and posterior, before it was removed to leave a sweep of breeze from his movements. Unlatching leather cord, daggers were removed and glanced over, searching for some sign of tampering, but the black gripping wound around hilts hid their value well enough. They caught what faint light there was when he took one in each hand and twisted them back, blades disappearing in sheaths hooked to belt at either hip with a snip of sound. "Maybe we should find another way out." His eyes were searching that room for some other exit, already. Rafters, windows, a garbage or laundry shoot. Even a loose floorboard might be an alternate route.
She had heard him, the first time. But the room, to her eyes at least, seemed devoid of any other. "Yeah.. probably best." She looked to the drapery lining the farthest wall, a quick stride taking her to it, the rich cloth drawn back revealing ... nothing. Peridot eyes scanned the space, floor to ceiling. Nothing. But, as Leo might've gathered from her overlooking the tunnel entrance in that supposed oubliette, Tene was more used to busting her way out via less subtle means than she was a quiet escape. Maybe he'd have better luck.
Drow structures and buildings weren't his specialty, but Leo's eyes were sharper than your average human’s. It wasn't so much a matter of seeing things in the dark, as it was a matter of expecting things in the dark. He wasn't sure how far they'd travelled from the tunnel, but drow were commonly known for their distaste of natural light, and by the lack of windows, the Rogue could assume his suspicions true. Therefore, it was up he looked, passed the rafters as he walked across the floors, and then he saw the panel that almost blended in with the ceiling and walls. Making certain his packs, pockets and pouches were all in tact, a foot lifted to the padding of an elegant chair, and then he stepped up with a thump of boot onto the writing desk it sat before. A slight crouch of lean frame and he leapt to catch an ungloved hand to rafter, muscles tensing to pull himself up onto it with only the most subtle sounds of his movement rattling the metal attached to his person. Sure enough, after approaching it, he began removing those strips of panels by tearing wood and nail from it's frame. A hand in front of the whole created confirmed it. "C'mon. Up here." The drow did, after all, have to ventilate their dwelling somehow. Only dwarves could live breathing rock dust and debris.
Lithe body stretched like a cat’s, Tene made that same leap, vampirically strengthened musculature allowing legs to carry her, pack and all, from desktop to rafter, slender limbs hoisted to wrap to timber and a deft swing upward bringing her to Leo’s side. She really couldn’t help but plant a kiss on lips, a quick taste while they still had seconds left of privacy. “Need a hand?” And with that, before reply had a chance to be given, the heel of her palm was shoved upward with a rough jerk, the bulk of the wood splintering and shattering outward. Tene offered Leo a small smile. “We right to go, then?”
The kiss brought a smirk twitching at the edge of his mouth, and he couldn't prevent the brief exposure of the tip of his tongue, skimming the flavor left behind to hesitate an answer on that question. It needed none, however, when she took care of matters by a strong hit that shattered boards as easily as it would have bones, he assumed, and the Rogue had leaned back to admire her handiwork before reaching over toward her with a nod. "I doubt there's anythin' in there worse than spiders, but you go first.." No, it wasn't very chivalrous to make the lady lead the way, but he was more interested in the view he would get bringing up the rear in that tunnel just large enough for his bulk to crawl in prone position through. Blue eyes darted toward the closed door, wary of the possibility of someone's approach. Maybe they'd spent too long lingering and hadn't yet walked into the trap that awaited a guardless corridor. Someone was bound to come, soon.
Tene gave him one of those dubious sidelong looks, raven-hued brow arced delicately and lips pursed, that he should by now have gotten pretty used to seeing. “Mhm…” She grinned, a forefinger dug to his ribs. A moment later, she’d sling her pack to better balance on her back and squeeze it’s bulk and her slender frame upward. Elbows leant to the tunnel’s entrance she stood, spiked heels balanced on the lower beam. The necromancer’s voice would probably have sounded with a muffled echo. “Alright. Not too bad up here. Which way, though?” The tunnel ran east to west, and not much to be seen in either direction. Well, nothing, except spiders.
"Pick one." Came his response with his eyes double-taking back toward the door, narrowing when he thought he heard the light footfalls of booted steps down the hall she'd proclaimed empty. Dropping his tone in volume, he'd hiss her way. "And do it quick. Sounds like we have some friendly company stoppin' in to check up on us." If she wasn't moving fast enough, she'd feel the large press of his strong hand bluntly flattening against her skirted rear, giving her a bit of a nudge forward in the cramped space she might be able to manage through on her hands and knees. It was a crawl that would require her head low, however, and she might trip over her own long hair if she wasn't careful about it. Scrambling into the tunnel that seemed made of a stone black and smooth as obsidian, he knew it wouldn't be long until someone glanced up to see the traces of broken boards, so his handsy manner would continue until she began to crawl steadily forward, leaving him to move after like a soldier through mud and barbed wire trenches.
Her voice was droll, though hushed, as he once more patted her rear, hurrying her forward. “You just like touching my behind, don’t you?” She’d chosen the westward path on spec, simply because it had less cobwebs than the eastern one. She hoped it wasn’t going to take them somewhere worse than where they’d been – though, on second thought, that place hadn’t been so bad, at all. The glossy surface of the tunnel made her nervous, too. Either this was a naturally vitrified volcanic shaft, or there was a nest of basilisks or wyverns about. Whatever the case, the slick surface made the going that little bit harder, her palms slipping now and then against it, and her blasted hair in the way. “Hold on, I have to stop.” Tene was forced to flatten herself to the floor, there being no room for any upward movement, in order to fish those amethyst hairpins from a pocket in her pack, and with great care use them to pile her hair behind her head. Not the neatest job, but it was dark and no-one was going to notice. Soon on all fours again, the necromancer carried on, soft curses muttered as the webbing increased, and soft-bodied, furry things now and then were felt running over the backs of her hands or, worse, needed to be plucked from her face and shoulders.
When she flattened down, Leo crawled just a little more forward, so that a hand braced at either side of her waist, and he hovered over her just a bit in what little room they had. Still giving her the room to work around and reach her hair, she'd still feel his knee settle between her thighs, just above the bend of her own legs, with an admiring glance seeming to contemplate her words as he followed the view up the back of her leg, to leather skirt. "Yeah, y'know I really do." This was said with a smirk before he shifted a wary glance behind them, not being followed quite yet. When his eyes returned to her, it was to watch the messy collection of inky tendrils pinned in place, and he thought to himself how sexy she looked with her hair just a little more wild, than usual. "Not far, I think. It'd be a lot harder to breathe if there wasn't a surface near. Though the climb might get a bit harder.." And indeed, though Leo couldn't see into the stretch of dark tunnel that might eventually give way to light, the slope did increase, making it even more difficult to grip into slippery surface. Fortunately, the leather clad thief who could find traction on ice was right behind her, and he surely wouldn't mind it when her body slid back against his. He'd just have to give her some gentle nudges and prods and squeezes to keep her moving. To keep moving was his main objective. Beside the drow to discover them at any time there was the curiosity on how that tunnel came to be, and why it was boarded up.
The path upward was, indeed, a slippery one, and more than once Leo’s broad palm was required to assist her on that slope. He’d offered it a few times without obvious reason, too, but Tene wasn’t going to chide him for it. They hadn’t gotten all that far when the necromancer made a sudden halt, slipping back a little as she did so. Upon the almost familiar pressure of the rogue’s hand, urging her on – or something – she responded with a hushed tone: “What the…” The small amount of light at what must have been the end of that tunnel – which she’d been about to tell Leo about – suddenly disappeared and, from the tiny bits still evident around the edges of whatever it was that had caused the eclipse, the vampiress surmised that something fairly large was … rapidly approaching. “Leo? Leo!” Tene ducked down a bit to offer him a better view. “What the hell do we do now?”
Leoxander was languidly looking back when he felt the tension in her frame, and practically planted his face right up her skirt by the time he looked back. One of those spiked heels made him flinch as he drove his own arm into it, and briefly he looked down with a sharp 'Ow..!' accompanying the lift and shake of his hand, in pain. "Bloody hell.. you always gotta...-" He faded off when he looked ahead, hearing the start of her confused words. He wasn't necessarily looking at the light, but he did see her silhouette of pinned up hair briefly before movement, just over her shoulder, caught his eyes. If it weren't so dark, she'd have seen his expression pale, and when she started saying his name, he immediately started 'Shh'ing her! Too late, not that it had anywhere to go but he heard the scramble of noise pause, confirmed it had something in it's tunnel, or so the Rogue assumed, because the movement echoing down their way started with the sound that indicated it moved faster down the slope. Because Hollow demi-gods weren't moderating the pirate's language tonight, Tenebrae would quite clearly hear the curse that he spat in a harsh whisper.:: "Fuck..! Get..-" They had... what, seconds? ...to decide what to do, and he acted quickly, with a prayer in mind. "...Get down!!"
But she already was down, the vampiress flattened to the glossy tunnel floor and pressed under the rogue’s weight as he snaked his body over hers, presumably to get a better look at what was coming. She’d not taken her eyes off that shape, eyes adept in that dimmest of light desperately seeking clues as to species. Size was already evident, the thing almost filling the entire tunnel’s width, and if it was something equipped with flame… Tene wasn’t fond of fire, or rather, her encounters with it always seemed to have her coming out the worst for it. But stuck in a tunnel as they were, and little time and no place to retreat … She didn’t fancy their chances. So it was almost with relief that the necromancer noted the bulky shaped seemed to have thinner protuberances surrounding it, as the silhouette neared, spindly legs that seemed to support a bloated sac of a body. “Oh, thank the gods…” Her voice was hoarse, the fear of entrapped conflagration having tightened her throat. “It’s only a spider!” Alright, a really bloody big one. But at least they didn’t breathe fire.
|
|
|
Post by Joliette Thorne on Dec 27, 2006 12:29:16 GMT -5
So, there he was, stuck playin' Hero for the afternoon. But damn it, he cared, and caring was always such a pain, sometimes he wondered why he let himself do it. Thinking about things was not what he did at that point, when he moved forward quickly, maybe a little clumsily, probably kneeing poor Tenebrae firmly in the ribs or stepping on her hair, but he didn't have a whole lot of room to scramble forward in front of her, in that narrow tunnel. His stronger, better aiming right hand grasped the hilt of the blade at left hip, drawing only one of them. That other left appendage, armored in only the black bracer that protected his forearm, was all he had for a shield against the thing scuttling toward them. The necromancer sounded then like she knew, and he even dared to believe a hint of relief in her voice. Only a spider! "...A wh-.. a what?!" A shocked glance over his shoulder looked back at her, now that she was peering over his body, ahead of hers, and just as he started to turn that panicked stare ahead and dread what he saw, hairy front legs rose to crawl over the bend of his arm and wrist, and the creature opened it's fangs to poison whatever had marked itself prey by entering those tunnels. The surprised yell that cracked out of him echoed in that tunnel, and he felt the pressure of fangs against spiked leather, a sudden spark of white glow fanning out in an outline over his arm and shoulder, indicating the traces of the spirit field she'd placed on him long ago. But the magic, weakened and feeble after such a use, wasn't enough to defend him much. She'd feel him jerk back against her hard, and maybe the swipe of a long, thorned leg, as the thing attempted to not only bite Leo, but crawl over him.
Her eyes were watering with the impact of Leo’s bony hip crunching to her delicate nose and as Tene blinked and wiped at them in a desperate bid to regain her vision, it became clear by tone of the rogue’s voice that it was probably best she deal with this one. So, it was Leo’s turn to get down, though she hardly had time to make requests. Small palms backed by supernatural strength were pressed to his shoulders, forcing him against the obsidian-like tunnel floor, the soft grunt she heard more than likely the result of her knees coming to rest on the small of his back, as slender fingers were balled to small, hard fists that were flung with all the ferocity she could muster at the top of the thing’s head, hopefully distracting it from its impending meal of terrified pirate and driving back enough to give her some room to manoeuvre. Sword and staff – returned to her by the drow – were still tightly wrapped in that black knotted sueded and strapped to her pack. A brief stream of invective preceded her hand grasping at Leo’s right hip for the remaining dragon-blade, a liberty she was pretty sure he’d not mind at that moment. As the bulbous arachnid drew close again, forelegs raised and twin fangs dripping venom, the necromancer hauled back her arm and threw the knife hard enough to imbed it in what was possibly its brain – at any rate, the knife pierced its head, and leaking a foul-smelling ichor, slumped to the floor, vile furred legs twitching horribly in its death-throes. Dropping against the rogue’s back, Tenebrae took his jaw in her fingers, turning his face to her. “Leo? Did it bite you?” There were a few reasons that the drow employed the use of fast acting poison so often. Not the least of which was that the ghastly arthropods they loved and feared so greatly provided such fine inspiration for mimicry.
The air left his body in a hard grunt with his jaw gritting, just in time to protect his teeth when he cheek pressed into the hard surface of the tunnel. She might have felt his body slightly convulse with a paranoia caused shudder at the sudden introduction to a giant arachnid, uncertain whether or not he'd been bit since fangs had pressed hard enough into armor to make the new bruises beneath ache, but he felt no blood. He felt the clawed legs of the predator on his arms and instinctively tried to curl up as the Necromancer saved the day, feeling the vibration of thin metal slip from it's sheath at his waist. Her weight on his caused his body to jerk in response, eyes squeezed shut hard to avoid seeing something that often crawled into his nightmares. By the time he dared to look up, his eyes wide and his young features haunted, making him lose some of the dark assassin appearance he tried to maintain in drow territory, her question took a moment to register, with his breath coming short and panicked to prove that he wasn't immune to all fear. Suddenly, he looked down at his arm, unable to see if holes punctured leather in that darkness.. "I...don't kn-... I... I don't think so." Even his voice was unstable, and cracked a little from the deep roguish pitch he often spoke quietly in. Dropping the dagger in his hand with a soft high-pitched clatter that echoed the tunnels, he frantically unbuckled his bracer to pat his hand beneath it, feeling for any warm wetness of poison or blood. A sigh of relief allowed a few weakened, shaky words to escape. "We... we gotta get outta here... now..."
Tenebrae had never seen him so terrified, not of the leviathan, not any creature in the lands. Except maybe herself, that one time. “Sure, Cap’n.” She shifted position, quick examination of the wound given. “We’re getting out.” The hand further tousled his hair was meant to offer comfort, as was the brief kiss planted to his forehead. “Just let me...” Kicking the carcass of the spider away from him and closer to mouth of the tunnel, she wrested her staff from its suede confines and continued the arachnids’ progression. She wasn’t going to make Leo climb over that repugnant, soft body. Hell, she didn’t want to, either. Once more taking to hands and knees – or more rightly hand, singular, as the other was occupied with the task of spider-prodding – the vampiress made slow progress toward the waiting light, as the tunnel became almost vertical in places, but progress all the same. As the light grew marginally brighter, corona-like around the spider’s form, and the air of better quality, she was spurred to greater effort and at last the horrid thing’s body was expelled from the tunnel, this requiring her to actually lift the thing, her face screwed up in disgust. An arm raised to shield her eyes from the light, Tene turned to Leo. “There we go….” She turned back, squinting against the glare, and dared to raise herself and take a look over the ragged wooden edging that framed the tunnel’s exit, overhead. “Oh dear. Erm… I hope that beast did not have a mate.”
Leo rose reluctantly to his knees and hands behind her, feeling tense appendages slightly tremble unsteadily beneath him. Yet, aware of his everlasting want to impress the woman he was with, he tried to force his heartbeat to slow and didn't speak a word further, after hearing that terrified version of his own voice. Grateful to the darkness, she couldn't see the humiliated flush of color that darkened stubborn childhood spots across the bridge of his nose, but soon, he could see the curled, stiff legs of the arachnid shriveled up to it's body, prodded out of his way so he wouldn't have to try to sneak passed it without dreading it coming back to life and lunching for his throat. By the time they emerged into dull light, he was scrambling to get out of that tunnel, immediately backward pacing away from the dead, leaking carcass - ...only to back right into a giant spider web spanning an entire corner of that interior room like a transparent quilt nailed to the ceiling and floors. Feeling that sticky, ghostly texture against the back of his bare shoulders, it clung to the bow strapped to his back, latched around his midsection to keep it in place, and the paled look to drain his features was enough to impress the idea of Leoxander being sick all over that dusty floor, right then. He didn't lose his lunch, however, but an upward tilt of his skull to try to look behind him managed to stick some of his hair, and he froze, absolutely horrified with what he'd stepped into. Grinding his teeth to bear them in a painful look, the web tugged forward and ripped, giving him phantom wings of whispery material a moment, before those torn pieces of gossamer landed on his arms and clung to his tattooed flesh. If there was a mate, it was definitely alerted now, wasn't it? That empty, abandon house was covered in white cotton candy like substance. And.... sacks. Pulsing, web wrapped egg sacks.
Tene was somewhat bizarrely reminded of that time in the garden when she’d compared him to an angel, as he walked forward with what resembled wings of white in the seconds before the webs clung to his limbs and the reality of their situation struck her. “Erhm… perhaps you should come over here…” This, spoken in voice made distinctive by the quavering quality inherent in it. For behind Leo, possibly stirred to sudden awakening by the motion of the spider-silks, those lumpish orbs began to writhe with a ghastly presage of life, and she could see fist-sized creatures, white as the sacs that bore them, bursting from their eggs. Pretty soon, there’d be a regular little swarm of them, judging by the rapidity of the outbreak. “And…you might want to hurry?” Fingers were thrust to her pack, rummaging about for the one thing that she knew might offer them a chance… Her curses were loud, and colourful. “Quick, have you anything on you we might use to make a …” She’d caught the shifting of a shadow on the floor beneath her. Something rounded, and twitching. …fire?” She winced, as her chin was tilted to bring her sight toward the ceiling.
The Rogue finally spoke, in a loud and disbelieving tone after turning his glance over his shoulder, with her encouragements to be quick. "You've got to bloody joking..!" A sort of mental laugh broke out of him, and he was walking, jogging, okay - sprinting away from the sudden flood of thousands of twitchy albino legs. Fire? Sure, he had that gnomish 'lighter' device he'd stolen some time ago, but the first thing Leo did was all survival instinct. Three fingers reached to the side of his belt, but rather than extract daggers, small throwing knives kept in case of emergency were brought into view, held between knuckles, giving him a momentary 'wolverine' type of look. The sudden swipe of right arm had those balanced metal blades released, however, and with three solid sounds of hitting aged floorboards, one right after another, three separate infant spiders were impaled and writhing, unable to move any further stuck through the middle as they were. To the trio down, at least ten more skittered over their bodies, and it had Leo backing up further toward the nearest clear corner - a corner he realized, after glancing up and over his shoulder to an old armoire ledge, wasn't quite as unoccupied as he expected. Another egg sack had split open to a flood of hungry hatchlings nearer the door, and he ducked the leap of one of the small critters only to feel another one jump and catch hold of the side of his leg, scrambling over the top of his boot. "Tenebrae!" Alright, he wasn't too ashamed to scream her name for help, but his reason for the loud yell was to warn her. Of the huge... sleek, black limbed female suspended above her head. Unlike the hairy, aggressive thing they'd killed in the tunnel, this widowish creature was twice it's size... and patiently lowering toward the Necromancer, forelegs swiping.
Gee… thanks, Leo. The thought had time to spring to mind, though not to lips, Tene’s eyes already fixated on the horrific and rapidly descending creature above. Obviously the matron of her extensive brood, the colossal arachnid’s legs were flailing mid-air, the descent paused, as it used those angular appendages to draw thick swathes of silk from the pair of spinnerets on its lower abdomen. These, gathered by the action of those legs to form a kind of net, that had already been dropped upon the necromancer before she had time to do more than dive halfway out of the path of it. The solidified gluey threads stuck fast to those slender, bare limbs; Tene’s flight ending in an abrupt crash of body to floor. Where there were suddenly more of those pallid, orbicular babies, whose own legs were twining webbing, instinctively mimicking the actions of the grand beldam above. “Oh… shite!” She wrestled to get her blade free of the morass, the hex-bound weapon hardly torn from its sheath when the spider-matron dropped like a many-legged stone, fangs trembling and leaking venom in anticipation of its meal. The necromancer’s head was bowed, face thrust down to almost touch the webbing that so constrained her knees, with sword gripped in two small palms and jabbed upward, in a desperate bid to impale the creature before it had the chance to bite. The sickly splash and stench of yellowish ichor proved her method meeting with some success, the bulky body thrown aside with no mean effort, and Tene now pumped her heels hard against the white sheet that wrapped her lower legs, steel heels doing much to tear her free. Meantime, she’d rolled to her belly, the flat of her sword brought down in a rapid series of thwaps putting paid to dozens of the youngling arthropods. Now, where the hell was … “Leo, fire. Fire. We need it.” In just a little less mortal danger now, the necromancer at last kicked loose of her bonds, and wild eyes sought the rogue. It wasn’t easy to see him, under all the cob-webbing. But the screams and violent struggling gave away his location without putting her to too much trouble.
Hey, Leo had troubles of his own! While the matriarch of the nest went for the Necromancer, that left the Rogue to deal with the... several dozen arachnids who wanted a meal of their own, and took upon themselves the chance to learn how to hunt. Unlike the oozing, dripping fangs of the soon slain mother, these tiny daggers were too small to puncture leather armor, but if they found his flesh, would release an uncontrolled bite far more lethal than the large corpse spurting pus all over the old ashen floors. Therefore, it wasn't unreasonable to find him struggling, just a bit, gloved hands grabbing a fistful of squirming, writhing pale creature to throw it violently against a wall. So hard in fact, that the spider slid down, and curled up, either knocked out or dead. To the one or two he managed to pull out of his hair and off his armor, three more were finding landing spots on his shoulders and quiver, another crawling up his leg anxiously. A loud thump carried his spider covered frame to another wall, landing back against it to squish one of the eight-legged structures between his spine, and the ledge near... - a window! Still hearing Tenebrae's voice over the scratch of spiny legs on leather, one hand managed to frantically dig his pocket for the flint spark device that had to be opened, but once his trembling fingers closed on that metal, while his other hand tried to backhand one of the baby spiders from the front of his belt, a sudden snip of sound popped the handheld tool open in his palm. "Work, work!!" His yell was frantic, because that was when he felt one of the things latch aggressively onto his bare upper arm with it's legs. Needle like fangs had just sunk into the band of ink at his bicep when a spark of light erupted near his thumb, and the poison was barely felt burning into his skin by the time he set the flame to that creature, not only causing it to retract it's potentially lethal bite quickly, but setting fire to the webs of 'wings' that had coated his shoulders. A brief burst of fire didn't last long on his own leather covered frame, despite singeing the ends of blonde hair in places, it instead travelled rapidly along the thick webs near him, as if the material was flammable, and instinctively the flood of spiders retracted, spread away and retreated in fear. That same arm that had been bitten smashed hard backward into the window over his shoulder, spraying glass in his hair and on the floor near his feet. "Come on!" That was their chance, because that fire, unless magically stroked, would flicker and fizzle quick in surroundings of dust and web.
What a pity Tenebrae wasn’t an elementalist. She too saw that brief flicker and flare, soon dying down as the silk was burned through. But what she did have was a plentiful supply of … Well, when was Tene ever seen without some form of liquor on her person, if not in hand, then stowed in that famous pack? Most of it, sad to say, had been smashed on the mosaic floor in that supposed oubliette, back in the swamp. But there was a metal flask full of whisky somewhere, and risking the lesser evil of splintered glass remnants in her fingers once more, she dug deep to find it. Her hand emerged triumphant, the flask uncapped and spirit poured, once she’d fled to Leo’s side. Slapping away a few tenacious spiderlings endeavouring to climb his back, Tene was quick to follow Leo through that window, a few ragged cuts to limbs garnered on the way out courtesy of the broken pane. Behind her, the timber building, tinder-dry and full of wood-rot, went up like a summer bonfire, the heat blowing flaming gouts out of their so recent escape route. Wherever Leo was by now, hopefully at a safer distance from the imminent inferno, she made haste to his side, those icy green eyes making rapid assessment of his damage, brows drawn together centrally giving away her near-panicked concern. “Gods, Leo… Are you alright?”
Leo's skin suffered the same nicks and cuts where his arms were bare, and by the time his feet hit solid ground, he didn't even notice the bite that was oozing just a little of the sticky yellowed substance mingling into his bloodstream. Fortunately, the bite hadn't been allowed long enough to send the dosage to his heart, so once Tenebrae was seen safely through that vengeful window, he didn't stop running until they were away from the inferno swallowing up the empty house, and off of those hellish creatures with it. Panting and wide eyed, Leo turned back to stare horrified at the shack of burning spiders, chest heaving and jerkin damaged with a new tear where the armor had prevented glass from ripping open his gut on the clumsy crawl outside. Good thing he always wore that armor every moment he could. "...Holy..." A crack of log that brought down the roof drowned the pirate's foul language, but he was still, for the time being, shock they had survived that. He probably wouldn't feel the bite unless it was touched, or noticed, and the trickle of red oozed from the scratches in flesh caused by their shattered escape.
Thankfully, Tene’s keen eyes, in their minute search of his body – her fingers even delving through that blond shock of hair – turned up the bite on his arm; minor wounds went unmentioned. “You’d better get to Kelay, find a healer fast. I have no idea how quickly that venom works…” Her eyes were drawn to the horde of refugees, trailing through cracks and fissures in the aged weatherboards of the shack. “Will you be right to make it there, Cap’n, while I sort this lot out?” Sword drawn to one hand, staff to the other, she wasn’t going to let those things loose on the population to make more nests like the one they’d just destroyed, if she could help it.
His eyes, warm and cold colours contrasting from left to right, turned toward her when she grabbed hold of him to inspect his tense, stiffened frame. Maybe Tenebrae had one of those secret, unreasonable fears, like spiders in Leo's case? He was still a little in shock from facing all of that, at once. It was her words and his study of her features that calmed him some, enough to look down at his arm to the small bite that was already swelling in irritation. Brow furrowed, he ignored it, and reached up to grip her arm gently until movement over her shoulder caught his attention, and the words he started to speak died away. A dizzy, sick feeling swept over him, but it had nothing to do with the remaining spiders crawling their way. Despite that the bite was minor, and the poison not quite enough to stop his heart, it was enough to quickly send a feverish chill twitching the muscles of that arm, and his eyes glazed over with a slight squeeze of her arm, complying to her words with a nod. He didn't have a choice, he had to go before his legs gave way. "I... I don't..." Murmured words still protested with a darting glance at her, the spiders, and back. Obviously, he didn't want to leave her. Frustration and the effects of the venom had his jaw gritting when he released her, trusting her to be careful, and his arm was cradled to his body like a broken wing as he stumbled off at a jog, racing the clock on the poison in his system.
Tenebrae watched him go, eyes welling crimson. She was exhausted, overwhelmed … and not just from the physical exertions of their past few days together. Pushing the tears back, the thoughts away, she turned with a vengeance to the task at had. If a single one of the critters got away, by the time she was done and standing in a pool of sticky yellow and mangled sickly-white spider-flesh, she’d volunteer to be Movdon’s housemaid.
|
|
|
Post by Joliette Thorne on Dec 27, 2006 12:40:43 GMT -5
Tenebrae was already in the water, arms stretched to the side of the sides of the pool, head back, eyes closed. She’d bathed perfunctorily the evening before, an act of pure necessity. Now, she felt the need for a deeper cleansing, a sloughing of the worries and fears that had so plagued her mind for some time now. She was alone, the vast pool seeming larger for its emptiness, and the sound of the bubbling waters echoed peacefully around her.
Leoxander had to sneak his way down those halls, a hood drawn over his head to avoid recognition within Cenril territory. Eventually, the large pool of water came into view, the trickle of flowing water the only background noise with the room otherwise deserted. Hands in pockets, dragonscale boots made no sound on the approach, but his attire was very different from the normal, here. He lacked much of the armor that bulked his lean frame, and was dressed in fabric and loose clothing of the damn midnight hue. Duo colored eyes landed upon the sole figure in the pool as he approached from behind, studying the curve of her likely bared shoulders above the edge of the pool.
Tenebrae opened her eyes in languid torpor, and found herself looking upside down at that lanky frame, peridot meeting azure and crimson. Rose-coloured lips parted, a soft greeting uttered as her eyes closed again. "Hey..." Those lips curled to a soft smile. "Didn't think you were going to make it." Slender legs kicked out into the water, Tene floating gently for a few moments before bringing herself upright, turning around. Elbows were leant to the edge, hands folded and her chin came to rest on those.
Leoxander lowered slowly with one hand brushing back his hood, only after the person wandering by took the time to cough and leave. Pulling his legs close to his chest, his arm wrapped around a knee, working on unbuckling one boot while his eyes fell to rest on her. It was good to see her smiling, at least. "Why would you think that..?" After loosening the thick footwear of dragonscale texture, it was tugged off and set aside to work on the other, bare feet touching cold floors. Leoxander took off shadowed hood.
Tenebrae looked up through ebon lashes, not raising her head. She watched him, casually. “Oh, you know. Things to see, people to do.” Tene blinked slowly, that small smile still painting her lips. Another languid roll had her regain her former position, arms stretched to the edge. She hoped her bruises didn’t show too prominently. Even for a vampire, the past couple of days had had its rougher moments. “You’re looking … healthier.”
Leoxander would, if she had not turned away already, reach out for a soft grasp on her shoulder, unaware of the bruises that might have been hiding under inky tresses of hair. Scooting forward, with her back pressed to the edge, Leo boldly slipped his legs off the edge of the pool and into the water, one hand pushing the black material of drawstring pants above his knees to prevent getting them wet. Settling in behind her, the tops of his legs would serve decent arm rests. "Went an' found a healer, like you said to." His murmur was low, in case anyone else happened to be listening from a distance he couldn't see. It was, after all, a public city building, and those always made the thief nervous.
Keeping her eyes closed, thick ebon lashes brushing the tops of her cheeks, Tenebrae didn’t lean to those tanned legs right away, though she did move her head upright, to make room for him. The ends of her hair fanned in the water, gently undulating with the bubbling of the warm waters. “Yes. So I saw.” He wouldn’t see the tiny frown puckering her brow, with her back turned to him like that. “So, the bite was dealt with effectively, then?” Her voice was so low, so soft. Her words, enunciated carefully.
It wouldn't matter if she didn't, because his hands soon found grip on her upper arms, clutching into pale flesh to guide her to lean back against him somewhat. From those warm waters, his ungloved hands began to gather her long hair, patiently collecting handfuls of damp strands to bring their length to the crown of her skull, slowly twisting ebon mane into a sheen rope of glossy, wet threads. By coiling it up into a loose, messy bun at the top of her head, he bared her shoulders and neck further, listening to the words that sounded far from amused. "Well, I'm not dead. That's always a plus..." His gaze remained on the task at hand, strong fingers surprisingly gentle as he tucked the end into the relaxed knot of hair that reached near her waist, when left down.
It was hard to stay cross with Leo. This she knew already. But with his hands guiding her to lean back to those lean-muscled thighs, and then so very gently playing with her hair, she soon found her head canting forward with the pleasure of his touch, the back of her neck prickling as calloused digits brush the skin at her nape. Her own fingers were on his knees, idly stroking the fabric of his pants with her thumbs. Still, Tene was not a doll, to be picked up and put down when he pleased. And funnily enough, it never truly occurred to her that jealousy was an emotion that she had no real right to, not as far as Leo was concerned. “Yes I have that to be thankful for.” He might have, had those hands touched her shoulders, become aware of the residual tension in them.
Leoxander seemed to sense her displeasure, even if he couldn't pinpoint the reason, he could assume he was the cause. That didn't discourage his hands on the back of her skull, carefully smoothing those fine baby hairs up the back of her neck from their base with hands dipped into the water, so that warm liquid helped hold them in place, off her skin entirely. Indeed, his hands roamed down, already planning to touch the smooth and delicate curves of her shoulders, to the bend of her throat, and it was when his palms molded to those muscles after her words that his large hands gave that tension a firm squeeze at either side. That was just the beginning. He began to knead and massage those muscles with purpose, all the while admiring the small details of her being, since he wasn't given the gift of her stare. His silence wasn't uncommon, by any means.
The long breath she took, the audible way she breathed it out, might have told Leo that he was on the way to being forgiven. It was as though those hands not only smoothed the tension from her body, but her mind as well, the sting and heat of her anger giving way to those feelings that lay at the root of it. Her head lolled gently to one side and then the other as he worked those strong fingers into her flesh, the tight little smile she’d held so far melting to something a great deal more genuine. And she became suddenly very aware of the heat of his thighs, the tensile musculature under that cotton, and the way her fingers tightened on the caps of his knees with every low murmur of pleasure she made. “You’re good at that.” No longer clipped, her words didn’t echo quite so harshly through that near-empty space. “I really am glad you’re okay, you know. I was terribly worried about you.”
The thick pad of his thumbs worked the smaller, more delicate muscles at the back of her neck, below bound hair, with a hint of a smile revealed on unmasked features, even if she wasn't looking for one. Now and then, his hands would dip into the warm water if only to be coated in moisture that would aid the massage, but when she tipped her head to one side, he glimpsed the slender column of her throat and was drawn down, automatically. Bowing forward, his skull canted slightly, and the tips of his own blonde hair would tickle the top of her shoulder before his mouth touched a soft kiss to the crook of her throat. "...I know." That sly murmur was to the compliment of his skill - hey, the thief knew he had some talented hands. That was his job. "Did you think I'd let myself go down in history as the guy who was offed by a buncha insects?" Sure, he could act brave now that they weren't crawling all over him.
Those soft sounds of appreciation she murmured were not unlike others she’d made, and they might stir a memory in him were he paying attention to them. The kiss he placed so gently on her throat certainly raised memories in her, though the ones she remembered best were rougher, harder. There was a soft cough before she spoke, and he probably heard the wry smirk in her voice, though he’d not see it on her lips. “No,Cap’n. I was fairly certain you wouldn’t let them get that close…” The touch of his lips remained long after the kiss, the poignant sweetness of it lingering as though it touched all her sense. She tensed slightly, turning a slow half-circle, ‘til her features were revealed to him; beautiful, even under the shadowed hollows below her eyes and the small graze high on one of her cheekbones. Gem-green gaze met his, narrowed softly as though gazing to a bright light, a quiet question forming in them before being whispered from pouted lips. “You’re going to break my heart, aren’t you, Leo?”
At once, his eyes lifted, and he allowed her to move from the grip of his hands to turn, so that he could land his vision upon the glorious artwork of her individuality. Features he dreamed of, memorized, were once again worshipped with a calm and steady roam of his eyes, and his right hand lifted on it's own accord, thumb tenderly touching the graze of torn flesh below her lashes with the slightest hint of a disapproving frown in his eyes. Even minor injuries had no place upon her porcelain complexion, if he could ever help it. The question she spoke had his gaze warily returning to her own, since the affection seemed to die to something of worry, fear, maybe even suspicion. So long he'd chased her shadow, given only touches of the ends of her hair and skirt as she remained on some high place, just out of his reach. Now, she was in his arms at last, and already expecting him to let go. His jaw clenched, trying hard not to let the question stab into the vulnerable place where his heart beat. "...What did I do..?" Rather than answer a question he couldn't understand, or demand to know why she seemed to frown more than smile tonight, his inquiry was almost childish, like the kid suspected of breaking into the cookie jar, when he'd been no where near it, for once.
Tenebrae shook her head, palms reaching to cup either side of the curve of his jaw and draw him down into a kiss. Her body broke from the water as she pushed up to meet his mouth, the touch brief, but gentle. “Nothing. You did nothing.” There was regret there now, where until a few moments ago something colder had dwelled. “It’s just my fear speaking, is all. Sometimes, its voice is far too loud for my own good.” Her smile was warmer, a little light returning to her mien. “It’s just … I wonder if I’m really worth all this trouble, in the long run.” Fingers clasped to bronzed forearms, those used as a launch for he plunge upward to bestow another kiss, before she drew back, the warm smile having progressed to familiar grin. “But you needn’t answer. For I know you can only say ‘yes’. So. Are you going to help me bathe, or let me wash properly and meet me for a drink?” By the edge of the pool was a towel, and from under it rose the fresh scent of vanilla.
He'd been waiting for that embrace. Some indication she wasn't hating herself for everything that had happened, the night before. In truth, Leo's mood had never been brighter, and even people around him were possibly noticing that. After that first kiss, her second lift from the water prompted his arms to reach and capture the same capable, possessive hold around her waist, pulling her between his thighs to peck her lips softly, briefly, so she could speak her words between. He'd hold her in that position just a moment longer than she intended, his nose tip brushing hers, his eyes locked in a drowning, love sick stare. By the time she questioned him on either washing her body, or leaving, he let her slip hesitantly from his arms, back to the water. "Does washing properly mean I can't be around?" A hint of a white, lopsided grin touched his expression, and whether it was her eyes or the scent that drew his attention, he looked toward the towel nearby. His frame leaned to one side, flattening his ribs and stomach momentarily to the ground to reach for the cotton, pulling it aside to expose what was underneath. But rather than pick those things up, they were only brought closer, and his spine drew erect to sit up, suddenly reaching to peel the black shirt from his upper torso, a diamond band worn on a chain around his neck. Maybe he had some abrupt intention of joining her in that warm water...
“But if you’re going to be around, you might as well help me…” Whether it was his intention or not, Leo –was- abruptly headed for the warm water, slender vampiric fingers clasping to cotton hard enough so that upon her sudden tug, he’d slip in, pants and all. It was his own fault; had he not leant back like that, exposed the ridges of his stomach, the flat expanse between his hip-bones, before drawing the basket of soaps and oils near, and had he not then taken his shirt off, giving her hungry gaze a taste of his lean-muscled torso, he’d probably have had a few more dry minutes.
|
|