Illumin0sity

Journey to the East

Noah knew he was doing at least two of the things Elann listed well. She always made sure he was fed and fed well and he never sought to intentionally irritate his stitches. All there was now was he be active but he didn’t like walking around because of how annoying it was to walk at the slow pace. He could be patient with everything but recovery, it seemed, because he yearned to just be free and to fly again, not shuffle around until he was healed. Being grounded was more than annoying and frustrating for him, and the fact they were in the wild only made it worse to deal with. He thought he would be able to enjoy the total freedom of the wilds, to fly and show Elann what it meant to him to be out here in the openness. The fates were stacked against him though and he was to do no such thing.

Noah watched her hesitate to lie down until the fullness of the topic was broached by him. It seemed the emotions she felt weighed her down, forced her to lie in full before sighing out. She questioned him, biting her lip. Noah didn’t know what to tell her. He had been away for three years and could only hope his siblings and father remained the same like Aimee did to a point. Aimee didn’t treat him any differently despite knowing Elann more than any of their other siblings, and he knew he wouldn’t be outcast for his relation with Elann, that was not their way. He hoped since Elann was his bondmate they would be more forgiving but the future remained uncertain.

“I don’t know,” he said truthfully. “Don’t take it personally, okay? They are going to treat you how they treat every person, how they’ll even treat me.”

Going back, Noah knew he was going to be facing a hard time as well. He had been away for so long that if he was going to stay long term he was going to have to reestablish himself in the family’s hierarchy. Because he wanted to be close to his family, even if he had his own home, he would have to deal with the walls put up by Ryon. Donavan was out of the picture, his own place essentially being forfeited and leaving Ryon with a lot of power under their father who only served to rein people in when they were getting out of place. That said, he still didn’t know how it was going to be, all of it up in the air and in the hands of assumptions and fortune.

Journey to the East

Aimee rounded the wagon after saying her goodbyes, venturing towards the front with the lead car as they started to move out down the road. Back inside the wagon, Noah settled onto the floor, towards the front of the wagon near the driver, with a pillow to his back as he leaned against the internal frame of the car. He watched Elann close the flap and then strip from her dress and other undergarments. He sat quietly and focused his eyes on the dress she was showing him. He nodded, he had seen her when she finished it, but like her, didn’t comment since their fighting was still a fresh memory, moreso then than now.

“It looks nice,” he said, meaning that.

Noah went to take his shirt off, tucking his good arm into the shirt and then pushing it over his head, letting it slide off the bad arm and hang on his wrist. Turning gingerly, he raised his right arm slightly and looked at the stitches over his ribcage. His hand came over them, delicately going over the skin as to not irritate anything. Then, he pressed on the edge of one of the talon marks which had grown in order to compensate for the shift between his three-foot eagle form and his six-foot human stature. Noah grimaced as he did so and pulled his hand away to look at Elann again.

“You said a few days right?” he asked curiously.

Since they had partially made up and did have their relations the thought of his wounds weren’t as heavy or mentally crippling as they had once been. He held onto the hope he would soon have the stitches out if Elann was confident in herself. It had been a few days since Emery last checked on him or applied any kind of salve or ointment. Noah assumed that was a good sign and looked forward to what Emery said he could do to reduce the scarring. Though they were a natural form of healing, Noah still cared about his appearance. The scars also served as a reminder of his faults in thinking. The scars over his leg were enough to look at every time he was without pants or wore shorts. He didn’t like them.

“Hey,” he said after a moment, “when we get to Zeltiva, my eldest sister may give you a hard time.” It was only a few moments ago he talked to Aimee about the eventual situation, he just hoped that it wouldn’t be as bad as him or his sister believed. “She is really protective of me, so I just want you to know that before we get there since we’re getting closer.” He paused. “I don’t think my father will be much of a problem. He’s just hard to deal with at first. Ryon is… I don’t know how he’ll be. He’s unpredictable sometimes.”

He licked his lips, wondering what Elann was going to say, if anything at all. During their last argument he told her he wasn’t sure how his family would feel about her, and it was true, he wasn’t sure in the slightest. Elann went against a lot of what his family expected in their women, and Noah was the one bringing her home and into their lives. It worried him.

Journey to the East

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When finding Elann, when bonding to her, Noah wasn’t looking for a mate. He was looking for a companion and actually starting a family was the last thing on his mind. He would not have the mindset until he was somewhere utterly comfortable, had his own space and security, his own ‘nest’ so to speak. He lacked that in Syliras because it was not a place he wanted to be in the end, only being there because it was Elann who drew his interest just as Caesarion had. It was the both of them who pushed for the human want of deriving pleasure from sex, looking to maybe start families when it wasn’t known how long they would be in an area. It wasn’t to say some Kelvic didn’t derive the pleasure for sex that humans did, but some of those Kelvics had been conditioned, and there was one who was even an escort because sex was all she knew. Noah was not one of those Kelvics.

While he had found his mate, he was still approaching the point where he was making sure he would have her forever and was still searching for the place to call his own. Though his father held domain over the wilds of Zeltiva, he couldn’t hold domain in a home that was Noah’s own. It was what Noah sought in Zeltiva. It would be then that he would actively seek to start his own family in the security of the walls that would be his home.

Noah draped one arm around Elann’s back as she came down to him. The fingers played at her side as she sung her gentle Shiber melody. In the time that passed, his hand came to the strands of her hair, smoothing over them again and again until she rose and aided him in getting dressed for the second time. With her help, he put on his pants and fussed with the shirt enough to get it over his head and his arms into the holes. He was hesitating saying he would walk willingly because there had been so little ache in while they resided in the tent, he didn’t want to evoke any with his ambling around. Yet, Elann told him to visit either Alena or his sister and that was motivation enough.

Noah stepped outside the tent and looked over the encampment. There was something he didn’t like about being out and in the open with several strangers able to see him. He was wounded and, though it was paranoid and ignorant, he wouldn’t be able to run away if something were to happen on the slightest off-chance. Quickly, he looked for his sister first and found her residing near the bank of wagons with her arms crossed over her chest. He approached her, eventually catching her attention when he was near enough for her distracted senses to see him coming her way.

“Good afternoon,” she said in a hollow cheery voice to start their Fratava conversation.

“Hello,” he replied, raising his arm to reach out for her.

Aimee took his arm and hooked it into hers, letting him lead their walk parallel to the wagons and towards the edge of the camp as a whole. It didn’t take her sharp nose to smell the various scents on him, to which she looked over to him, examining the male with her eyes.

“You smell like her,” she commented.

“Do I?” he returned, raising his arm to smell the crook of his elbow. “I don’t smell anything really.”

“You reek,” the wolf teased. “I can assume that everything’s all better?”

Noah hummed in uncertainty. “I guess, maybe, I don’t know,” he flip-flopped. “I hope so.”

“So do I. I mean, I know Jocelyn’s going to tear into her. It would’ve been worse if you two weren’t on good terms. You know how she feels about people.” Aimee looked over to him, looking up to the bunched up curls of his hair. She reached across and pulled at them gently, rushing her head through his head of hair briefly.

Noah pursed his lips uneasily. “Donavan’s in Mura, right?”

“Right, so he won’t be there.” She paused. “Are we still having that party for her when we get there?”

“I think so… I don’t really know.” Noah paused too, thinking before he spoke again. “I think we should, it was what she wanted to do in Syliras.”

Aimee hummed uncertainly. “I guess,” she said with a shrug. “Momma’s probably already there setting things up, she did go on ahead after all. Or, she’s letting everyone know we’re coming. I expected her to be back by now, now that I think about it.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Noah said to her. “Momma’s fine and is in Zeltiva. It only took six days from when she left. That’s not that long.”

“I suppose.” Aimee looked to the campers as they packed their things, the call for departure coming as they had been talking. “C’mon,” the wolf said, “let’s finish the lap and go back to the wagon.”

They did so. Alena didn’t come up to them, nor did Noah actively search her out. He was conversing with his sister, having a conversation that was much needed in their time together. They hadn’t spoken much in comparison to how often they did speak when they were in one another’s company. The lap didn’t take long but it was cut short because of Noah’s slow pace in comparison to the increasing speed that campers packed up. They came back to the wagon and Aimee helped Noah in before keeping out of the wagon altogether.

“I’m going to walk today,” she said to the both of them, showing Elann a warm smile of possible invitation and giving her brother a parting kiss on the cheek.

Journey to the East

It wasn’t Elann’s body as a whole which brought Noah his arousal, it was what he defined as reminders of home and comfort which did. Her hair, her eyes, and her skin were those things as they each reminded him of the shores Zeltiva was built upon. The true bringer of his excitement for the coming act was the sensual way in which she handled him, how she was loving in her personality and in her voice, how her eyes spoke, and what was really special was her newfound ability to understand him, at least in this moment. His own reconciliation with her added to the melting pot tugging on his libido. Noah couldn’t, and probably wouldn’t, ever find Elann desirable for her body alone, but for a combination of things and the setting played a role as well; he felt safe with her hear, felt as if they had their privacy enough to be quiet in their act, and many other variables. He was an extremely complex creature when it came to intimacy, to trust and lovemaking. These things leading up to lovemaking didn’t need to be perfect per se, mostly because there were aspects about her deemed flawless already.

As commanded, the Kelvic laid back carefully and slowly, letting his pants be slid off and rid from him even though she had helped him into them not a few moments earlier. Though they moved with haste, they were careful of his stitches and wounds, careful to not whelm to the point in which he could harm himself. He cursed them, wanting to partake more in the act as he had done before, but he appreciated the calm and controlled way Elann approached and continued through their bout. She spoke to him in Shiber, drove him on, played on his love for her voice regardless of it being understood or not. The hushed way in which she spoke, the roving movements she performed, they all brought an immense sense of pleasure to him, both in body and in mind.

Noah, per his normal, kept to his pleasurable gasps and quiet moans, and kept to tending to her zones, holding at her waist and smoothing up her front as far as his arm could go without straining. Eventually he was overtaken, grasping at her as his pent up stress was released in the surging rise and fall of peaking before the denouement came in heavy breaths and glazed over eyes. In this falling moment he wanted nothing more than to be in Zeltiva, to have their own home and space in which they could reside in their own way.

Lying on his back still, the Kelvic let his head rest on the ground, his chest filling and emptying as he calmed back into his usual self. His bond had been open, had been teeming with the slow rise of his build up, and Elann could feel the physical and emotional tension within him suddenly snap when he couldn’t take anymore, just as she could each time before. It was in times like these that their bond was a blessing.

Underneath her, the quiet vibrations of his contentment, his pleasure, grew more in his recovery but were quelled soon after by his conscience. Noah took a final filling breath and opened his eyes to her again, gazing up at her naturalness and admiring her from there.

Journey to the East

Elann spoke in Shiber to him, speaking to his quiet love for her accent. It had lessened as she spoke Common more and more in Syliras but the little twangs in her voice remained. Though it broke up her Fratava in some ways, he found it all endearing and almost cute in the closest way he could define cute for himself. Noah knew his own accent was apparent from Zeltiva, but being in Syliras lessened it. All his life he had been basically speaking the two languages of Fratava and Common. Elann was learning Fratava to mix with her already good knowledge on Common and her masterful technique of Shiber. Noah would soon enough be learning Shiber as well. Already he could infer that any child they would have a masterful grasp of Shiber, Fratava, and Common. Their trilingual family was a pleasant thought in his mind.

“A rarou ona’i,” he said, showing her how to say the phrase in Fratava as well.

As she spoke with closed eyes Noah tilted his head, waiting for the rest of the statement in which she pointed out that only fifteen chimes, at most, had passed between her sending him into his state. The lick of her lips spoke to him and the growing sense of desire with him for her spoke to him as well. The familiarity of the feeling was only pressed on as she kissed him, and him her, in their deep way.

Noah’s hands pulled away from their hold to slide to the opening of her dress, smoothing over her legs and under the dress entirely to tug at the band of her underwear beneath. Now that they were in the tent, away from prying eyes and his sister most of all, he felt more comfortable in having Elann in an intimate way. She had relaxed him, lulled him into a state of comfort, and he had sought to reconcile with her in order to hopefully start a new chapter of their lives together, a new episode of understanding.

In this understanding he fed off her desire and let it fuel his want for her. He thought on the aspects of her which he knew he desired in the night before and turned that desire into arousal. His kiss to her turned a little hungrier and, with him contained and her atop him, the excitement made his trousers tight and uncomfortable. It was the first time since their last time did he actively yearn for the warmth she provided him with before and he urged her all the more to be rid of her smallclothes and him of his pants.

Noah pulled back when they broke their kiss for breath and he met her gaze with his own. “Hurry,” he urged in nearly a whine.

Journey to the East

Noah was finding himself in a plane of utter bliss. The more she did, the deeper he sank into the feeling, and his conscious hold on their bond loosened to let loose his deep feelings of delight and pleasure. The want residing within the bond was a want for the feeling for it to continue, and it did to his greatest pleasure. In between the movements of their lovemaking from before Elann couldn’t detect the deep rumbles of pleasure coming from him but they were there, quietly lurking between the thrusts and actions to further the act. Even when they were quietly going about their lives and he was perfectly content, the buzzing was there in his body, sounding to denote just how happy he was. This was the ultimate way for him to communicate how he felt about a situation, and once one took in his surroundings and logically noted what would make sense, they could tell Noah’s mood without him telling.

Elann’s voice came and added to the mixture of outrageously distracting stimuli and he only sank lower still. She drew close, pressed her chest against his, and could feel the brunt of his rumbling as it transferred into her body. When she did draw close his hands continued to wrap around her until she was in a loose hug. He took in her scent with each rolling breath and exhaled the heat held inside him down onto her neck and shoulders. Noah rested his head on her shoulder, turning to lie his cheek there as his face turned towards the slope of her neck.

She trickled in the loving emotions that fueled the memory in her mind and brought him further still under her spell. Elann had coached him to believe it was just him and her there, they were together as one and as bondmates. Her words repeated over and over in his head and fulfilled a wish of his to be like this with her in more than this moment. As she said before, he yearned to be able to look at her and communicate exactly what was on his mind and vice versa without the need for telepathy. He wanted them to develop their own silent language. They hopefully were sowing the seeds here and now for a vineyard of tacit signs that would blossom once they rooted their home in Zeltiva.

Noah was unsure how much time had passed for he had drifted to a place between conscious and not. He came around enough to tighten his hold around her body. “Stop…” he eased quietly, dreamily. “We should go…” he trailed halfheartedly, he wanted to stay truthfully.

Since he was coming to, the deepness of his vibrations stopped and he pulled back to view her face to face. “A rarou ona,” he said in soft Fratava, a phrase Elann knew as it translated to ‘I love you.’

Though he asked her to stop, he didn’t let her go, only tightening his hold on her there in his lap before pecking her on the corner of her mouth as she did him. Pulling back again, he was essentially inviting her to kiss him in full. It was obvious in the way his pale eyes flicked between her lips and then her eyes.

Journey to the East

It had been a long time since Noah had last laughed in genuineness. He had felt so down since their last fight that laughing was the last thing on his mind, consciously or not. He failed to find the humor in many things, even in the inside jokes him and his sister shared. It was the consequence of falling that hard in mood and staying that low. If he had been in his truer form, Elann would’ve seen the differences in him should she had been perceptive enough or had enough knowledge of how he looked and behaved as an eagle. He missed the feeling and the first chuckles flooded him with feel good emotions.

Elann came down, saying they could try again and she wasn’t going anywhere. Sitting in his lap, facing him, they were immensely close, how he wanted it. His hands came to her body in the dress, setting outside the fabric on her thighs as her hand with through his hair. The curls of his head had turned torrential and wild, taking over whatever tameness he had once managed to accrue when it was last cut. Atop that, the hair on his cheeks, jawline, and chin were coming in. He usually liked to keep himself cleanly shaven, liking the features of his face to be unhidden. He wanted desperately to groom himself, to bathe, at least to wash his face in cold water.

In the moment he was trying to enjoy himself with his bondmate, letting himself fall into relaxation now that his mind had been greatly put to ease by her words. Her voice alone could soothe him in normal situations, but when they spoke words he yearned to hear, the impact was tremendous.

Elann’s tone turned playful, the hum coming being signature to the mischief she usually partook in right after. To her character, she leaned in and kissed him on the corner of his mouth and let her hands course down over his ears and then resided in that area. She was letting her emotions down the bond to him and he was already relaxed as he was last night due to tiredness alone, and thus it didn’t take long for the sounds and gentle vibrations to sound through his body.

Noah closed his eyes lazily and let his head lax slightly as he hummed in delight. “When something feels good…” he trailed softly. “Keep doing that…”

A low groan rumbled through his throat and his shoulders slacked entirely. Sitting on him, she could feel the actual base in his chest and how the gentle rumbles turned into feelable vibrations coursing through the entirety of his being. The longer she went the more relaxed Noah became and the consistency of her actions played a part in how deep the reverberations turned into. Because he was a man and not an eagle they were several times louder and greater than they normally would’ve been.

In his state, his hands slowly crept towards Elann’s core and gripped gently at either side of her abdomen. The hold was loose, nothing in him wanting to tense, but she could plainly see the affect she was having on him.

Journey to the East

The way Elann scratched at the back of his head and into the depths of his curls felt lovely to the Kelvic. If he hadn’t been talking, and if the moment hadn’t of been delicate, he would’ve started his purring again. As it were, he kept himself from the near involuntary reaction and sought to see how Elann interpreted his words - hopefully in a good way. There wasn’t a swelling of emotion in her as she expressed she did understand him. He was kind of worried that she didn’t surge then, but he assumed she was keeping in mind what he just said. In a way, it was easier for him to speak in Fratava to her because the language was filled with the emotion he was naturally devoid of sometimes. If anything it made him want to redouble his efforts in teaching her his mother-tongue.

“I’m sorry for confusing you,” he apologized softly, leaning his head against her leg since she was standing.

The Kelvic laughed there quietly as he remembered something. “I was at the post office one day and I was talking to Liam while I waited for the mail sorter to get done with my parcels so I could deliver them. I think you started laughing at something and getting really happy and I started laughing too,” he said, smiling. “Liam got scared and asked why I was laughing. I had to tell him I didn’t know. It was… weird.”

In his affection and want to be close to her, Noah brought his hand up and grasped lightly at the back of her leg, going a bit beneath her dress so his palm actually touched her skin. “I like when you smile,” he said caringly. “I like it when you laugh too, when you’re happy.”

Noah took another breath, pausing heavily. “I know it’s been… bad lately, but I want it to be like it was in Syliras again,” he said carefully. “Can we try again, please?”

As if bracing himself for an answer, the hand on Elann’s leg held fast, his grip slightly tightening in its hold. He wasn’t attempting to cause her discomfort, but she could feel the increase of pressure where the hand once just rested, now it held.

Journey to the East

Fratava Phrase and Word Reference Dictionary

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A on os rarou zyru ona

I am in love with you

A rarou ona('i)

I love you (too)

Laouru

Fiery, lively, too hot to handle

Ona oty nu chous

You are my moon

Nu chous

My moon

Rarash('a)

Petch(er)

Puva ona rauri(ar)

See you later (after)

Ruixi puqwa/kara/lao

Little dove/pup/flame

Xu bradroun

No problem

Rhono'na (o'mi)

Thank you (me)

Yao/Xu

Yes/No

Bixoud'uou, Duou duou, Bixoun'ari (n'aori) (n'ori)

Goodbye, Bye bye, Good morning (afternoon/evening) (night)

Journey to the East

“Oh,” he said at first lowly.

Noah leaned his head over and ducked it under her hand and nuzzled up into it. As he expected, she had misunderstood him, but it was hard to tell her exactly what he wanted of her, at least it was for him. Noah grew up in a family where emotions and wants were communicated by motion alone. There was an air about his family’s home that told of moods and when someone wanted to be bothered and when not to. He often showed those moods to Elann but she didn’t know the language enough to interpret the moods he was giving off. The fact that his face was placid unless he directly sought to communicate with her meant his quiet state of being was easily misunderstood and otherwise unseen motions were left unseen.

“That’s not what I meant,” he said after a moment’s thought. “Well, it is what I meant, but not like this. Do you remember when you told me to be slow that time we had sex after the movers took the things out of the apartment?” He looked up at her, her hand sliding over his forehead as he did so. “I guess you like that sometimes, so I wanted to show you something I liked as well.”

He took a breath, pausing to think. His sights came back down as he scratched his chin. “You are… very laouru, fiery, or… too hot to handle, like fire,” he explained. “It’s not all the time, but when you get really excited it can be overwhelming. I like it sometimes, it’s endearing, but it’s also shocking.”

Noah pressed his head further up into her hand. “Does that make sense?” he asked. “I don’t want you to hide it. I just want you to know that I’m not like that, okay?” He paused again and chewed on his lip. “You know that though, don’t you?”

Noah hoped she did. To him, it was easy to tell Elann’s moods and emotions usually before she even showed them on her face. It was why when they did basically live together for a time he managed to avoid getting in her way or felt he knew how to approach certain situations because of how she would flare both in their bond and in the room before she reacted physically.