Illumin0sity

Journey to the East

Elann answered Aimee’s question as the wolf sat down to suck on her caramels. She tucked one away into her cheek, humming at Elann’s question. “I’ve always wanted to see Yahebah,” she admitted. “My mother said it’s beautiful, almost one of her favorite places to have visited when she used to travel. We have some Benshiran made rugs in our home because she liked them so much, that and she says they’re better made than Zeltivan rugs.”

She went back to sucking on her sweet, watching and listening as Noah voiced his own doubt in his abilities. Aimee knew she was the same in some ways, feeling that when she messed up she was no longer worthy of the task. It was a temporary feeling because her sense of determination would come back within the next day or two in order to spur her back into practice. She’d sometimes manage to surprise herself in hitting an otherwise hard note or fluidly falling into the next step of a song that once avoided her entirely. She hoped with time Noah’s own sense of determination would return, she figured he’d have to take down some other avian in order to feel satisfied and on top once again.

At first Elann’s reassurance did little, but she brought up boxing and how she wanted to witness that. She squeezed his bicep, causing his gaze to look to that spot before her. It was a weird feeling she just did and it showed in his curious face. He appreciated her faith in him, leaning back a small ways to kiss the corner of her mouth to show it.

“In the summer, there are local fighting rings,” Aimee informed from across the wagon. “Sometimes Ryon participates in them with Donavan. A long time ago, my father fought in them too.”

“I forgot about those,” Noah returned, eyes glancing to the bag of candies in his sister’s hand.

“I figured as much, which is why I’m bringing it up. Maybe you’ll want to go into one of them or, at least, see what they’re about.”

Journey to the East

Noah shrugged at Elann’s mention of potential stories to tell his mother. The scars along his ribcage and back would be story enough to provoke her worried rambling, of which he didn’t want to hear. It would be short lived, he knew, it would last longer than if she discovered his older brothers had been injured though. He was the baby, her little dove, and the one most akin to understanding her entirely because of them being of the same species and sharing many of the same mannerisms. He figured his mother would be self-loathing in a way upon the discovery, because of her inability to protect him like the mother she was. Noah knew if his mother was around his injuries could have been either avoided or reduced by a great amount, so he shared a sense of guilt as well.

Aimee rose from the opposite bench at Elann’s expression of understanding, letting her counter-question linger away unanswered as Elann was probably lost in her own fears in the memory of the bear that once confronted her. The wolf went towards the head of the wagon where their things were stored and shifted through her trunk.

Elann’s feather-light caresses were felt on the Kelvic’s skin and they didn’t bother him. They did relieve the week old itches he hadn’t be able to scratch due to his limited mobility. The scars she may have been admiring, Noah was loathing, wishing them away and gone, not liking them to mar his skin and person. He hated the scar on his leg most of all, he could see it every day and could feel it with his own hands. It felt foreign despite it being his own healed skin. He wondered about the ointment Emery mentioned to reduce the scarring of the wound once the stitches removed and the wound allowed to breathe for a day or two longer. He hoped it would smooth his skin out once again and allow the normalcy to retake it.

His mother told him stories about healers is Riverfall who would stitch wounds with their magic. He wondered if any of the healing priestesses lived in Zeltiva and what the cost of their services would be to magically erase the evidence of his missteps and faults.

Elann’s compliment brought him out of the thoughts for the moment. Since his last faltering he had begun to doubt his own aerial combativeness. The falcon was far too quick for him to catch but with the aid of his gnosis mark he felt he could’ve bested it and came out on top. Elann’s tugging and her panic served as a way to totally distract him from using his own arsenal to its fullest extent, not that he blamed her.

“I suppose,” he said in reply. “I don’t know anymore, it has been a while.”

Aimee sat back down on the opposite bench, a small cloth sack ruffling in her hands. It was the size of her palm. She unstrung it and reached in, pulling out a small caramel candy, of which she plopped into her mouth and sucked, her sights looking towards the pattering rain as it came down outside, splashing weakly into the wagon.

Journey to the East

Noah hummed as he remembered the storm. It was extremely fierce, probably akin to the storm in which he was brought into the world with. That storm he managed to conjure indirectly was the sole reason man was afraid of Zulrav from the day they emerged from their caverns deep underneath Mizahar’s surface. It was why he was who was called the One Who Hissed in the Night, the Slap of the World, and much more. Noah was honored to be his Stormwarden, knowing that the deity dubbed him worthy enough to one day wield the very storms summoned by the god was immensely humbling to the already modest Kelvic.

“Or at home,” Noah added about his mother. More than six days had passed between her departure from the caravan for Zeltiva, she should’ve been there by now. The few rains that came over the area had arrived in from the direction of Syliras, probably not reaching Noah’s mother for some time after it began to crash down on them.

Elann’s compliment made Noah nod. He knew he was a large predator, one of the largest in the sky, if not the largest. “I’m supposed to be smaller than my mother,” he informed. “The females of my species are larger than the males.”

“It’s because of our father,” Aimee added as Noah drew breath. “He’s valterrian, or dire, which means he’s much larger and stronger than normal animals of his species.”

“He’s a wolf,” Noah put in.

“He’s near the size of a bear,” Aimee continued. “It’s why me and Noah are so big, our other siblings too.”

“Momma’s normal,” Noah went again. “So I’m bigger than her.”

“You’re bigger now than when you left,” Aimee pointed out. “You were smaller than her when you went to Syliras.”

Elann asked Aimee if she dreamt when she slept, to which the Kelvic hummed spritely. “Most of the time. If I remember them, they are usually about the forest or singing. Sometimes I dreamt I was singing while I was a wolf, which is impossible, but I swear I was singing. No one can tell me any different.” She paused, shrugging. “I hardly remember my dreams though. Why do you ask?”

Journey to the East

Aimee waved Elann off dismissively. She had been sleeping off and on all that day, unable to fully wake up due to the consistent dropping of rain that would soothe her back to sleep each time she did managed to crack open her eyes. Sitting up now, she went about waking up entirely if only to engage in conversation with Elann and Noah for a little while. Today was a very lazy day for the Kelvic though the consequences of using Reimancy had long since passed into obscurity. She hadn’t taken too many chances with rekindling the wavering trust between her and the other caravan goers, keeping to herself and residing closely to Elann and her brother since she was unable to hunt given the rain.

Noah hummed at Elann calling him, peering back at her as she leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder. At the question he looked back out into the rain, the drops were light but the wind was blowing in occasional gusts that would throw even him off trajectory if he wasn’t anticipating them. Given his Stormwarden capabilities, the gusts usually went in tune with him, not against him. The same couldn’t be said for his mother, he knew, but she had taught him to learn how to fly with Zulrav rather than against, making flight for him that much easier.

“Sometimes,” he answered. “It’s uncomfortable to be in it for long, it’s easier to just rest in a tree until the storm passes. The storm you got hurt in, your hands and feet, it was difficult getting to you. The wind was really strong and I almost couldn’t fly in it, but you pulled me so I had to.”

He remembered the storm which was conjured due to his heart aching sorrow, how heavy the drops were and how angry the winds whipped to convey his mood to the world, lashing out at the forest. It was the first glimpse into just how the skies would quake because of him being upset, his seemingly impossible influence over weather systems. Even though he couldn’t summon the storms himself, Zulrav would apparently move heaven and sky for him, if only to show the Warden he was appreciated when he otherwise felt as if he wasn’t.

“I had to fly above the clouds,” he revealed, perhaps giving Elann the memory of when he appeared as but a small speck against the dark grey of the clouds, sweeping down on Elann in the farm fields.

It was unknown to him if Elann knew just how much control over him she really possessed. If she pulled the reins tightly enough he’d have no choice but to oblige to her every wish and command. Her first execution of power, unknown to her probably, was when she commanded him to look at her in the hotspring, and how, despite his own unwant, he immediately set his gaze on her with no real will of his own. She had never commanded him though, and if she had, controlling him would have been several times easier. As it were, either her heart was too good and kind, or she never knew to exercise the power.

Journey to the East

Noah’s eyes went to Aimee as Elann answered, noting the wolf still asleep on her back, the blanket strewn over her tight-wrapped lower body, her head still lulled away from both of them to face the opposite wall of the canvas. He looked back to her as she said she didn’t think she was ready for a full conversation. Noah agreed silently. The two Kelvics had been speaking to her in a handicapped way to make sure she got the basics of the language before they expanded upon it. Fratava was a language spoken in a very fast paced way, the words seemingly blending together and would easily lose someone not well versed in the patterns of Zeltivans. Svefra were far worse than the mainlanders though, sometimes speaking circles around the most practiced Fratavan speaker if they so wanted to.

“When Aimee wakes up,” he said in Fratava, “you can try it.”

Across the way the wolf groaned and brought her hand up to her face, rolling her head to face upwards as the hand slid down from her forehead to her chin. “I’m awake,” she groggily announced as Elann’s hand went over Noah’s back, pausing then asking the question about their mother.

“She should be,” Noah went. “Aimee said she left to see father, they haven’t been away from one another in a long time.”

Another groan came from Aimee as she sat up and turned about, throwing her legs off of the bench so the tips of her toes resided on the floor. Her arms were put above her head as she stretched and yawned, her back arching and something resembling a whine coming from her as she yawned, opening and closing her mouth sleepily. Her eyes, the same pale shade as Noah’s, looked to the wagon’s exit as she noticed the pitter patter of the raindrops.

“It’s still raining?” she sighed. “Noah make it stop.”

“I don’t want to,” he answered in the clearly disagreeable Fratavan tone though his mood was soft.

“You’re no dove at all,” she retorted, combing through the flattened side of her hair to breathe new life into it. Her eyes went from the wagon’s exit to Elann. “I expected her to be back by now but all this rain probably stopped her.”

Journey to the East

Noah smiled at her thanking and awwing, feeling slightly proud of himself for drawing it out of her. Elann gave reason to give idle compliments, her reactions filling herself with appreciation for him and thereby warming him in conjunction. The way her face lit up was a sight for him to see, one that made him smile in return because he knew he made her happy.

Regarding his temperature in sickness, it was unlikely anything that affected her would affect him. It explained why the fever she was stricken with in Syliras all those days ago didn’t make him skip a beat in his own step.

What did was her resistance in lying down and resting like he had asked of her. It was one of the first few times Noah had gotten stern with her, already he was concerned because it was a short while after their bonding and he couldn’t control how his own body reacted to what she felt. Seeing as she was an earlier riser than him in Syliras, her fever shivers and chills made him feel just as cold. Being one who didn’t get cold easily, especially within the confines of his own home, the Kelvic immediately knew the cause was Elann. He went to her home and saw her going about her day as if nothing was wrong with her, even though with one look he could see very well she didn’t feel up to be doing much of anything.

Noah hummed in affirmation at Elann’s question, his eyes remaining open and on her as her cool hands went over his temples, temporarily alleviating his headache. The ache began to grow again when she ceased, moving to sit behind him and scratch at his back. The scratching made him slouch slightly in relaxation, only perking up straight again when she asked her question.

“Uh,” he started, peering back at her to see her looking across the wagon at Aimee. “We speak more it than Common in the house from what I remember. It sounds better, my father says.” The language was so emotive it made the emotions the Kelvics felt quietly be able to be expressed in a much more apparent form.

“Why do you ask?” he wondered in Fratava, peering back at her still. “Are you worried?”

Journey to the East

Noah was assured by Elann’s matter-of-fact speaking. He had been clinging to the hope that once his stitches were out he would only continue to get better. The hope was what made him even walk with as much determination as he had shown in the past few days when it did come time for him to walk. To his own surprise he managed to trek the distance between the camp despite his discomfort, driven onward by the promise of a clean body and a clean body was what he got. With no more caked -on sweat and dirt on his skin he felt leagues better, his mood lighter since the weight was no longer on his skin. Another one of his freedoms was taken away by his injury: being able to fly and bathe whenever he pleased.

At him stating his physiological discomfort Elann stood before him, moving her chilly hands over his heated being. The coolness on his head did feel good, he felt the heat from his head temporarily defuse and then be slowly replaced as it fought against her icy hands to regain his temperature, a temperature that was normal for the Kelvic. Noah felt just as hot as she usually felt him to be, though she might not have known he ran hotter than the average man simply because of his avian nature, the core temperature being several degrees hotter than a human’s.

Patiently he looked at her, peering past her arm and the hand above his brows for her diagnosis. She reminded him of his mother in that instance and how she would take his temperature in the same way, comparing it with her own. It was one of the first indicators to say he was an avian like she, how he seemingly operated with a body heat that would kill a normal human child.

“You look nice,” he commented idly, taking the moment to observe her features as she took his temperature.

Journey to the East

“Nish Remat Yahim,” Noah repeated softly as to not interrupt her. She spoke on what it was about and he committed both the name and the meaning to memory like he did names and faces when meeting someone for the first time.

Noah nodded at the end of her words to show he understood her. It was an odd song to him and very complex. At least it had a happy ending, which couldn’t be said for a lot of Zeltivan songs sung in Fratava. A great deal of them came from the seafaring Svefra who found humor in darkness, jovial songs sung about sinking ships was a norm, as were joking jestful hymns about seasickness, which translated to the drunken subculture of Zeltiva’s shores relatively easily.

Elann said she was cold, prompting him to look over the parts of her body under the blanket with him. As she went to ask her question he scooted towards her, pausing as she inquired about his wellbeing and the status of pain due to his back and side. Noah reached his arm over his shoulder, feeling at the edges of his wound lightly before looking back at her.

“It still hurts,” he admitted, meeting her eyes. “Not as bad as before, I can lay down without it hurting a lot. I like that.”

He considered her question on his wellbeing for a moment, drawing quiet as he looked passed her outside to the rain as it splattered on the edge of the wagon, splashing weakly inside. The trotting of the hooves belonging to the horses leading the wagon to their wagon’s rear caught his attention for a moment and he admired the great animal he had seen few times before.

“I feel... sick,” he revealed. “My head is foggy, like there is something in it. It hurts a little here.” He brought his hand up to his left temple, the fingers poking lightly at the side of his head. It was only a slight discomfort but enough for the Kelvic to know he wasn’t entirely healthy.

Journey to the East

Elann’s closeness was welcome. He wasn’t adverse to her, simply quiet in his own thoughts and mind as was his usual, only interrupted to speak when spoken to. In the past few days Aimee had been attempting to help Elann along in her Fratava all the more, going through the basic alphabet, not because Elann didn’t know it, but because the letters made up the various sounds of the words within the language. Working them into Elann’s vocabulary and around her accent was a challenge for the Kelvic but she didn’t show frustration since it wasn’t something Elann could exactly control. Elann’s speaking had improved greatly since they set out from Syliras, even more so than when she spoke the little bit in the castle city. Aimee was satisfied with herself.

Noah looked down to Elann as he felt her head on his legs, looking over her briefly, hearing her hummed tune just over the dropping rain outside. The sound was curious to him but didn’t bother him with its haunting tone. It was a tune which came from her and, reaching into the bond, he didn’t feel anything that would spur him to act upon his curiosity. So, he went back to gazing over his sister from time to time or the rest of the wagon as their luggage shifted and swayed because of the sloshing wheels. Noah was lying there so long he started to ignore the wagons entirely, focusing what he could on the rain pattering against the canvas backing wrapped around the car’s frame.

Again his eyes with to Elann as she moved from near the edge of the wagon, coming up into his space and lifting the blanket to set herself underneath it. Noah carefully turned over onto his back, unsure if the movement would irritate his closed wound or if the stitches had just forced him into habits time would have to break. He moved to sit up then, drawing his legs to hold there with his hand across one of his shins over the blanket.

“Hello,” he murmured in greeting, it being one of the few words he said all day. “What’re you humming?”

“How are you?” he asked in the next moment, though he could easily reach into the bond for the answer.

Journey to the East

In the days after their lovemaking Noah found himself wishing for rain and storms. Zulrav answered his wishes by granting those storms, large bucketing drops or drizzles or just thick cloud cover with thunder rumbling in the sky. It was all he wanted and was what he got. It was like his deity could spoil him with storms, all he had to do was ask since he could not conjure them entirely himself. The storm was particularly absent the day his stitches were removed, leaving in a state of seemingly suspended animation, as if his mind was processing what had happened and his body was growing accustomed to the sensation of the stitches being no longer there. While he was happy, Noah was extremely quiet that day.

In the past few days he thought on the night in the tent, how it had been threatened with unravelling if such a recovery had not been made. Though he probably shouldn’t have felt like it, he was taking a grand gamble in opening himself to Elann in such a way, bondmate or not. What she thought as being a ill-behaved wife he saw as a disrespectful bondmate, and in his mind it was a much graver crime. Sense told him to keep her at bay still but the bond begged for the gap to be closed in order for the bond to thrive in an nonthreatening environment. It overpowered sense, to his conflicted dismay.

It was drizzling today and the Kelvic was quiet still, lying on the bench on his stomach as he listened to the wheels slosh in the wet road. There was low thunder overhead sending occasional vibrations down to the ground they trod but nothing akin to the storm that lashed out at them the day before his stitches were removed, were the caravan was threatened to halt if the rain and wind continued to beat at them like it did for hours during the beginning of that day’s trip. It only seemed to get worse as they trekked, eventually ceasing as Zulrav’s attention had to turn elsewhere.

Noah swung his arm down over the edge of the bench, letting it sway back and forth while he looked out into the wagon before him. Aimee was on the other bench on her back with a blanket over her lower body as she napped, her head lulling towards the canvas of the wagon so Noah couldn’t see her face. The rain, while she loved it, made the wolf want to do nothing but sleep since she usually couldn’t do much else in it. Noah, on the other hand, could be awake in vibrant no matter how dangerous the storm or could sleep through the loudest thunder because he knew it was his god’s causation.

It was the first bell after the noon one, or somewhere between the first and second. Time was beginning to really blur together for the Kelvic and he failed to keep track of the days until his stitches were forecast to be removed. The day came to his surprise and delight, now he was enjoying his improved mobility. As he listened to the wind come at the wagon from his side he did realize though, he was hesitant to be back in the skies. It had been a long time since he felt it under his wings and the last memory wasn’t exactly a good one. That day blurred together, how the falcon assaulted him, how Elann yanked on his soul to be her savior, how he was down along with the bear Elann managed to kill before it killed her.

He was truthful when he told Elann he was always afraid. Their mortality was shaken that day; Elann faced a brutal death at the hand of a mother bear and Noah faced a slow death by bleeding and injuries if Elann wasn’t able to quickly get him back to the caravan. The memory was beyond tragic to him. It was what he thought about as he absentmindedly looked about the wagon’s interior. Per usual, Noah was nude this day, underneath a blanket like Aimee was, though Aimee wore a large shirt and tights, sticking to the style since Elann complimented her on it many days ago.