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Post by Val on Apr 24, 2020 22:50:36 GMT
Ike felt his rational thought begin to slip away as Trys practically laid out an invitation to him. She had single handedly dismantled his entire mission the moment they encountered each other. Before, Ike couldn't wrap his head around his sudden change of heart regarding his target, but now he understood. He wanted Trys. In what way? He wasn't sure yet, but she had veered him so far off course that he cared more about pleasing her than his own country.
Despite coming to this realization, Ike remained relatively impassive, intent on keeping her guessing. Besides, he believed in actions being far more powerful than words. A look of resolve entered his eyes as he took a bold step toward her, clearly aiming to make an advance.
Unfortunately, it seemed that the world had other plans for him. He'd barely moved a step before Kiona's shriek pierced the air and effectively ruined the moment. He tore his gaze away from Trys and whipped toward the door, swinging it open. In a matter of seconds, he stormed into Kiona's room, practically knocking the door off its hinges. "What happened?" he demanded after determining there were no visible threats. He faced the princess, appearing exhausted and, more importantly, frustrated.
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Post by Elvander on Apr 25, 2020 23:37:22 GMT
Trys felt her stomach tighten in anticipation as he seemed to make a move towards her, feeling herself lean forward instinctively. She wanted him too, and in this moment, she was determined to have him. Before they could enjoy their moment, however, Kiona's scream broke it and Trys felt disappointment seize her. She swung her legs off the beg and dogged Ike's step, stopping behind him to peer over his shoulder, though she had to stand on her tiptoes to do it, and even still, her eyes barely passed his shoulders. She was standing a little closer to Ike than she normally would have, her chest practically brushing against his back. "Are you having nightmares? I can make you a herbal tea," she offered helpfully.
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Post by starrea on Apr 26, 2020 0:28:55 GMT
Kiona’s eyes snapped open but she couldn’t figure out where she was. Before she could make sense of anything, the door exploded open and two blurry figures forced their way in. Kiona shot up in bed and scrambled backwards, nearly falling out of the bed. Her heart hammered against her chest as one of the faces focused. It was Dora - except this time, her head wasn’t smashed in. Fear threatened to paralyze her but she didn’t have any time to waste. She knew what was going to happen and she needed Dora to hear her.
“Dora, run! They’re coming for me!” She screeched, but Dora didn’t seem scared. Why wasn’t she scared?
“I’m so sorry, it should have been me. It should have been me.” She was cracking under the weight of her guilt, eyes locked onto the face of her dead sister, half-hoping she wasn’t mad at Kiona and half-hoping she was.
Tears blurred her vision but when she reached up to wipe them away, Dora wasn’t there anymore. Trys and Ike came into view and she looked around, alarmed, and found herself in the cabin. It took another couple of seconds for her to gather her surroundings and to realize that she had been dreaming.
The intense emotions slowly started to recede and Kiona was left with an emptiness in their wake. She truly didn’t know what to say. The fog started to clear and she remembered seeing Dora, yelling at her, but not much else. Based on the looks of their faces, she was willing to make an educated guess that it was her screams that brought them to her room.
“I’m fine,” She said flatly, even though it was obvious she wasn’t, “Just a bad dream.”
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Post by Val on Apr 28, 2020 0:51:07 GMT
Ike tensed as Kiona sobbed incoherently at them, half expecting her to mutate back into the wolf. He reached for the place where his weapons were usually holstered, and realized rather quickly that he still hadn't rearmed himself. He was allowing himself to be far too distracted, and that was unacceptable. Feeling Trys fall into place behind him, he instinctively shielded her with his body and backed up a step, pressing her back toward the door.
The defensive reaction was short lived, however, as Kiona appeared to fully awake from the nightmare and begin to calm down. Ike exhaled impatiently and relaxed his shoulders, his expression revealing no sympathy for the bad dreams. If Trys wanted to comfort the princess, fine, but he was done doing that tonight, "Get back to sleep, then. We leave tomorrow."
Without another word, he turned away from Kiona and brushed past Trys as he made his way out into the living room, his demeanor suddenly cold. He needed to focus and Trys was making that very difficult. As much as he wanted to curse Kiona for ruining their moment, he decided that he should be grateful for the interruption. His mind was clear, and he needed it to stay that way.
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Post by Elvander on May 1, 2020 23:44:34 GMT
As Ike backed away, Trys lingered a moment longer. "I can make you a herbal tea to help you sleep. It will quell the nightmares," she offered. If Kiona refused, Trys would leave her and go to bed and pack for the journey. It occurred to her that they still had to come up with a plan for keeping Kiona contained at the next full moon, if they hadn't found a solution by then.
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Post by starrea on May 5, 2020 23:47:02 GMT
Kiona didn’t have the energy to glare at Ike as he stomped out. She cast Trys a tired look but shook her head, “No, thank you though.” She murmured. She knew she wasn’t going to be able to go back to sleep - she knew the image of her dead sister’s head caved in waited for when she closed her eyes.
She pulled the covers up and settled back down, rolling over so she was facing away from the door. She wasn’t going to sleep but she didn’t want to be around Trys or Ike either.
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Post by Val on May 6, 2020 23:08:26 GMT
Ike exhaled heavily as he entered the living room, finally putting some distance between himself and the women. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed his crossbow leaning against the wall where Trys had left it after besting him. With a bemused shake of his head, he picked it up and was about to settle onto the couch when he heard scratching at the door. He approached skeptically, though he had a strong feeling he knew what lay on the other side. Swinging the front door open, he was met with the pathetic sight that was his shivering mutt. Hound whimpered and greeted him with endless excitement despite his obvious exhaustion. With a sigh, he led the dog inside and wrapped him in a blanket before finally landing on the couch, "Good dog," he muttered, allowing the dog to curl up beside him. Feeling a renewed sense of purpose being united with his tracker and his weapon, he allowed his eyes to close, vowing that he would not make the same mistakes tomorrow.
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Post by Elvander on May 13, 2020 1:55:16 GMT
Trys awoke the next morning after a fitful rest of blood and flashing teeth. She had packed before she slept, and was ready to set out to find someone to take Kiona off her hands. Dressing in the early morning winter light, Trys layered herself up in warm clothes and slung her pack over her shoulder, her bow and quiver over the other. She redid the braids along the side of her head, which kept the strands out of her eyes, while allowing the rest of it to fall freely down her shoulders. She laced her boots and grabbed her double sided spear, taking a breath before she stepped into the hallway and into the living room where Ike had slept. She smiled a bit when she noticed Hound, glad that he had survived Kiona's fangs. She nudged Ike with the tip of her spear, trying to wake him.
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Post by starrea on May 14, 2020 18:32:48 GMT
Kiona hadn’t slept the rest of the night. Every time she closed her eyes, her dead sister’s face was there to greet her. Time passed incredibly slowly and Kiona wasn’t sure what she dreaded more - the coming morning or the inevitability that she was going to have to eventually sleep. Several hours after Trys and Ike had barged into her room and the house was silent, she figured they were asleep and the window offered a tempting escape. She thought about it, truly thought about it, but Ike’s warning kept coming back to her. Running right now wasn’t the smart choice, not when she had no supplies and nowhere to go.
Anyway, it would be much harder for Ike to manage her while traveling. If things started to go south, Kiona could always pull a disappearing act on him. He hadn’t been too hard to evade while on the run and she was confident that now that she was fed and semi-rested and headed towards a warmer climate, he would be left chasing a ghost.
She felt herself start to nod off at one point and she forced herself to start to plan possible getaways; she knew a fair bit about poisonous plants but her most obvious advantage was her ability to scale up tall and dangerous climbs that most people couldn’t. She wasn’t sure Ike knew that about her but she was counting on his ignorance. She doubted that brute of a man could even climb a tree, let alone scale it with the grace and speed she could.
By the time the morning sun shone through her window, Kiona was repeating to herself that she could do it. She had been repeating it for the last hour so at that point but it was the only thing that was keeping the sleep and desire to run at bay. She heard one of them wake up and start to move around but Kiona still hadn’t moved. She knew that Ike would probably still fight her on her one request and she wasn’t looking forward to the fight that was about to happen. Suddenly, she regretted not taking the opportunity to disappear into wilderness last night.
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Post by Val on May 15, 2020 2:06:24 GMT
Ike had no trouble sleeping through the night, allowing exhaustion to plunge him into a hibernating state. He would rather had been caught dead than cuddling peacefully with his dog, but he had regrettably overslept. In response to Trys' prodding, he immediately launched upright and reached for the crossbow he had propped up against the couch, arming himself before even bothering to register that it was Trys standing over him.
He scowled at her and rubbed a hand over his face in exasperation. He had promised himself to focus from here on out, but had already been caught in the most vulnerable state imaginable. "Watch where you're pointing that thing," he criticized, pushing her spear away. Even though it wasn't personal by any means, he couldn't help but bristle at her for no apparent reason. Hound, on the other hand, appeared more than happy to be woken up by the woman who had fed him.
Shoving the dog off the couch, Ike stood up and brushed past Trys, casting a look down the hallway, "You didn't check on her?" Without waiting for a response, he bellowed down the hall, "Princess!" He began a countdown in his head and if she didn't respond in some way he would waste no time plowing her door down. As much as he wanted to believe he'd gotten through to Kiona, he wondered if she had run after all.
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Post by Elvander on May 19, 2020 22:54:13 GMT
Trys rolled her eyes at Ike's gruff reception. Clearly not a morning person. She put her spear aside and knelt to stroke Hound's ears, glad to see that he'd made it back. "Hey boy. You hungry?" she cooed to him and rose, going to the kitchen area to find whatever was left over. She fed the dog some cold stew and packed the rest of her food supplies- bread, jerky, and several kinds of root that didn't taste good, but could be eaten for strength and stamina. She munched on an apple as Ike checked on Kiona. For some reason, Trys was sure Kiona would have stayed throughout the night.
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Post by starrea on May 22, 2020 18:50:50 GMT
Kiona heard Ike thundering down the hallway and she grit her teeth. It was one thing to accept that Ike was going to watch her closely, but it another to actually experience the lack of freedom and it was already grating in her nerves. If she had just gone out the window, she wouldn’t be here right now.
Kiona considered not calling out to him just to be spiteful but she wanted to delay any interactions with him and Trys for as long as possible.
“Calm the fuck down, I’m still here!” She called loud enough that she hoped he heard her through the door. She prayed that it was enough to pacify him for the moment and he would go do other things for awhile. She knew she would have to face them, and reality, soon, but she was going to put it off for as long as they let her.
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Post by Val on May 27, 2020 2:23:40 GMT
Ike remained standing rigidly in the hallway until he finally heard Kiona's voice. He was pleasantly surprised by her cooperation and felt his initial stress start to ebb, leaving a trace of guilt for how he'd greeted Trys. Sighing, he took his time before reappearing back in the living room to find his dog lapping up a perfectly good bowl of stew. It was difficult to hide his obvious disapproval, especially as his stomach voiced a protest, but he attempted to do so. He was quite used to going long periods of time without eating, but he preferred to eat like a bear preparing for hibernation.
He studied the provisions she had gathered before his eyes landed on the apple as she brought it to her lips, "Your couch was comfortable," he commented, half as an attempt to make up for his rudeness, and half because he wanted to find out if she had expected him to return to her bedroom last night instead.
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Post by Elvander on Jun 1, 2020 22:37:21 GMT
Trys chewed her mouthful as Ike returned to the living room and smiled at him, seeing through his nonchalance. "I'm glad you found it acceptable," she responded, giving nothing away with her answer, though there was a glimmer in her eyes. "A good night's sleep is important before a long journey." A good night's sleep he could have had, with satisfaction to boot. Trys motioned to the cauldron still sitting on the hearth over the cold coals from the night before. "There's food left, if you like." She leaned against the wall, taking another bite of the apple as she studied him. Had he wanted to rejoin her?
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Post by starrea on Sept 3, 2020 0:50:17 GMT
Kiona made no move to get out of bed. It was warm and comfortable and if she closed her eyes, she could pretend that her life hadn't completely gone to shit - but then she opened her eyes and forced to face the cruel joke her life had become. Her mind wandered, playing through possible scenarios featuring the trek they were about to embark upon. None of them were pleasant. The more she thought about it, the more anxious she became. She didn't want to just lay here and wait for Ike to formally take her as a prisoner, but she couldn't see another way out.
It was really inconvenient that she apparently had the ability to turn into a fearsome, bloodthirsty beast but was unable to do so when she needed to. Unfortunately, besides folklore depicting tales of horror, Kiona hadn't learned much about werewolves. She thought she had heard somewhere very long ago that the transformation could be triggered by events other than a full moon, but she had no idea if that was the least bit true or not. It seemed not, because Kiona assumed she had never shifted other than the middle of the night. Still, despite her heavy prejudices against people with unnatural abilities and beasts of the night, she wished she had a better understanding and more control over the part of her that she hadn't even known existed.
She still didn't know she was going to deal with Ike. Traveling with Trys was a gamble, especially since it was just another pair of eyes that would watch her, but there was also the possibility that without her, Ike would just drag her back to Grovakha. The more she tried to figure out which path was best, the more she realized that there was no easy choice. It made her feel small and she couldn't help but wish for the guidance of her parents - they would know what to do. But her parents were gone and Kiona was alone, just a child making decisions with life-or-death consequences and discovering that everything she knew about herself was a lie.
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