Completed Near the Edge [Dasreide]

[Litani]

In swift measure, Litani's hands took the clams in her shirt down to the ground and collected them there, all but forgotten as she glanced at the monstrosity of a crustacean that the Akalak had procured. She knelt there in the sand for an instant and watched him, letting the shelled creatures settle, then stood and crossed the small distance to him, his Lakan in her hand. In the fashion of a true, practiced medic, suddenly Litani was not present in the capacity of herself... Suddenly she was aware, cognizant of what was needed, altogether confident. This woman was different than the one whose throat was scratched outside of Riverfall... The hand with the blade in it crossed to his opposite shoulder to press him back slightly and she instinctively blocked out everything else but what he needed in that moment - she nudged him gently, but certainly, to relax, to rest, to give her access to the wound. The other hand drew his arm to extend itself and give her full sight of it. Unflinching, she set the Lakan quickly to bite at the disfigured length of stretched linen that her shirt had already been drawn into - it was easy to cut a length of it, now that it was done carrying the clams to the shore. Heedless of how it looked on her body, the Konti tore a length free and set his Lakan aside, bringing the linen around his arm above the elbow to tie off a tight tourniquet. "The blood must stop," she said softly as she worked, "else the rest of what I might do is meaningless." She glanced up at his eyes, near as she was, and smiled at him briefly. "Found yourself a big one, did you?" Something about the way her gaze glittered made that a brief flirt, a momentary tease at the difference in size between -them-, yet she looked quickly back to the task at hand and tied the pinching linen off with a slight flinch - it's hard to hurt a patient when you feel them, even if you know that what you do is for the best. Having done, she sat back and went to work on the loose fabric of her pants legs, shredding them in quick succession to make strips for bandages. She cut as far up as the knee but that was all, unwilling to sacrifice her dignity any farther than what necessary. Her manner, as she tended to him, was both gentle and matter-of-fact. For perhaps the first time, he might have a glimpse at what she'd done to earn her way through life to this point, a glimpse at the depth of the woman behind the pretty blue eyes and wild blonde hair. Her attentions had his wounds wrapped inside just a few moments, and though they would no doubt need further tending when they'd returned to Riverfall, he was out of danger for the time being. Once she'd completed her task, one light hand rested atop the wound itself and she shifted her eyes to meet his. "I feel as if I should lecture you about being careful around crabs..." she said softly, a mischevious glint coming to her eyes, harkening back to their conversation about her being careful around men, "but I think you've shed blood enough now to realize." With a wink, she chuckled a bit and sat back, watching him casually but intently, keeping track of his bodily condition even as she conversed.

[Dasreide]

Blood

The scent had escaped into both sea and air, so both Laviku and Syna could smell his wound at the same time. Dasreide's consciousness threatened to toss away his mind to the more devious, dark side of him, but he didn't allow it. He kept his focus on Litani as she worked so fluidly, with a precision that would make any professional healer jealous. He realized that she was tending to him in a subtly flirtatious way.

He wanted her to stop. He really did deep down inside. Something told him that he shouldn't let this continue, that the blood seeping out would cleanse his being, but he wanted to resist. He wanted her to continue to tend to his wound for eternity, just to see her smile at him the way she did when she jested about the crab. A soft smile bit at the edges of his lips, but was stifled roughly by a frown that seemed to dawn more prominent than the smile.

I almost died... He thought to himself, You mean -we- almost died. You almost killed the both of us just for some stupid love-notion you've been having. It needs to stop. The other side of him replied, irritation evident in his voice. Dasreide couldn't help but look at Litani with desire when the other side of him spoke of the 'love-notion' he had been having. It was true that he had been fawning for Litani ever since he'd given her his Lakan. He knew exactly why he wanted to be with her. She could sense him unlike any other and she closely resembled Ruby, who was like a younger sister to him... a -really- younger sister.

Dasreide exhaled tiredly once Litani was finished, his eyes flitting over to hers, her words meeting his ears like a soft cacophony of singing sirens in the light of the moon. She was a child of the sea, evident by the scales and gills on her skin. The radiated in the sun, the mischief in her eyes going unnoticed by Dasreide as he let himself chuckle deeply. "Indeed... I should be wiser in picking my food next time..." He said, his fatherly tone returning. He couldn't help it. It was the only way he could try to distance himself from her so he could think straight, rather than the buzzing of butterflies throughout his body that he experienced when he tried to flirt back at her. "But thanks to you, I shall live." He said, reaching his uninjured hand up to caress her cheek, "And we will be eating well today." He said with a smile, before he let his hand fall away from her cheek as he sat up and turned away from her, a flash of worry crossing his features in the last moment before he had turned away.

She is not worth it. You cannot keep her. She will leave you again. The voice echoed in his mind, almost bringing a tear to Dasreide's eyes as he recalled upon the memory and the feelings he had felt that day, I cannot allow myself to let her in... it will happen again, won't it? The voice did not reply back and Dasreide felt a lump form in his throat. He couldn't let Litani know. She wouldn't understand.

He stood, keeping himself facing away from her so she would not see the look on his face, one of worry and pain mixed in perfect harmony. He moved over to the now-slain king-crab and grabbed it by the claw and began to drag it away. "We should head back." He muttered, walking along the beach and pulling the crab along behind him. His fatherly tone had returned, mixed in with a tone that told her to just let him go and do his thing as he left the beach.

Still, he couldn't help but think... what if she had remained?

[Litani]

The blood was staunched. The wound was wrapped. And yet, somehow, Litani saw the walking dead get up off the sand and move away from her. One moment, she was a soft smile to him... the next, he was gone. He said they should head back. He'd no notion of what brought her here this day, only the awareness of his own wound. One she might've tended further. One she started to mend with the clothes of her own body. Her head raised itself up a tick, instinctively, proud and defiant. She considered... she considered and she weighed carefully how he might see her, based on her response. She could be aloof. She could let him go, walk away, depart to her own devices. She could follow. She could trot along after him like a loyal pet, like a little girl. Or she could calmly return to her catch, to the clams she had fetched with her own hands, and speak to him quietly. "Your other side," she said in a soft voice, murmuring the words as she scooped the shells up into a pile, "what is his name?" She asked it like it was nothing. But it was absolutely something. She stood then and returned to the rock upon which she had placed her satchel. Lacking the lower half of her shirt now, she had only the leather to carry with, and she returned to her prize to reclaim and collect it. As she shifted the creatures into the pack, she looked back up at him. She allowed another smile, this one subtle and secretive. "I've felt him the clearest, of the two of you... perhaps one day you'll introduce us."

[Dasreide]

Dasreide paused for a moment, his feet clenching the ground tightly as he turned his head to peer back at Litani from over his shoulder. His eyes softened slightly when she asked about his other side. For a moment he seemed to be about to answer the question, but then his demeanor changed, the air about him turning from a wise teacher to a darker, more violent man. "I have no name, Litani. Nor do I have any reason to show myself to the likes of you." He said, before the air disappeared and Dasreide's self came back into focus. He seemed sorrowful for a moment when his other side retreated within his consciousness.

"He is correct. He never was named. Nor has he ever been loved by anyone. My father and mother themselves refused to acknowledge him. They said that the duality was common, but it wasn't supposed to be as severe as what he has become." He states with a frown, his eyes returning to face front and he began to walk again, dragging the crab behind him. There was a feeling of sadness about him now and his eyes seemed to rapidly dull and revitalize, as if he was speaking with his other self without verbalizing it.

[Litani]

Litani smiled with half her lips. The right edge curved upwards into a smirk that caused her eyes to glint faintly with amusement and caused her features to take on an almost feline mischief. "And yet you have," she replied quietly. "You showed yourself to me the instant you had a chance... the moment we touched for the first time." Wordlessly, the Konti contemplated the tango she was dancing as she and the Akalak walked back towards Riverfall proper. She could have let it go. She could have followed quietly, subdued, but she did not. Instead, she'd felt the way the proverbial wound kicked back when salt water was flushed upon it, and she wouldn't let it go. She kept talking to him. Slowly, quietly. Inevitably. You know this will only end one way, she told herself silently. And she was probably right. You're a fool, and whatever else he is, he's older than you by generations, easily. Got yourself a habit, you do. You're a little girl to him and nothing else, so let it go... Let it go, and find someone your own age. Yet, even as she berate herself for her emotional response, some part of her whispered back, ...what if he's different? Long moments of contemplation passed them by. He drug back the carcass of his catch, she carried the satchel full of her own. Footprints pressed into the sand and were blown away by wind, carried away by sea. Wordless, they walked, until finally Litani took a deep breath and sighed the words on the exhale, "Duality is what you are... To deny that is death, or madness. Two souls, one flesh." Having confessed her ready knowledge of him, she shrugged faintly and kept her eyes on the road ahead. "The same as it would claw at me to deny Rak'keli's mark... or Laviku's gift... you cannot deny your nature. Nor should you." In the back of her mind, she flinched; she'd seen the other side of him quite clearly, and while her heart flicked against her chest at the memory, she was sure that she was not wrong. Only those in balance had peace... although, for this one, she was not entirely sure what 'balance' would look like.

[Dasreide]

"We have an... agreement." Dasreide stated calmly, shifting the crab about a bit before continuing. "Only when he is needed in times of duress, battle or mental instability will he show himself voluntarily. Other times, he can only come out when he is spoken to or attacked separately by magic, and even then it is voluntary."

The thoughts of the last battle he had taken place in swelled up in his mind. It had been a skirmish between him, a pack of wild wolves and a pair of Akalak guards who were his closest friends. He had struggled to maintain in control throughout the battle but only moments into the fray, his comrades had fallen swiftly, torn to shreds by the ravenous pack. Fury and grief overwhelmed his mind and he soon had lashed out into a brazen brawl of strikes, forgoing his training for mere brute force. It was times like then that the Nameless came out and took over, providing a sinister, yet effective, method of maintaining control in the field of battle. The way his other side came out and began the swift and brutal onslaught of massacring his enemies was both beautiful and horrendous.

And I would do it again. The Nameless stated upon the memory, causing Dasreide to close his eyes tightly and let out a loose sigh that was neither pained nor wrought from boredom. "So far, he has abided by this agreement. Even the time he assaulted you was under the pretenses of our agreement. I was overwhelmed with lust, greed and worry and he saw that. You know the rest of what happened." He stated, flashing her a cold glance that held some reminisce of that day's lust. "If you've felt him clearest, that can only mean that I am secondary and he is my true nature. You should be weary of me if that is the truth, for I am unsure of which of us is predominant." Dasreide fell quiet again, turning his gaze back to the path before him.

[Litani]

Litani permitted herself a small smile as the Akalak talked; the way he spoke of himself, and her, was almost so third-person as to be detaching. But she had no second self to credit for her responses, no other life to point to for an explanation. She had only herself, his eyes, and what she knew. Swallowing a sliver of tension when he looked at her, showing her reflections of what she'd felt at her throat the day they met, she smirked a little more deeply. Then, her lips pressed themselves together in attempt to even out the expression and she breathed a quiet chuckle, in spite of herself. "I am no reader of spirits, Dasreide," she said in a low voice. "You are yourself, however you chose to be. I only felt what I felt because he was there..." And because he's the least conflicted of the two of you. And because I don't remember the last time I touched a man who wasn't conflicted. Clearing her throat delicately, she continued, "Please forgive me, I realize this is rather personal and... I feel as though I should not be questioning. Consider it a character flaw." Flashing him that half-grin of hers, this time a little self-depreciatively, she quickly returned her gaze to their path - which now neared Riverfall, at last. The corners of her eyes still tracked the way he moved, etching every line into memory, and her mind felt itself wandering... but no need to tell him that. No need whatsoever. Wordless for a moment, Litani picked her way carefully among the rocks and up the path to where Riverfall rested in all its splendor. She gingerly hopped up onto an easily-navigated boulder, momentarily making herself a little taller as she turned back to the sea from which they'd just come. To him, though her eyes were elsewhere, she said quietly, "Do you have someplace in mind that we should cook our catch...?" The tone was low, nonpresumptive, almost... hesitating. She half expected him to walk off, leaving her with hers and him with his, as if the hunt had never been mutual at all. She turned to regard him then - a slender willow of a woman raising one hand to keep the wind from covering her face with her hair. Either she'd forgotten the sundering she'd made of her clothing to tend his wound or she didn't realize how it might make her appear... in either case, her eyes were clear and genuine as they moved to watch him again. Clear... but slightly restless, not wanting to linger in one place too long. Not wanting to stare. Not even into his eyes. Don't fall off your damn rock, idiot... bad enough you're obvious as the sun. Unusually, the inner chiding she gave herself in that moment actually made her smile a little at her own banter and this expression lingered for a few moments, presenting itself as if it belonged to him. In a sense, it did.

[Dasreide]

Dasreide listened intently and couldn't help but stifle the small smirk that grew upon his thick lips. His skin was blazing in the sun, the warmth coming from his own anticipation rather than the heat of the rays that caused beads of sweat to form on his skin. The perspiration was cooling as always, but it seemed to only enhance the cold sensation in the pit of his gut when she climbed onto the boulder asking about where they were to cook their catches. He stepped forward, setting the crab down before the boulder as he reached out, his feet solidly planted as his hands grasped her waist and slowly but surely, he lifted her from her boulder and brought her close to him.

His skin tingled. His mind buzzed. He held her close enough that the hairs upon his heavy brow stood on edge, waiting for the emotions to surface again. They were those of a past woe, of a worry long gone. "I... need to let you know..." He began quietly, his breath hot as it exited his lips and washed over her as he pulled her closer, his hands on her waist. "I had once loved... a girl like you. She was my sweetheart, the joy of my life and the future bearer of my children... but fate wished otherwise." He said, sorrow mirroring the back of his eyes as they stared into hers.

"She was called back to Mura on word from a stranger that someone had passed on in her family. She left by sea... but she never made it home." He looked onto the girl before her, the sweet and pleasant features she held almost making him wish he could simply drift into his emotions, let his instincts take over. "No one in her family had passed. It was a ruse. Her ship had been attacked, plundered and sunk into the seas before she reached the half-point of her journey." He let his story fall short there, sighing and closing his eyes, "And I have finally come to peace that she is gone. Konti are not replaceable to us, so I've had to search for a new mate... and I think I have found her."

He let a small smile cross over not only his lips, but his eyes as well. His teeth shown brightly beneath the blue exterior as his lips peeled back. It was momentary, but the expression seemed to drag on as the world slowed. He felt his heart quicken as he leaned forward to brush his lips onto hers, a soft kiss that was neither fatherly nor intimate, but merely a gauge to see how she would react. After a swift few seconds, he brought his head back away from hers, but remained lingering a few inches from her, his head heavily inclined so he could look down into her eyes, his black dreaded hair falling around his face. He had nothing to say left over, his breath spirited away by the kiss. He was waiting for her reply.

[Litani]

Not for the first time, the world tilted for the Konti as she felt Dasreide touch her - this time to take her down from her perch and bring her startlingly close, almost against him, his hands strong around her waist and holding her gently ensnared. At a reflex, her hands leapt to his arms to steady her balance, perhaps not intending to linger but yet after a half-second they tightened perhaps just a fraction more than they needed to - she felt his strength beneath her palms and felt her own strength suddenly melt away into nothing. As she realized what had just happened, her eyes widened faintly at the unexpected shift... a thousand things she'd felt from him this afternoon - desire not hardly the least among them - but his ability to control, hold off, and then suddenly decide and act had caught her off guard... again. She blinked as she looked up at him, felt her throat go dry and her breath get lost somewhere in her light-headed, stumbling heartbeat. She listened to his story and barely heard it, capturing only the words that she needed to understand. The rest of her mind was so entirely distracted, so lost in the sensation of him that she could scarcely remember to breathe, much less think... the sun's warmth soaked into her, making her skin flush with heat that almost made her dizzy. Yes. That was it. It was the sun. Of course. She blinked again, unaware of the rich contrast that the rushing blood in her veins was creating on her features, contrasting her blush with the silvery scales that lined framed her eyes and face. Her eyes darkened subtly as they locked onto his and she felt her body sway that half inch forward, closing whatever pretense of distance had remained between them. The lean frame she had was strong and soft in equal measures, exquisitely feminine and subtly tense as she waited, holding her breath. And then he said what he said, and took that captive breath away completely. ...behind her eyes wrestled the rushing hands of desire, clawing at her, climbing through her flesh and shimmering over her skin as she could feel the both of them together. Two... perhaps even three... sources of such desire, such longing that defied description battled for dominance in her mind, leaving her unable to tell where her craving for him ended and his need for her began. As he kissed her, and as her lips parted ever so slightly for him, she found it was all she could do not to forget herself completely and deepen the embrace... She forced herself to wait, to feel it through, to reach farther into the sense of him and get the answer to what he wanted from his body. What he truly wanted. And when he pulled back and yet stayed close, when he looked down into her eyes and seemed to be silent, waiting for her, not pulling away, not hiding or turning aside... suddenly she could all but taste the words unspoken. She could taste him. The satchel at her shoulder slid down onto the ground, forgotten, and her hands slid into his hair to pull him to her again, seeking the taste once more.

[Dasreide]

Gladly, he allowed her to lust after a second kiss, the edges of his lips curling upwards slightly in a pleased smirk. It was not often that one such as he snagged the breath from a woman. With all his wisdom, his social tact was notably lacking at times, allowing him to surprise even the most hardened of people.

She will die. The Nameless spoke mid-kiss, into Dasreide's mind in such a manner that it almost startled him. Nonetheless, Dasreide was well aware of the hardships he would face when their lives came to an end. But he somehow managed to push the thought aside, letting his eyes close marginally until he could barely glimpse from between his thin eyelashes down at her beautiful skin.

When the second kiss finally ended, Dasreide removed himself from her grasp, setting her down on her own two feet without any support of his own unless she seemed to falter. He swiftly cleared his throat as the revelation was brought about within himself about his actions. "I should let you know... I will not stay in Riverfall forever." He states, his golden eyes locked on her fair skin, tracing the outline of her face, "But if you would allow it, I would spend the duration of my stay in close proximity to you."

His air of wisdom, clarity and proper-ness returned to his voice, which also returned to that dawning fatherly tone as well. He waited there, letting his hands drift behind his back so he stood at a steady at-ease stance common for a warrior. His facial expression was utterly unreadable at this time, somewhere between a cacophony of emotions ranging from disdain, temperament and mild distaste aimed inward at himself all the way to pleasure, lust and antiquity over the memory of her lips pressed into his. But one thing was readable: He wanted Litani to confirm his desires before they returned to Riverfall.