A Welcomed Friend [Hex]

[Vanator]

The culmination of their carnal efforts wracked Vanator's body with spasms, subsiding to occasional twitches as Hex deftly worked Van until he was emptied. Their frantic motions eased, glistening bodies slowing to an final halt. After the echo of the mingled male and female impassioned cries faded, the only sounds were the babbling of the stream and the panting of the lovers. Vanator felt as exhausted as Hex looked, not that it made her any less beautiful. In fact, she had never appeared so young and glorious as she did then. He welcomed her as she drifted down to his torso. Hex's head rose and fell on Vanator's heaving chest as he sought to gain his breath. One hand moved to lightly caress the lean muscles of her back while the other stroked her long drying mane. Turning his head slightly, he kissed her head several times. The last shudders of his release ceased within her, and every muscle in Van's body relaxed deeply. Hex's breathing deepened and slowed as she drifted off, lulling the Drykas into a lazy peace. Van focused on only a few sensations. Of course he reveled in the flush of contentment that followed the incredible experience of giving himself totally to Hex. There was the ache of his wound, dulled by her medications, the waning fever, the rich aroma of Hex in his nostrils and the comforting press of her body resting on his. The man sighed in abject happiness. Backlash came up behind the humans, snuffling Van's hair. He laughed quietly, trying not to wake Hex. The mare mussed with the sleeping woman's hair as well, her telltale sign of approval. Van looked up at the Strider, her big brown eyes so intelligent that at times it unnerved him. He spoke to her in hushed Pavi. "Thank you for bring her to me, dear." The animal simply shook its head, as if to say it was only her duty. Backlash's gaze lifted up to scan the grassland around them. Van pressed one more kiss against Hex's head, then let his own eyes slip shut. Soon the young woman rose and fell with the deep, even breathing of the sleeping man. Meanwhile, the diligent Strider kept watch over the slumbering, entwined humans.

[Hex]

Two bells passed before Hex woke with a start at the touch of a breeze on the sweaty cheek she had exposed to the wind when she shifted the muscles of her neck. A shiver broke over Hex's skin and she felt the crackling of dried perspiration that flaked on her skin. Hex rose up onto her hands over Vanator, her eyes darting across his face and marveling at the strong facial features of his jaw and high cheeks. His lips were red and swollen from their kissing - a common fate for those she twisted tongues with, she bit and sucked to no end when the passionate elements were in play. His hair lay along the ground around his face and it occurred to her then just how much more handsome he was with his hair out of his face. Although she couldn't see them then, his golden eyes picked up the sun bleached hair that marked his hairline, and he reminded her for a moment of the dunes of Ekytol and the feeling of being home sick came and went; it was the land she missed more than her tribe. In an effort to wake him, she raised up from laying flat and stretched her arms, letting out a yawn and bouncing lightly on his lap. The fluids they shared had to be washed and as she waited for him to become alert and ready to jump in the chilly river again, she drained the bloody water from the kettle they brought and rinsed it out before filling it up again to be boiled at the fire. She slipped in first, letting her body sink beneath the rushing water that splashed around her shoulders. With a cupped hand she raised water to her face and rubbed at her cheeks, dislodging the salt on her skin from their lovemaking. The top portion of her hair remained dry while the ends of her locks lay wet and plastered on her skin as she emerged from the river. The small towel she had brought was used to dry herself off and she wrung out the remaining liquid from her ripped up shirt. She didn't mind walking back to camp naked, or even being naked at all, but clothing served an important purpose and she was hopeful that Vanator had an extra linen shirt on hand - preferably one that smelled of him.

[Vanator]

Van's return to consciousness was slow and relaxed. He first noticed the cooling of the skin on his chest, the sweat evaporating as Hex's awakening exposed it to the cool spring breeze. His eyes cracked open only a slit as the girl squirmed pleasantly on him, and he peeked at her beautiful form as she lazily stretched. Van watched the healer walk to the stream until she was out of view from his position. He turned his head slightly to catch her rinsing the pot. With great admiration the Drykas watched Hex wash herself. She moved with a natural, almost feral grace. Hex's features were always serious, not strained, but sincere. It was the face of a woman who seemed always diligent for signs of danger, or the unnatural. Now, there was a strong softness he had never noticed. It inspired a desire to touch her chin, her cheeks, even the slope of her nose. After she dried off, Vanator finally propped himself up onto his elbows, noting a tightness but much less pain in his wounded arm. His head no longer swam with fever. He grinned at Hex. "I feel much better. Much better." He shifted a little, feeling the grit sticking to the sweat on his back, and the stickiness that covered his groin. The Drykas moved slowly to his feet, stepping into the cold river. A wince slipped out as he submerged his waist below the cool water and splashed a cascade over his chest and back. He rubbed the dirt and sweat from his face, then his arms. Emerging from the stream, Van simply swiped off the moisture from his body with his hands, dabbing the rest off with his tunic. Hex did not seem in a hurry to dress, and he was perfectly fine with that. Stepping near Hex, he satisfied his need to touch her, taking her chin gently in his hand and pressing his lips to hers. His mouth still tingled from the affectionate abuse Hex had given his lips during lovemaking. "Let's get back to camp." He suggested. The Strider sidled up to the couple, allowing Van to rub her nose. He laughed. "I think we will walk Backlash." Riding the mare bare back and naked did not sound comfortable.

[Hex]

A breeze galloped across her skin, sending a cascade of goosebumps over her flesh as she succumbed to the chilled air. Her body puckered reactively, and her senses became ignited as the distant sounds of territorial glassbeaks riveted through the air. From the distance they were at, perhaps Vanator's trained grassland ears could pick up the sound, but Hex noticed sounds and movements that came from outlandish sources. She was used to even extending her range of her detectable sensing distance, by opening herself up to the auristic fountain of energy that encompassed all things. By connecting to this universe of energies, it was more possible to read from where such pieces of energetic information originated - it wasn't always a matter of re positioning her hand over her ear to reflect the sound waves into her head, but it was breaking down the entirety of the grassland landscape into an energy map, and recognizing the patterns of consistent environmental elements. She had to pinpoint where sentient emitted anomalies appeared through the haze of stimulus; of which there was much in the sea of grass. The hand entwined with Vanator's slipped lazily away before dangling at her side. She had stopped dead in her tracks, leaning back slightly on one of her legs with her left hand up and her elbow bent. She had been caught off guard by the glassbeak's call - shaken from the blissful passion and being lost in the golden ponds of Vanator's eyes. An alpha male glassbeak was marking his territory and scaring off competition - a familiar sign that eggs had been laid somewhere within his borders. With only a few dried berries and nuts in her pack, Hex's stomach growled painfully, sending a rush of blood from her head to her feet. If they could track down the nest and then snatch the eggs, they would eat very well that night. "Eggs" Hex said suddenly, snapping her eyes open and looking up to Vanator with a smirk.

[Vanator]

Vanator was sufficiently distracted by the afternoon's turn of events not to notice the distant disturbance until he felt Hex's hand slip from his. She froze in her tracks, and he knew well enough to pause and listen. Hex was a creature of the wild herself in many ways, and he had learned to rely on her senses. After a moment he too heard the cry of the glassbeak male. Vanator may not have had the senses the Hex had, but the gurgle in her stomach gave him a clue to her thoughts. He was already smiling when she glanced up at him with a knowing smirk. Eggs. Glassbeak eggs were large, and the shells tough to open, but they had a distinct flavor. They were a delicacy and rare, for obvious reasons. Van looked back at Hex. They had seen plenty of danger before. They had walked into the front yard of a Zith colony together and left three of them dead behind them when they left. They had chased ghosts. And now, thanks to Hex, he was flooded with testosterone. The challenge of gathering glassbeak eggs gave him a thrill. He gave Hex a crooked grin. "feel like a giant ommlette?" They made their way back to his camp, where Van put on dry clothes and donned his armor. He made suer Hex had something sufficent to where for the hunt as well. He dumped out his back pack, and after digging through his supplies, pulled out his lantern and placed it in the backpack and drew it over his shoulders, then took the bow and quiver and slung them likewise across his back. Finally he grabbed a coil of rope and heaved it likewise over his shoulder. Taking his ax in hand, Van turned to Backlash, stroking her dark mane. "You better stay here dear." The Strider eyed him, turning her head away slightly. She was not pleased. Turning to Hex, Van studied the girl. She was still exotic, still beautiful, and now he knew how loving she was. He knew Hex would have to do the most dangerous work. She was stealthier than he and had a knack for disappearing into the grass, making her the obvious choice to sneak into the glassbeak nest. He felt a bit uneasy suddenly with the thought of Hex in danger. But in all honesty, that's how she lived. His responsibility was to make sure nothing happened to her. Van did not want to volunteer her for the task, however. "How should we get them?"

[Hex]

They rushed back to camp, and as Hex wiggled into her skirt, Vanator tossed over a spare linen shirt which fell over Hex's bent body. She laughed excitedly and at the risk of tearing another linen shirt to shreds, she set it aside next to her emptied bag, instead dressing in the bone and leather breastplate she used to protect the vital organs of her torso. Her hunting knife sit snug in the holder around her thigh and she stuffed the inside of her empty bag with her cloak, leaving loose ends to be used to cover the eggs during transport. When Vanator asked about how they might get the eggs, she looked up from her task and said without hesitation, "You will distract them while I sneak up and take them from the nest. I'll take care of the egg snatching, you think about what you can do to draw their attention away from the nest".

[Vanator]

Snugging up the hardened leather that encased his torso and shoulders and the variety of equipment he had donned, Van nodded as Hex confirmed the plan. He grinned, even as they plotted their perilous theft. "I don't know which of us has the worst job." Van joined Hex and they began to make their way towards the male glassbeak and the nests. As they drew nearer, they crouched lower in the tall grass, moving cautiously. Van stole glances at the woman beside him, fighting the distraction of her presence, so much more powerful to him now than ever before. Her warm weather garb was revealing, drawing his eyes, but a firm look from Hex sent his attentions back to the dangerous task at hand. They finally paused, dropping prone below the top of the grass. A slight breeze rustled the tall shoots, helping to conceal their movement. Both man and woman raised their heads only enough to spy the glassbeak and search for signs of the nest. Vanator's pulse began to thump again as the dark maned Hex pointed silently to a patch of flattened grass that surely hid a nest. Pulling the sighting lens from his pocket, Vanator viewed the nest site, a glimpse of white curves above the surface confirming the presence of eggs. He scanned the surrounding grass, spotting the male glassbeak some ways off to the left. The Drykas handed the scope to Hex, carefully flexing his newly stitched wound to ensure it was still secure. The neatly mended wound stung, but the threading held the gash tightly closed. Vanator took the lantern from his backpack, tugging a few mizas from him pocket and placing them inside it. Pulling off the coil of rope, he tied the end of the rope around the lantern. looking back at Hex, he placed his hand on her knee to get her attention. For the two of them, communicating without words was not unusual, and Van simply made a swinging motion with the lantern, indicating with a slight grin his plan to toss the lantern to attract the glassbeak's attention. The Drykas looked into Hex's deep green gaze, waiting to see her affirmation of the plan.

[Hex]

Hex nodded firmly at the suggestion, feeling glad at how competent of a quick thinker Vanator was. She wigged through the grasses slowly, crawling in a circle around the pack of glassbeaks and settling in almost 40 feet from the nest. Even through the long grass, Hex managed to catch Vanator's eyes, and she realized that they were indeed on a slight hill and she was downwind from the vicious beasts locations. Hex made a nodding motion through the grass, hoping that Vanator would catch on to her readiness. She only hoped he would throw it close enough to the nest for the protecting mother to get involved; throwing it too far away might not raise the level of threat needed to pull the mother away from her eggs.

[Vanator]

Van stayed flattened against the ground, hidden by the grass. A thin sheen of sweat had beaded up on his brow, and he regulated his breathing in an attempt to stay calm. He kept his head up just enough to keep an eye on Hex, but had difficulty. She moved with stealth, and only once she lifted her head enough for him to see the dark crown of her head did he finally spot her. The woman's bright green eyes flashed as she barely tilted her head in a ready nod. The Drykas confirmed the location of the male Glassbeak, and the mother hovering over the nest Hex had targeted. Keeping hunched down, he moved his feet under him and gauged the direction and distance he needed to send his distraction to get the attention of both beasts. Vanator gripped the lantern in one hand and held the rope loosely in the other. Swinging his arm back widely, Van sent the lantern sailing across the open grass to land with a loud clatter. He saw the heads of the Glassbeaks spin, looking for the source of the noise. Vanator began to jerk the lantern, causing the rocks in it to jump and rattle. The bird-like predators eased towards the sound, searching the grass, leaving the nest temporarily unguarded. The horseman prayed that the lithe Hex could pilfer the egss quickly, for with every jerk on the rope, the lantern was inching back towards him, drawing the Glassbeaks with it.

[Hex]

There was only one chance to sneak up and take the eggs, and they had to be handled with care - one wrong move and they would lose their dinner. The lantern went careening off through the grasses, and a nearby glassbeak squawked in surprise when it landed a few feet away, rattling with the coins inside. Hex's heart pounded, blood and sweat coursing through her body, shaking her very resolve that held her together as she swiftly crawled on hands and knees through the thicket. There the nest laid in the belly of a small crater of earth; disguised effectively by the brush around it. Lifting sheets of foliage out of the way gingerly, Hex put her hand over each of the eggs to feel with her auristics which were appropriate for eating. With eight eggs in total, she analyzed that only six of them would be ripe for eating, and so she folded them into the cloak inside her pack, protecting each delicate sphere with a thick layer of wool. Her hands shook with terror, and the sound of the lantern being dragged across the ground was drowned out by the thumping of her blood in her ears. One, two, four, six. It all happened in a matter of seconds and already the mother glassbeak had lost interest in the lantern, letting the remaining alpha male take care of such matters himself. She was approaching fast, and Hex could even smell the dirt that shifted under her clawed feet as she stalked towards the nest. Hex kicked off with the balls of her feet, scurrying out of sight - but in her retreat, the movements she made were too quick and frantic, and the mother took notice, becoming immediately alarmed when she saw her pillaged nest. The glassbeak mother screeched something horrid, and took off in Hex's direction, who had raced through the long grass, keeping low but no longer bothering to hide her position. She slid down next to Vanator, grabbing his uninjured arm and yanking on him to follow her down the hill just ahead of them. All they could do is run and try to find a place to hide, but there were few places in the grasslands that one could hide from a raging glassbeak. The male screeched as he ran, trying to lock onto their location in the grasses by watching grass stalks sway in the wake of their run. A wind flew over them, concealing their movements just for a moment as they gained more distance while the glassbeak searched helplessly. But it wasn't long before the helpful wind died down, revealing Hex and Vanator as they plunged over the base of the hill. The male glass beak flew down the hill after them, gaining incredible speed and nearly coming on top of them. As Hex's feet pounded against the ground in a run, with Vanator behind her, a weakness in the earth suddenly gave way, and all three of them plummeted into a collapsed tunnel, dirt and debris floating down around them as they coughed against the thick musty air below the ground. The only light that served them was the one that shone through the top of the hole they fell through, illuminating their eminent death.