"That, feels better" The winds drew in quaint breaths here, a shallow breeze wafting over town as she brushed a stray strand of hair from her face. It was late afternoon, sunset neared as the skies above were tainted a deep hue of gold and myriad maroons, the clouds tinged in that similarity and so were the valleys below. Travels shrouded by the night fascinated her the most although they seemed instinctively out of the question, far from simply unpleasant it was a deep seated displeasure at the idea much less the concept. The beastly part of her—of them wasn't a night creature after all, forcing herself to do what was necessary, however, wasn't too difficult although the novelty of some things waned when it felt it like a betrayal of your own nature. She hated that, sometimes in fact, she wondered if the human part of her even mattered. There was more beast than man after all…
Turning as clunking footsteps drew her attention elsewhere, Gohlm stopped just ahead of her, a hand raising a small pair of wooden binoculars to his helmet with a huff, a silent musing at the time it'd take to get back home perhaps. Following his gaze ahead, vast swaths of towering green hills overlapping one another across the stretching valleys, spanned into oblivion. From the horizons, the mountains continued, the greenery was breathtaking; honestly, it was a wonder why Benedict had been struggling to gather any visitors thus far, the views were stunning. "It's a long walk until we're off foot" He mumbled, noting where the valley's bent and covered the path ahead behind the rolling mountains as she sighed, for all she hated about it, there was a lot less energy spent in flying, maybe it was the illusion of having her feet off the ground that it felt like less work—it didn't matter, she hated walking when flying felt that much easier anyway.
"I really hate this hiding thing sometimes" she lamented as Gohlm lowered the binoculars, "The alternative is turning into an overnight study and that's the best case scenario"
"No one's that interested in dragons"
"Of course they are, they're all dead, remember?" It was eons ago really, the last time anyone saw the things anyway. If books, statues, corpses and stories hadn't spoken of their existence enough times to bleed the ears then the term might've very well have lost its way through time, and to some extent, perhaps it had. 'Beast', 'cataclysm', 'daemons', 'gods' that's what they'd called them. The past had blurred so much that the term 'Dragon' never felt so unfitting, they waged wars for them after all. When the world was so bereft of divinity, it was easy to cling to anything that somewhat resembled it. A dangerous world that was, worship, sacrifice, wars led on the whimsical desires of unbothered beasts. "I rephrase, no one should be that interested in them"
"Indeed, the world's got enough things to worry about. It's best to prioritize what's more important"
"So we're flying?" He turned around and tossed her the binoculars, tilting his head at the request "Maybe we should finally get you some shoes before we leave"
She frowned, scoffing at him as she stepped back, "I like my freedom"
"Barefoot is freedom?" Stuffing the binoculars on her side and nodding alongside a shrug as she turned to scale down the hill, she glanced over her shoulder before she left "'Course it is, just like Theia intended"
"Right…obviously she did and is there any reason why you're running?!" He shouted after her, sighing whilst stepping forward and scaling down the hill moments later in hot pursuit. She was nimble off of her feet, daring enough that she leapt off of the dozen or so meters left until they hit the ground with the assurance that her body could live with it; it always did. Grumbling at that boast, he leapt forward as well, barely managing half the distance and landing with a small grunt and a crunch of rock, slowly pulling himself up as she jogged ahead a little, "The faster we get there, the better, c'mon"
He groaned, "We could stroll our way there, since when were you so fervent on your feet?" she continued ahead anyway, widening the gap as he grumbled, one good meal and suddenly they could take on the world.
𖤓
The nights were deep, vast and filled with a calm stillness that wasn't silence to be exact but far from lively; a subtlety to it that felt as though the world had let go of a breath it never realized it had held. The cool winds seemed to accentuate that, a gentle breeze beneath the stars, white specks along violet arms, gaseous in nature illuminating the world below, the greens of the valleys beneath them had already melded to dark swaths of varying mounds rolling below them like rippling waves. In the dark, from this high up any details were lost on her, if the rolling hills ended somewhere then it was easy to miss it. Glancing back a few minutes later as Gohlm called, pointing ahead of him into the darkness, "There's a lake in a clearing up ahead, we can set up camp nearby" she focused back ahead, folding her wings before they dove.
Dirt and debris kicked up as they landed through snapping canopies whilst hurtling their way towards solid ground, a silent a comet in the night, her legs shot forward as they made contact with the ground and dug in whilst they skidded through the undergrowth as though it were made of ice; a short lived experience before they'd come to rest against a stump with a small thud, a trail of destruction left in their wake. Mounting off a moment later with a clink of the bag along his waist, the trees they'd toppled over in their sharp descent laid splayed across the floor where their wide canopies couldn't shroud the ground any longer, quaint light from the stars above now able to trickle in where he took a small look around from where he stood just as Val took a moment to transform back again, a wave of rushing heat and flame that quickly dissipated before he'd assessed their surroundings and looked back.
"Alright?" She nodded, it'd been about two or so hours since they'd flown under the cover of the night. Not long but a subconscious dislike of the fact made it that much more of a hassle to continue on, it was great that they'd found a place to call it a night before then. Stretching her arms as she commented, "I can't tell if I'm tired or not"
"I am, the lake should be this way" He stepped forward, stopping just before where the trees continued again, tall and dense; overlapping leaves and branches encasing the path ahead in total darkness. Staring into that abyss, he glanced at her, a small pause before she'd realized his gaze was on her, raising an open palm as she stepped forward into the dark and amber sparks flickered across her palm before a ball of bright flames lit the path ahead.
There was a small clearing past the dense foliage, where the starlight washed through and laid eyes upon the world below and its reflection stared back at them. Soft ground accompanied by a dazzling bed of wild flowers brightened with fireflies at their disturbance, where they stopped moving just short of the lake ahead, pitch dark waters faintly rippling at the quaint winds. They'd found the edge where the waters covered more of the ground around them although the clearing itself was wide, moving around and further up was the rest of it, rising up a small little slope into slightly higher ground. Extinguishing the flames with a clench of her fists, he stared ahead, already designating the location of their sleeping quarters when he heard a thud, turning to find the saddle over her back had been tossed to the ground and she was currently undoing her clothes. Feeling his gaze soon after, she paused and turned to him, raising an incredulous brow, "Are you joining?"
There was a short moment of silence as though considering it, broken rather quickly when he'd started walking up the lake instead, opting to travel to more generous doses of land; "Suit yourself!" she shouted over his shoulder as he waved her off, a splash of water resonating from behind him as he retreated into the wilderness. Fireflies brightened this part of the clearing too, fluttering off blades of grass as he stepped towards the edge of it, where the darkness took hold again and the wilderness continued. "Here should be good" he mumbled to himself, he'd set a fire going, there weren't any dangerous animals they couldn't take care of nearby so the risk was minimal. Resting his hand on the pummel, he stared over at a decently large tree, a small gust of wind blowing the grass back as strength rushed into him like a rising tide. Swordsmanship wasn't his strong suit although he'd never started with it anyway, he was a mage before anything else, an augmenter to be precise. As swiftly as the strength had come, the sword rang free, a streaking blur of shimmering silver beneath the night striking the oaken trunk faster than the eye could witness it and slashing it in two; a clean cut splitting it through its base. "Well…" Creaking wood met his ears as the tree groaned, tilting over as it fell; "It's pointless if I just resort to this isn't it?" he glanced at the blade, a resounding crash echoing across the woodlands as he did.
{Cold, this is nice} She sank, letting the water submerge her neck and then her face, halfway in just to let her eyes peer over the surface. It was nice, cooling off like this. "There's at least one thing, this body won't nag me about…" She sighed, a small chuckle filling her head, {You say it like you're not used to it, stay away from this form of ours long enough and there'd be no telling the difference; except, perhaps, that dragons never spoke}. "That's not funny…" She growled, deep down however and those words rang true. They could influence their baser instincts—suppress them to a degree but they couldn't avoid them entirely, the only thing human about them was their minds after all. Body and heart…they were beast. Starlight shimmered off of the darkness, rippling with the currents responding to her movements, even beneath the subtle gaze of distant stars, vast and numerous yet their light unable to sear the world alight as their sun could—too far to do so but still enough that her jewelry shimmered; the gold did, dazzling beneath the light of the stars.
She'd never been one for that kind of stuff in the past, accessories like that never moved her as much as they did to others. A lack of love for shiny things although apart from the sentimental she'd found little point in them. That'd changed over the years, subtle since she'd turned and then overbearing as it had grown. The desire was insatiable, suffocating like an unrelenting tide, she was drawn to them, a moth to a flame—the scent of it caressing her nostrils and the beauty of them too grand to put into words. Suppressing it to a certain degree wasn't difficult, as were many parts she'd deigned as alien, but it wasn't easy either. The mere fact she wore it so proudly like brilliant medals was a testament to the precarious nature of that struggle, inwardly she questioned mockingly, what had they found so enrapturing about them anyway? Was it that their blood was no different or had they grown so close to it that by some mystical shenanigans, at least one part of themselves had started to bear a striking resemblance to it?
A subtle frown creased her soft features, unconsciously catching a glimpse of her ring finger as she splayed her hand above the waters where the autumn gemstones caught the distant light; the gold shimmering just as much as any part of her jewelry did and that frown seemed to soften, slightly, ever so slightly. {There's one thing to be happy about, a sense of normalcy isn't it? What beast knows of marriage let alone understands it?}
"You think they didn't?"
She heard him scoff, {Don't tell me you actually believe those things were gods, no, I know you don't, we share the same mind after all}
Laughing at the joke, she leaned her head back, letting it bob above the depths whilst she stared into the night; A face unreadable, melting into something a little more somber. "They fought like we do, they killed like we do, they razed things to the ground in a single breath. Great destroyers.." She chuckled but there was no mirth behind it, empty as though to steady herself more than anything, "…I love what we do, Gale, for a long time I think that's what's kept us whole, a choice we made and that made us feel normal in a way but the changes never stopped—never got any better" She was silent for a moment, "Sometimes…sometimes I feel as though that in some twisted way of actions we've just continued to emulate them, it's probably unavoidable with what we are. To a human this is all a job, muscles for hire with no further consequences than that but for a beast like us…it's freedom, the smallest allowance to indulge in that part of ourselves we try not to otherwise. Maybe we've been cultivating that—that thing, all along…and I don't want to...I don't want it to swallow us whole…"
{…Retirement will give you that, more humanity?}
"…Maybe" There was a note to that as though hoping that were true and in that small exchange, the not so still silence of the night filled the faded dribbles of their conversation with the sounds of buzzing insects and the subtle winds, the water by her ears and then the echoing crash of falling timber alongside snapping branches crashing to the ground with a resounding boom. A moment later, she felt Gale's grin, {You know what is certain? How you've hogged an invaluable amount of time all to yourself with our dearest}
"Hogged?!" She snorted, "You wanted no part of this adventure, remember? Found it boring"
{I have realized the error of my ways} He spoke rather coolly, a hint of something else that she couldn't quite pinpoint and couldn't really care to either, {Rest now, I'll handle the rest}
"Right, real smooth" She scoffed but didn't argue the suggestion, there was logic to that and honestly she was rather tempted to have some shut eye to herself so her eyes closed and her body relaxed ever so slightly, allowing herself to pass over the reigns.
Not long after, the fallen oak now stood a little more tattered than a simple tree cut down at its base. Slightly more bare than when it'd stood tall and rigid, thinner too if not by much. Chopping a sizeable amount of branches and pieces of timber from its trunk had left the thing a sorry sight of unquestionably unprofessional jagged cuts and uneven missing chunks sprawled across the ground so unashamedly, not that the elegance of it really mattered much although for the mere fact that the rest of the thing would be wasted after sunrise when they'd rested and the warm radiance of sunlight could light the rest of their way home, it really was a shame it had to leave like this. The sword he'd used in all his work stood embedded in the ground, unsheathing it and sheathing it an unnecessary redundancy when he was constantly using it but it needed someplace to sit during the brief moments outside of that duty.
Huffing slightly as he stretched an arm and rubbed a part of his back, the bruise Val had soothed ages ago still making itself known, he went to bringing each piece of the wooden chunks to the middle of the vast part of the clearing to where he'd start the fire. Somewhere a little deeper into the woods and he'd collected a few rocks that'd keep the fire in place, forming a ring were the logs were positioned, crossing over one another and interlocking in a crude little pyramid. There was a small gap in the middle where he'd allowed for it to toss the more easily flammable things, twigs, dead leaves, and the odd few dry pieces of grass. By the time the hole had stacked up to what he felt might get the logs going once he'd started a flame, the obviously glaring issue was that…he'd tediously have to make one. Grumbling at the fact, it was the rustling of faint footsteps that quickly caught his attention, not looking up from his gaze firmly set upon the unlit campfire whilst fixing a piece, "Val, just in time, I would've thought you'd be absent a little longer"
He slowly stood, lifting his gaze where they landed on Val—no, hair still an autumn crimson but it was different, cut and a little shorter. Perhaps some of the rest of it existed in the falling braids beside their head sitting there like a set of bangs, their height hadn't left them nor had anything else, maybe the added leanness or the shape of their face but really it was that—"I wouldn't like to think your silence is disappointment?"
Tilting his head at the comment as he shook the thought off, he shrugged, "Actually, I was wondering when you'd found the time to change it up like that, it suits you"
The compliment didn't seem to faze them, on the surface that was, it was easy to catch the slight twitch of their ears or the small grin on their face that they suppressed with great effort. Realizing the effect, Gale sighed, "Nice one, you're awfully good at that" Gohlm shrugged as Gale took a step forward—towards the soon to be fireplace and regarded it for a moment before placing a hand where the easily flammable shrubs filled the blocked up hole, not a moment later, a flash of amber from his palm lit the first few twigs jutting out of the opening in bright crackling flames popping with flying embers, bringing those flickering scarlet tendrils inward towards the rest of them inside and spreading them quickly until a small fire had started from within where smoke bellowed through narrow gaps between them; they'd have a proper fire going in no time, he thought with a stretch of his arm.
"By the way, is the only distinction that you can tell between us is the fact that Val has boobs?"
He blinked, scoffing as he glanced off to the side "…Nonsense, the two of you sound awfully different" a half truth really, there was a gentleness to Val's, smooth and warm yet firm in a manner that didn't allow for one to easily mishear them. If he could describe it any better in words then a refreshing breeze at the wake of dawn, gusty but fully welcomed. Gale on the other hand was a finer sorts, cool with no real texture behind it, ghostly if he could be more precise; there was little need for any firmness, warmth or smoothness, it traveled regardless. The lie came in the fact that truly separating the two would be difficult, in some weird way that seemed to work, whether Val or Gale, you could hear them both if you tried your hardest to truly do so. They were one, both man and women, an androgynous melody that seemed to only change through the illusion of a different face on it and how each of them decided to use it.
"That's not what caught your attention"
"Trust that it was" He rolled his eyes, planting himself on the ground in front of the growing flames as Gohlm turned back to the fallen oak, after thinking about it, sitting on the ground with no back rest sounded mightily uncomfortable. Returning to the tree and where his sword lay in the ground, he yanked the piece of dull steel and stepped towards the battered bark as he lifted the glinting metal, bringing it down with a swift swing of his blade; cutting two logs for them both. Dragging one log with a huff and a tired grunt, he returned to the campfire a little later and planted it down on the ground behind Gale. Sighing as he dragged his own opposite where he sat, the scarlet eyed tease couldn't help but mutter whilst leaning back against the log, "Wearing all that armour is probably what's making it so tedious, is there a need to have it on so much?"
The log landed with a dull thud, a gust disturbing the flames as his gaze turned towards him, "Indefinitely prepared for battle, a force of habit really. There was this one time I slept unarmoured and caught the ruthless wrath of a wild boar-cat, a painful memory I must say but a lesson nonetheless"
Gale sighed between an amused smile, closing his eyes whilst his head rested against the wood and stared up into the night sky "One bad experience and now you're paranoid," he sighed, a small chuckle escaping his lips before he'd opened his eyes again, staring at the stars now although this time they were a bit blotted; clouds having rolled in from the east, peppered along the sky like a passing herd, detached but single minded, there'd be clear skies to come still. Gohlm planted himself against the log moments later, a clatter and a plunk followed by a brief silence before Gale spoke again, "Thrand once told me that when he'd first met you, he and Tenma once thought you were some beast-man trying to pass as human, maybe some wandering orc instead"
He snorted, "You should've seen them back when they'd started, Thrand especially, if only they'd had camera's back then"
"You'd never hear the end of it if you had a photo of that"
"An annoyance worth enduring" They laughed, the crackling of the flames heightening with a passing breeze, dying down a little later as he shifted from where he sat, resting his head more comfortably against the wood, the skies were clearing again and letting the distant radiance of the stars wash over them once more; "That's to say, that they've never seen you out of that armour either…" he trailed off.
Gohlm was silent for a little while, staring into the flames that even this close, couldn't pierce the shadows beyond the knightly helm. Caught in that silence a little longer than he had intended, he shifted and sat upright, staring over and resting an arm on his leg, "Tell me then, what creature do you think I am? Beast, daemon..fae maybe"
Gale scoffed, there was barely a need to guess, "Human, you smell just like them"
"Ah" He shook his head, "What can't you sense"
Keeping his gaze on the flames, a calm silence nestled its way between them again; familiar and yet awkward, he couldn't put a finger on why. Still transfixed upon the stars, Gale closed his eyes again, relaxing ever more if he could, the sounds of the crackling flames and the buzzing hums of scattered insects taking over his senses through the darkness. It was only after a minute or two of that silence, where their conversations naturally waned as they lulled themselves to sleep that that silence was broken again, "I can't smell other metals, I'm blind to them entirely…" he opened his eyes, "You're not wearing enough of it that I can't tell what you are but…it's enough that I can't distinguish you amongst a crowd"
Dragons had a keen sense of many things, scents were one of them, as good as any predator and especially well tailored towards precious gold, apart from that however and what other need did they have to sense anything else; specifically pathetic metals they had no desires for? Beyond simply being unable to smell it—sense it perhaps, their nose's ignored the existence of them entirely. It was to a point that if they were to be blindfolded and placed in a room entirely made of iron, steel or anything else and it'd be no different than empty space, no light, no smell; perhaps just the sound of her heaving breaths. He shifted, Gohlm's expression unreadable from beyond the flames, "That…sounds like something I should've known"
Gale laughed, "It's rarely an issue"
"Really? The city must be suffocating"
"Barely, there's food and there's people. It's not like all I have is a sense of smell" He joked as Gohlm leaned back, "Still, it's a significant thing" he let out a breath, "And here we are engaged…is this the part where we spill each others little secrets?"
Gale lifted his head tentatively, mustering a look of slightly mellowed curiosity, as hard as that was to accomplish, "Will you?"
The man stared for a moment, resting their head against the wood too, "I have my reasons…" Gale frowned, glancing away for a moment before he continued, "But…there is one thing I think is a little glaringly unfair to let it stay the way it has" he paused, lured by the light of the stars too now, "My home"
At the mention of that, Gale's attention spun, whipping his head in their direction. Before he'd known it, faster than he could really well perceive it, Gale had already crossed the short distance between them; the only notion that there'd been any movement at all were the embers kicked up from the flickering flames disturbed at their wake. Staring now where empty space had been and was now occupied by an over-eager dragon pointing a sparkling pair of ruby slits in his direction where he was practically close to being on top of him, a faint rustle in the grass at their tail slowly sweeping the soft ground and he couldn't help but raise an amused brow, "Surely you're not that interested?" he teased.
Expecting a witty response in retaliation or a practiced act of sudden disinterest, he was pleasantly surprised and caught completely off-guard, for what he wouldn't have guessed was for his silent partner to take a rather prominent seat in front of him, eyes still fixated on him—softened now by that promise of a secret. Staring at that scene, transfixed on one another for a moment seemingly locked in time, he broke it first, glancing away from those ruby gems with a groan, "Splendid, that's awfully effective" there was no gloat and no response that came afterwards, somehow he was used to that right now as he sighed and let his gaze wander to the ground beneath him, a particularly strong breeze gusting forth this time and fanning the flames as they stirred. "Far to the West, there's a village…a town far detached from the. rest of the world living near the rivers spilling into the dark sea…where the land sits atop jagged rock and ever spanning swaths of dark greenery.." he paused for a moment, as though trying to recall the memory, "Ahead of them lays a mountain, tall and battered, covered from its peak to bottom by an unceasing natural overgrowth, roots, vines, moss and wild flowers that hadn't managed to swallow it whole just yet, a towering green peak in the distance, ancient and imposing…from that distance its empty sockets stared at them from the horizons, the great skull of a dragon…"
There was silence that permeated and was swiftly eradicated where his gaze still sat fixated on the ground whilst Gale asked, "What were they like?"
He blinked. What were they like? Gohlm wondered, contemplating the question and searching a discarded mess of enshrouded memories for a decent answer. Eventually he found one, warmer than he would've thought it could be, "Vibrant, loud, a celebratory bunch that worshiped the land that gave them freedom in those plain isles…nothing like myself" there was a tone in that that changed, small and imperceptible as though remembering something from a distant past as Gale tilted his head, "I like yourself" he felt the need to mention, pleasantly satisfied at the sudden silence that followed; for all the armour hid, it made behavior that more telling, easily noticeable—just like how when really flattered, an impenetrable silent act seemed his best way to really indulge in that. Amused, Gale continued, "…what did they look like?"
The question brought him back, contemplating it for a while before suddenly amused at something as he chuckled, a small chuckle before he answered, "Tall, imposing but in a graceful manner…not exactly barbarians although at some point I'd questioned if there was some shared ancestry in that regard"
Gale laughed, "There goes the mystery of that frightening physique of yours"
He frowned at that, "I'm not frightening"
Gale nodded sagely, "Of course"
"I was the smallest of the bunch even"
"My, you only get bigger from here?" He scoffed, shaking his head at the comment as Gale smiled at him, a warm one that wasn't unlike the flames that crackled to the burning wood or the gentle winds. There was something new they'd learned of each other, that felt weird to say, felt weird to even imagine. They'd known each other for over a decade, had been together now for over half of that. It seemed preposterous, comical even that something like this had taken so long to accomplish and yet it didn't feel all that unnatural to accomplish even this late. Seated there in a silence that felt a little more comfortable, serene now too, he asked again, "Do you ever wish to visit it some time?"
Gohlm flinched, silence permeating once more. Visiting his homeland...he frowned at it, that was.. "They admired strength, will, whatever it is that moved you forward...if one truly desired it then they could leave…graduate from that solitude across the isles and never return. I won't go back"
His gaze still fixed on the ground, thoughts quietly swimming in a head that fought to contain them, sink them bank to the lightless depths where they'd been buried—where they belonged although once you opened one gate, it was difficult to stop the flow of a rushing tide. Preoccupied in that unstable struggle, it was more than simple enough for two firm arms to get a grasp of him all of a sudden, pulling him in gently into a tight embrace. Yanking the brooding knight into his arms, cradling him more than anything; surprise etched itself behind the helm although unsurprisingly he offered little resistance in the matter. After a minute more of that sudden intimacy, he nodded beside his head, "I think I'll take charge from here on"
"That's not happening."
"Huh?!" He pulled Gohlm off, shaking him at what he could only assume was a deadpan expression staring from beyond the helmet, "Val's been up for days, that's monopolizing!"
Gohlm stared, raising a concerned brow, "Between the two of you, there's only one that's nearly crashed into an airship"
"That was one time!"
"One time too many"
He huffed, "Airships don't even fly around here…"
"So you're admitting that we're only safe in their absence?"
Gale groaned.