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Journey to the East

It was extremely comforting for Elann to rest in the sound of the rain and it seemed to want to lull her to sleep. Only her interest in watching Noah spurned her on. By the time the storm had ceased and Aimee went back to laying down, Elann stood to wrap one of the blankets around her so that she was nice and toasty warm if she wanted. They had plenty of blankets, and while her fur seemed to keep her warm, most animals she had known enjoyed being extra warm. It was just a sign of affection since she had seen hardly anything of her since the fight.

Elann then sat back down and waited for the storm to end. Most people were in their tents by that time, having finished their preparations and not desiring to be wet any longer. In a way, despite a few others, they were the only ones still outside. With loving eyes she watched the rain lightly patter down behind the frame of her husband and it warmed her to think of him. When he pushed to sit up, her eyes trailed to him and watched as he slowly moved forward next to her where the chest rested and her eyes quietly watched what he was doing.

As he began to go about pulling out a shirt to wipe his wetness away, Elann settled in a quiet state of watching him. His physique had grown considerably given his fighting and weight training from the man she had first met. That man she hoped to see again sometime in the future, but for now, she knew their verbal fighting had hurt him, she just didn't realize how much. Standing there in his true human form, devoid of the garments that falsely made him seem more man-like, he seemed to appeal to her compassion. That was who he was.

Any attempts Elann had made to change him had come crashing in on her and she didn't know what it would look like if she began embracing him as the man he was instead of the man she wished him to be. He sat there in silence, enjoying her food by himself on the far side of the wagon from her and she had had enough of it. Given most people were gone from sight, and Aimee settled down. Elann silently stood, unbuttoned her dress, and pulled it off. Stripping out of her underwear and breast band were hard on her given the wagon flaps were open, but she wanted to relate somehow to him.

Naked and bare as the day she was born, she came up beside him and lowered herself just as he did and looked out at the darkened nature around them. The moon had shone down on the valley they were in and seemed to make her creamy skin a dusty grey. She played her hair forward and looked lovingly toward him. She sat there until he was done with his food, and then when the plate was set aside, a hand outstretched to rest between them for him to take if he so wished. It was cold, as revealed by the many bumps and risings on her body, but she didn't seem to care in the moment, only wanting to share a quiet moment with her husband, her real husband.

Journey to the East

It was nice to see that Noah was not giving up on the gems, and whatever inspiration was in him at the moment was different than his depressed attitude the past couple days. She watched quietly from where she was sitting and slowly picked up the meat with her fingers off her small plate of food. Noah had not even seemed to care about the loving affection she poured into the food for him. He was too distracted by the rain and instead just wanted to focus on his gems. Perhaps he had a concept in mind. Elann just rested back and stuck the cut chunks of meat in her mouth and waited patiently.

It seemed her sister watched him too. Every time Noah seemed to strain in pain, Elann felt horribly for him; pouting in sadness and compassion. She would have spoken out against the frightening action of ripping his stitches, except something was happening, something strange. Her hair was already frizzy from the rain, feeling heavier than normal as moisture stored in its depths, but then it began to stand and pull as electricity hummed in the air. It was a subtle difference, nothing as pronounced as Aimee could feel, but Elann noticed it.

When the thinned lightning bolt shot out, she dropped the piece of meat in her hand and could hear an electric hum. She had never heard the sound before, but could tell it was a very electric sound. There was no thunder clap, but instead was over and done with in a flash. Those outside in the camp who were not huddled in their tent's either figured it for distant lightning, the frequent transformations of the Kelvic's or that a tiny lightning bolt had struck somewhere close by, but when no thunder was heard, they shrugged it off. Elann and Aimee however had a front row seat to the strangeness of what had just happened.

Now the storm clouds above seemed to thunder and lightning with tiny affect, just like the stone itself was small. It made her fear the larger of the stones in the bag. Noah pulled back inside and she came to him and bent down to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"I'm so proud of you."

She knew how long he had been trying to figure them out, and to her, it meant a lot more than Aimee perhaps could understand. Noah and Elann had both experienced their deity, more than once, and to find out something deep and powerful like Noah just did, meant a great deal; especially since it had taken so long. She then pulled back, and if he wanted her to put the stone away she would, but then she quietly returned to her corner in the front of the wagon to finish her meal.

Journey to the East

Elann had no idea Noah had wanted to stay in the tent. His lacking communication on what he wanted made Elann think that he meant no to both things. He said okay instead of asking to sleep there, likely due to his unwillingness to fight on anything, so Elann was none the wiser and went about her business.

Aimee had gone off into the woods to go hunting and by the time she had finished cooking and the rain began to fall, she was coming back. Elann followed her to the wagon and upon her entry and eventual changed, she found out she had already eaten. Noah got two plates full of the bear meat, though it had been seasoned and added to with fat to make it extra tasty for him. Elann, through her compassion, felt he needed something to pick him up, and a good home cooked meal like she normally would make in Syliras hopefully could do that.

She sat apart from him on the bench near the front of the wagon, her legs stretched out as she leaned back against the wood of the driver's chair. She ate nice and slowly by herself and let Noah enjoy the rain. The feeling within her, normally hating the rain, had almost grown to an enjoyment of it. In her homeland it would have put the whole camp in an uproar and each of them would fight to get to high ground with all of their animals as the valleys would flash flood and carry away anything not on dunes. Here, nothing of the sort was happening and she was finally at peace with it. In her heart she even wished Zulrav would come and increase the storm for Noah's sake, to entertain him and lift him up. Such were her silent prayers, though she didn't know if the God ever listened to her.

Zulrav seemed to care for her well being only because she was the wife of Noah, but would he hear her? Would he care? She could sense the silence of her husband over the past couple days and his depressed attitude, even if it was not easily obvious. She knew she couldn't do anything for him to cheer him up, so hopefully Zulrav could. It would speak volumes to her if he did hear and come. Such were her thoughts as she ate in silence.

Noah then asked her for a Stormgem, to which he was met with a smile from the dim shaded Benshira. She set her plate down and quickly recovered one for him. The bag was easy to get to as it was still on the top from the last time he had messed with them. She didn't give him the smallest stone - her stone - but she did give him one just about as small in size and then returned to her spot to watch him curiously.

Journey to the East

Elann nodded to his request for food. She figured he would be hungry. He had slept through lunch and it was moments away from being dinner. They were likely just going until they came to a familiar resting spot. His words sounded so sad to her; not in tone, but just how he wanted to move on to the next day. One day closer to his freedom.

She took in a deep breath and said, "Is there anything special I can make you that you want?" She had made many recipes over the past months and he had seemed to like some more than others, but she was sure that he just wanted something to stuff his gullet.

"Yeah," she answered. "This one is a bit thicker, so I'll likely only use it on really cold nights or he suggested that if I can't use it as a blanket, to bring it to a tanner and he could line some clothing for us." She shrugged, showing it was all up in the air. "I like your blanket you got for me though, it's much prettier and softer than a bear."

She looked out the back toward what he was looking at, but he was just scanning it seemed. As she looked back to him, she too felt the wind swirl in, but didn't understand what he did from it. Curiously she looked to him as he stated it was going to rain and she had to trust him. It was nice to not have a storm blow through that was of her causing. It brought a steady relief to her.

"I'll just stay here with you then."

She didn't want to set up the tent just to have it get everything wet. Granted no water would get in the tent, but it wouldn't exactly make packing it enjoyable. She instead decided to stay in the wagon with her husband and sister, sleeping on the floor.

Aimee finally woke up, speaking in Fravata as she did to Noah. Elann couldn't help but laugh as she actually understood completely what Noah had said, but drew silent shortly after as if it had been involuntarily released. She let the two continue on and she found it harder and harder to continue her project with a lantern.

Elann decided it was best to give up on her project for the night and instead waited with Noah for the stopping of the wagons. Once they were off the road, Elann woke Aimee gently. People began to set up for dinner and went about completing their tents. Elann instead went straight to cooking food for Noah. She didn't waste any time and wanted to make sure he had food to eat, and that she was back inside the wagon before the rain began to fall. It was amazing to see his prediction come true, if you could even call it that.

"There's the rain," she muttered to herself in Fravata as she let Noah eat the food for himself. She had a small portion herself and fed him what she didn't want to finish. There was a plate for Aimee as well if she wanted it, but if not, it'd go to Noah.

Journey to the East

It was warm when Elann had started her rug, and Noah being one with nature commonly enjoyed being nude. She figured him warm enough when she had entered the wagon, yet getting into the groove of making a handmade rug made Elann nearly forget about him, let alone notice the darkening of the skies as time had passed. When Noah finally shifted and stirred, she came to. The bond flared to life in those short moments and once again, hit her hard with pain.

There was a pause in her work as she mentally had to deal with it before he faded their bond once more. She knew how desolate it had made him and really didn't understand why he was doing it to himself. It had driven him to tears and caused a huge storm for her just closing off her bond a little before. This time he was shutting out the huge pain racking his body, but did it mean he was any less affected by the emptiness?

Once Elann cleared her head of the fading pain, she watched him wipe his eyes and how he stretched. It made her wince to see him stretch and she felt such compassion for him. Her heart burned to see him better, to see him be able to act normally. Elann had that type of heart that hated to see injustices and people in pain. While Noah got what was coming to him for entering into a foreign bird's territory, it didn't mean she liked to see him suffer. She was just glad she was there. Noah couldn't understand how happy she was to get him safely to the doctor, and if he hadn't closed off their bond, he would know how intense her concern was for him even still.

Even though Elann overwhelmed Noah quite often with the intensity of her emotions and raw feelings, she did have some control over them for his sake. He had trouble experiencing her edited emotions. She loved him so purely and deeply that to feel it would surely have driven him mad. She had always been that way since a little girl. She had grown in love with Yahal at a young age and laid her life down for his purity and faithfulness. It meant she had a good perspective of how deep love could go and it was far deeper than many felt. Often it could be mistaken for obsession or clinginess, but really she just found fascination in Noah as her husband and didn't want to be without him.

Noah's curious eyes trailed over her and down to the rug. His voice, sleep-choked and more deep than normal, asked her who the rug was for. In a quiet voice, she answered.

"The tanner. He harvested the bear skin for us and has been drying it out to turn into a blanket. He did it for free, but I told him I wanted to trade a rug for it as a thank you."

Her eyes trailed over him and she perceived that he was cold. Since Aimee was in all the blankets on the floor, Elann moved to sit next to Noah on his good side and provided him close and warm comfort. He had after all done so for her many many times. She would even let the rug lay on his legs if he let her as she tied her knots. Though she moved, though she talked, her hands never stopped their rapid fire tying.

"We are probably going to stop soon. Did you want to walk around camp and maybe sleep in the tent for a change tonight?"

The wagon was hard wood, and Elann's beds in the tents were like soft air; cushioned beyond what was thought possible by stacking rugs and pillows a certain way. It was warmer and was closer to the earth.

Journey to the East

Elann would be gone for most of the day. Whatever feeling that trickled through her bond with Noah seemed to dull, and upon that point, she went to check on him and found him sleeping. She did not enter the wagon, but instead let him lay there. Elann went to check on the bear pelt and spoke with Jennen who was busy tanning it for her. He said for the most part it was a perfect pelt. He didn't understand how the arrow was able to pierce the skull like it had, but Elann played it off as just a blessing from above. It had been a few days and he was nearly done with prepping it. It hung there dried out and scraped already and had become hard as a rock. Evidently by talking to her, he figured she could use it as a blanket for the trip, and if later she wanted some kind of a fur insulated clothing, it could be cut up for that later.

Giving him a little nod, she agreed and asked him how much it would cost her. He told her it was free, that it was keeping him occupied, but she rejected it. She didn't feel right for him doing his work for free.

"I will make you a rug in trade for it."

"Alright, I mean if you are sure."

"Mhmm. Any specific colors you want?"

"No, not really. Just whatever you feel like making. I'm not picky. Maybe something that is a bit rougher. I tend to get a lot of dirt in my places I work so...can you make something like that?"

"Oh sure. That's even easier."

Having their business agreed, she would silently head back later in the day to the wagon and would crawl in as silently as possible. Eventually she would sneak out her materials and by the time it was evening, she would be found there when his medicine faded and in her hands was a half done up rug.

Journey to the East

A calm smile crept over Elann as she watched him take the glass, drink half of it and then held the rest off to the side. At some point when gathering the tea for him, she had set the other flower that was in her hands up above the other flower. It was to free up her hands. Noah didn't say anything to Elann about his intent, so she figured he would drink the rest of it. He was just digesting the bittersweet concoction.

She then hummed at him, much as she would have done in their bedroom when wanting a kiss, but a finger came up to lightly dab the medicine away from his lips. She didn't want to taste it. Once the offending concoction was gone. She gave him a romantic kiss and then pulled away.

"Not long now." She then curled a finger toward herself. "Let me look at your back."

She had seen her own hand be gashed with a cut much like what was on his, except instead of a razor sharp piece of talon digging in, it was a thick slice of searing hot metal, dull and yet in her fall was able to pierce her skin. Never before had she felt such a pain and thought her hand had fallen off. This though on his back looked quite bad. It wouldn't take long before he could be walking. Likely the next day, but it was all in how much he could tolerate for pain, as walking indeed would hurt even if he could do it.

If he let her see his back. She would nod and let him sit back.

"I'll go let the doctor know. I will be back in a little. I have to check on some things, but if you need me love, just open the bond and I'll know okay?"

She would then hop out the back carefully, being cautious not to hit his body or jostle it, and being silent for Aimee's sake. If he didn't protest, she would go to tell the doctor on his condition, and after that, would head to check on some kids she was going to watch to give the parents some free time to themselves. It wasn't what she wanted to do though. She wanted to be close to him. It was hard not to feel like she was abandoning him, but everything she had been feeling was confirmed by him never asking for her to stay. Her husband wanted some space from her. She knew that didn't mean that he wanted her to completely ignore him, so she showed him her love before she left in hopes to repair whatever she had said that had hurt him so badly. She tried to recall all of her failings and use them as lessons for changing, but it was hard to remember everything he had said to her. She just hoped it was enough then to please him.

Journey to the East

Every time Elann seemed to skip, a small silent chuckle came from the driver behind her. It was nice to see her seemingly not depressed and in the back of the wagon. Something had changed and he didn't know what it was. Even Noah seemed to be admiring his bride with deep set eyes, though to the driver behind, it was not normal for him to do so.

Elann decided that as he continued to silently watch her, she would do what she could to entertain him. She was joyous, having an internal happiness that just wouldn't quit despite the situation; even if that situation was one where he didn't seem to want to talk to her. As she began though, his eyes were set on her. She didn't return the gaze, only seeing it in her peripheral view. Instead she acted innocently unaware of it as she began to skip a little more.

With a hop, she jumped over a divot in the ground that the wagon had avoided and then spun into a little twirl afterward, then kept on walking like it was nothing. It was clear she had slowly but surely been practicing dance since she was able to do it significantly with more balance.

His wife continued that way for a little while and then, as if seeing something, she jogged out of sight ahead of the wagon and off to the side for some reason. There in a meadow before her were a bunch of white flowers with little yellow centers to them. She plucked one and put it into her hair and then return to his sight to skip behind.

She then revealed in her hand she had another flower and she began to twirl it in her fingers as she walked and watched it. Elann would continue like that for a while, but eventually she would know it was time for Noah's medicine and would climb inside to give him a drink of the tea.

He had not really responded openly to her care thus far and so she just held out the glass to him with eyes that spoke for him to take it and she secretly bit the inside of her lip in anxiety to see if he would, or if he would fight her on it.

Journey to the East

Elann had never thought of animals as having mentalities as the bird seemed to display with Noah. As it came toward her, her eyes went wider but still she didn't move. If the bond had been open between Noah and Elann, he would have felt extreme caution on her part as fear overtook her. Ultimately it seemed their little bird friend didn't intend to do anything with her, just look. If it had hopped at her she might have jumped off the wagon in fear, but it seemed nice enough.

As long as it stayed on Noah, she was fine, and once it began to hop back after tweeting her name, it departed. By listening, it did almost seem like he was teaching it and encouraging the little bird to sing out something, so when he revealed her name with the pitch, she remembered it. Not only could Elann whistle very well, but she had pitch perfect hearing from singing all of her life.

She grinned to him, but he looked away to the grass. A moment later, she produced the pitch much like him in a whistle and tried to remember it. She hummed, showing interest and then slipped off the back edge of the wagon to walk behind. Her eyes trailed for Aimee and then she just walked with the wagon once having seen her. She was quiet with her hands behind her back and an occasional skip in her step. She was giving him a tiny bit of space and decided to just enjoy the air. If he tested their bond, he would feel love was still there, but she was just being quiet to herself.

Elann figured if he wanted to talk more about the bird or her whistle, he would instigate it. She just took the time to think and pray to her God in that time, asking him about faithfulness and if what she was doing was being faithful still to Noah. Elann cared a lot about her promises, and so the promise to remain with him was the most serious bond she had ever forged. It was destroying her to separate herself from him after their big fight, but it seemed like everything she did annoyed him to some degree or was not received as well as it could. She just took the time to check her heart and to make sure that she was still deeply in love with him, it was just hard because she didn't want a relationship just like her own parents who rarely spoke to each other, who enjoyed spending the days and evenings alone and then spent only a short time in each others presence. She wanted more, but that wasn't happening. Her only desire was that by giving him space, at some point he would show how much he wanted her near him.

Journey to the East

It wasn't exactly entertaining to drive a wagon. You constantly had to keep an eye on the wagon in front of you, as well as for bandits. Noah's injury was just entertainment for the driver behind them. She had noticed him staring, but didn't think much of it as he had been most of the trip. Elann had made peace with it as surely the person in front of their wagon had with their own driver.

Noah had directed his attention to her and shrugged in answer, which she gritted her teeth at his pain. It was horrible to watch him once more be struggling like he was. He denied the stones and her attempt to save him from his boredom. Elann hummed in thought, but then her husband's eyes drifted upward to a flock of birds. He once again decided to pay more attention to them than her, even if it was not intentional.

Elann looked down to the soft grass that passed in shade underneath the wagon and smacked it with her feet. It was only when the fluttering of wings could be heard did she look back up. It seemed a bird, some strange looking small thing had landed on his finger. Elann had been given no chance to see birds up close unless they were buzzards or eagles, which promptly flew off the second you grew close. Still, she had gotten so close as to smack a buzzard on a butt once before it could get away. This bird was different. It had a beauty about it that she had never seen, and while there was fear in her heart over the little thing, she admired it so.

Elann's brilliant eyes watched its little feet move on Noah's and she thought it kind of cute how it twitched like him too. Elann tried not to move at all out of the ordinary and just let Noah enjoy his friend while she sat there in silence. She didn't want to be responsible for saying something and scaring it away.