Flashback The Morning After [Lorelle]

[Meville Brightshade]

The twenty-fourth of spring, 511 A.V. Meville woke with throbbing, pounding ache in the middle of his face. In fact, the extreme irritation is what caused him to rise from his slumber. For a few moments, Meville couldn't quite remember why his head felt as though it were going to split if any sort of movement was made. At first, he had assumed something had fallen down from up above him and landed square between his eyes. When his hand had finally reached the troubled area in question, his fingers found there was nothing there but the usual skin and bone that comprised his face. As if the strange, foreign feeling of his fingers brushing against his own skin were some sort of strange magical gesture, Meville immediately remembered where from the pain originated. His eyes quickly opened, only to be shut against the gentle light that greeted them. Moving his hand to shield his weakened eyes from the intrusive glow of the morning, Meville coaxed his eyes into squint. Sure enough, laying upon his left was the sleeping face of the Vantha girl he had had drinks with the night before. Though it was reasonably difficult to focus on anything at that point in his condition, Meville couldn't help but trace the graceful lines of her face and lips with his eyes. A grin had started on his face before his second realization hit him: He was in bed with Lorelle. Subtly shifting beneath the covers, he also realized he was completely naked. Biting his lower lip in contemplation, Meville returned his attention to the sleeping girl beside him. She looked incredibly peaceful, much the opposite of how Meville felt at the moment. While she was completely oblivious to everything around her, Meville was quickly feeling the impact of their actions the night before. He wasn't even sure where they were exactly. Pulling his gaze from her quiet features, Meville forced himself to look around the room they were in. It didn't seem like they had gone all the way back to the Warrens where he lived. No, the room was much more homely. In fact, it was incredibly homely. So much so, the bedroom seemed like the perfect place for a young woman to call her own. Meville felt a slight wash of wary angst flow over him as he continued to scan the space they were in. Though nothing but his discarded clothes looked familiar, he had a feeling they had made an active decision to return here after the tavern had tossed them out for public displays of affection. Anything past the point of kissing outside the tavern in the snow was completely lost to Meville's hazy, inebriated memory. Somehow they had managed to make it back to what appeared to be her room without the notice of her parents. Meville was more than surprised at this fact, thus he decided that perhaps her parents had not been home when the two of them arrived. There was certainly no way they would have been able to sneak past two alert minds in the condition they had been in. That was more than likely the case. Relaxing slightly, Meville allowed himself to breath for a few moments. Everything was going to be all right. Yes, he'd slept with a very attractive young woman who had extremely overbearing parent; yes, he was currently in the nude beneath the covers of her bed; yet there were no signs of anything to cause him any trouble. At least, there were no signs until a cheery female voice sounded from down the stairs. Though the words were lost in the panic that gripped Meville's heart, his body quickly - but gently - removed the covers from his body so he was free to move around. Sliding out the bed, he quickly scampered about the floor, careful to make as little noise as possible as he collected his discarded garments with delicate and calculated motions. There was a stirring from the bed, but Meville was too busy sliding on his pants to pay it much heed. The voice called again, this time asking if Lorelle was awake or not and if she would come down to get something to eat. Meville felt his stomach growl at the idea of food, but he ignored it, choosing instead to pull his shirt over his head. During his muted scramble, he had been able to locate everything but one of his boots. Lorelle moved once more from her place upon the bed, and Meville quickly began a more thorough investigation of the room in search of his missing piece of footwear. His motions were fairly clumsy in relation to how he usually carried himself. This was due to a combination of fear, morning drowsiness, and his exquisite hangover. Unfortunately for Meville, he was unable to catch himself as he moved towards the place where his other boot had been hiding. Landing upon the floor with a loud thump, Meville let out a pained groan as his vision burst with colorful little explosions. The voice downstairs expressed concern before announcing it would be up shortly. Up in a flash, Meville frantically glanced around the room for a place to hide. Seeing that Lorelle was now awake, Meville grabbed a night-gown that was hanging in her closet and tossed it to the bed as he crammed himself beneath a desk. Pulling the chair in behind him to better conceal him, Meville held his breath as the sound of feet upon stairs came ever closer. His knees dug into this chest and his back was twisted into an extremely uncomfortable position when the door clicked open and Lorelle's mother poked her head in. Twitching with anticipation of discovery, Meville did everything in his power to remain still and silent.

[Lorelle]

Lorelle didn't get to savor the morning sun brushing her skin and taunting her body slowly awake. Instead she woke to a painful throbbing aching in her head and the muted thud of Meville falling on the floor of her room. her eyes quickly opened, turning dark blue in annoyance at the disturbance to her otherwise extremely peaceful sleep.

She had very little time to actually think before a nightgown was thrown onto her bed and the blonde boy from last night was hiding under her desk. Confused as to why he was here, Lorelle looked at her surroundings. Her foggy head confirmed that she was in her room of her parents Arvinta in the Snowsong hold. Turning back to Meville, she started putting the pieces together in her head. Gnawing on her bottom lip she looked down at her naked body.

Slowly Lorelle realized what happened the night before, but she had no time to dwell on the matter for she could hear her mother's voice and following footsteps. She knew she didn't have enough time to put on the nightgown so instead she laid back down in her bed, hiding the gown under the blankets with her. She made sure to look like she had just opened her eyes when her mother peaked her head in the door.

"Lorelle, your still in bed?" The woman said with a disapproving note to her voice. Lorelle looked at her and sleepily nodded her head. Her mother rolled her eyes. "Alright well, breakfast is over in ten. You better get out here if you want any of it." Lorelle nodded her head. Lana looked at her daughter for another minute before scanning the room quickly and continuing on to shrug and leave, closing the door behind her.

Lorelle let out a large sigh of relief once her mother left. She paused, staring at the ceiling and trying not to focus on her head that felt as though it had exploded several times within the past couple moments. She then sat up and pulled on the nightgown before walking quietly over to her desk and pulling the chair out. She crouched down and looked at Meville with a disapproved look on her face. "What are you doing here?" she asked in a hushed whisper, "What happened last night?"

She was really asking herself more than him. She didn't understand how even in a drunken state she had allowed him anywhere near her room, let alone in her bed. Mentally she tried to go in her mind and remember how this happened, but she couldn't remember past leaving the tavern. Or wait did they get kicked out? She couldn't remember exactly. Rolling her eyes in irritation, she stood up and paced around her room. "We have to get you out of here, without my parents knowing. Oh gods! They are going to kill me!" She muttered as she paced.

"How did you let it get this far?" she was talking to Meville now, though it didn't exactly seem like it. Her eyes kept shifting from dark blue to greyish silver to dark red. "How did I let it get this far? Gods I am such an idiot! Man my head hurts," She gripped her head with her hands as she slumped back onto her bed, feeling like she just wanted to go back to sleep and pretend this never happened. Sleep away her troubles. She put her hands down and shook her head, looking at Meville once more. "No matter, as I said, we have to get you out of here without them knowing."

[Meville Brightshade]

When Lorelle's mother spoke, Meville felt his entire body tense up. It seemed as if the woman had decided she wanted to pronounce every single harmonic syllable of each and every word that came out of her mouth in the slowest way possible. In fact, Meville had the impression the woman was taunting him, daring him to lose his frantic composure and jump out from under the desk sobbing and asking for forgiveness. While her words were entirely impotent, he had entirely no difficulty attributing both suspicion and sarcastic disappointment to them. Though his deductions were entirely off their mark, his increased paranoia sky rocketed when her mother took the time to look around the room. As her eyes moved around the various knic-knacs and doo-dads that created the bedroom atmosphere, Meville could feel them burning into them. From his position beneath the desk, he was only able to see the other woman's shins and shoes. Though unable to actually be able to determine where she was looking exactly, he had the inexplicable feeling she lingered upon the desk. For a moment, Meville was certain his uncontrollably raucous beat of his heart would give him away. Sweat beaded in the corners of his temples and ran down the back of his neck as he did his very best to gather some sort of patchwork explanation for why he was under a young woman's desk in very ruffled dress clothes with a single boot. The only things that came to mind would have only made the situation worse. When the door finally closed after what seemed like several lifetimes, Meville sighed right along with Lorelle. His body was finally able to relax, but the cramped space didn't really allow for much of it. Wiggling around in an attempt to free himself, he realized Lorelle had managed to dress herself in the slip he had tossed her and was now making her way over to him. When the pulled the chair out, Meville was finally able to extend his torso out from under the desk, laying back and pushing with his legs to squirm his way to freedom. "Hiding." His own whisper was hoarse from the over indulgence of fear he had just partaken of. Choosing not to answer the second question, Meville slowly picked himself up off the ground, stretching out the several kinks from his short time in his temporary prison. He slumped down into the chair Lorelle had pulled out, letting his eyes follow her muted movements as she paced around the room. Her directive was entirely correct as she half-addressed Meville on what the two of them should do at that point. He nodded silently, affirming both that he needed a quick, subtle, and parent-less getaway, and should they fail she (and he) would both be given a swift and very painful execution. Her next question was slightly confusing, but Meville gave her a sort of pathetic half-shrug, half-grimace to indicate he had absolutely no idea how things had escalated to the point they now found themselves in. Her self-deprecation was slightly appreciated, as it meant she didn't solely blame him for what they had done the night before. She seemed to have a similar ailment to his own, as she blinked as if her head were a ticking explosive device that would blow at any moment. She even went as far as to verbally acknowledge the hangover, to which Meville squinted shut his eyes and nodded sympathetically. With the way they were, he wasn't sure whether they'd have the ability to get him out of the house without anyone finding out. After all, everyone was eating breakfast downstairs. The rather unfortunate situation paired with their slightly impaired mental functions spelled an incredibly unfortunate outcome for them. "Maybe window?" It was a bit early for Meville to be speaking Vani. He was able to remember more than enough vocabulary to express his thought on escaping out the window, however the proper articles and sentence structure were just out of reach at the moment. He reached down to grab his other boot that he'd dropped under the desk in his frantic scramble. Carefully, he pulled the thing on and began lacing it, glancing back to Lorelle to see what she thought was best. The only problem with escaping out of the second story was not being seen by anyone passing or any of the members of her family who just so happened to be looking out of their own windows.

[Lorelle]

Lorelle was in a panic mood. Fear gripped her, making a trail of sweat begin to bead along her forehead. For one of the first times in her life she didn't know what to do. Every possibility she could think up ended in disaster. Her parents find out in every imagined scene and her life ended in an unexpected tragedy. Unexpected to everyone but Lorelle that is. Her mind was taking it to the extreme of course, but mixed with her first hangover and the result of last night's mix of lust and intoxication it is exactly a surprising result.

Paniced eyes looked over at Meville before she walked over to the window and looked down. There was really nothing to help him down. The outside wall was pretty vacant of anything to grab onto. Sighing, Lorelle turned to face Meville once more. She shook her head. "There is no way you would be able to leave through the window, unless you are in the mood to fall a story," she told him.

She tapped her chin before returning to her seat upon her bed. She looked around her room before her eyes landed on her flute. That only made her feel worse. She hadn't practiced in days and the guilt was added to her already freaking out mind. She looked back over to Meville before shrugging. "I guess you'll have to stay here till they leave, unless you have a better idea," she suggested.

She walked over to her dresser and grabbed her hairbrush. She pulled it through her hair and tied the long curly hair into a simple braid down the side of her head and over her right shoulder. She grabbed her clothes out of her dresser before turning back to Meville. She stared at him as though she was trying to decide what to do with him. She knows that the Arvinta only consists of three rooms. Her room, her parent's room and the living room where her parents are eating their daily morning rations now. Biting down on her lower lip she thought on what to do with him while she got dressed, suddenly extremely self conscious and very private feeling about herself even though he had already done way more than seen her body without its covering of clothes.

"Stay here," she ordered as she got an idea on her only option. She went into the pretty much empty closest that was just big enough to hold her body with the door shut. She quickly put her undergarments and simple articles of clothing before she came out, dressed. She went straight to the bed and looked under it for her own boots. They were there, right where her mother left them the night before. As she sat on the bed and put on the black things she looked at the floor, refusing to look at the boy who was reeking so much havoc on her brain.

"Alright so I am thinking that I should go out there, eat, watch them leave the house and once they are gone you can leave," she told him. Not a tick after the words were spoken, footsteps could be heard coming towards Lorelle's room. In her panic it felt like everything froze. She hastily motioned for Meville to hide somewhere without even looking at him. "Elle, you in there? We need to talk," her father's voice asked as he lightly tapped on the door. Lorelle didn't answer, she didn't do anything but stare at the door and hope her father didn't decide he could just walk in. He would know something was up, whether her mother did or not. Lorelle just hoped he wouldn't figure out the full story for it was not something she was proud of. It wasn't something she would ever be proud of.

[Meville Brightshade]

Lorelle effectively shut down Meville's idea with the unpleasant imagery of his fall into the hard ground below. No, he certainly did not want to try jumping down all that way without anything to break his fall. He wasn't entirely sure what the alternative would be should he stay, but seeing as the destruction of his body was one of his very few fears in life, he felt he could face whatever Lorelle's parents might come up with. Of course, Meville was able to slightly gauge just how bad it would be if her parents caught him by how much Lorelle was trying to avoid thinking about it by busying herself with her daily routine. Her suggestion to stay in her room until it was safe to sneak away did not carry much warmth to it, though Meville figured she had no reason to add it. In fact, he felt a bit uncomfortable with the idea of lingering in her room invited or uninvited. Having little else to do now that they had decided he was just going to stay there, his eyes followed her movements as she groomed and braided her hair. She really was very beautiful, but the strange, uncontrollable attraction he had felt had dwindled into simple interest. As she moved to gather up her clothes, their eyes met for a brief moment. Meville decided to break it, glancing down at the floor as she headed towards the dresser. When he looked up again, Lorelle was nowhere to be seen and the dresser was closed. It was odd, but somehow it felt proper for her to hide her body from him. Despite everything, it wasn't like Meville remembered very much of what had happened, that included what she looked like without anything on. Though he was sure his face held a puzzled look, it wasn't as if Lorelle could see it behind the closed doors of the dresser. Once she emerged, fully clothed, Meville once more followed her with his eyes. When she had finished pulling on her boots, he stared placidly at the side of her face. He could tell she wasn't in the mood for a staring contest, but he didn't really have anything else to do short of make a ruckus and get the two of them caught. Finally, Lorelle decided to give him a more detailed explanation of what was going on. It was fairly straightforward, so Meville had no problem understanding. The problem was the sound of footsteps landing upon the stairs outside. Meville made a silent dash for the closet on Lorelle's cue. He did his very best to get the doors shut without too much noise, though there was a slight click of the doors snapping shut. He held his breath in the semi-darkness, able to see only a sliver of room through the crack between the too doors. The muffled noise of her father's voice reached his ears which was followed by a panic induced silence. For a half moment, Meville thought everything was going to be all right. Nope. The door opened and he heard her father enter the room. He was speaking too fast for Meville to be able to understand. It didn't help that he was in closet or that the man seemed to mumble, if that was even possible in the melodic language of Vani. It seemed like the two of them were having a conversation. Somewhere along the line, their voices rose. The footsteps came right to the dresser doors where Meville could clearly see the pattern of the man's shirt as he stood before. At that point, Meville had idea what to do. He heard the man's hands grip the doors as he yelled something unintelligible and threw open the doors. Bright blue eyes met those of a furious Vantha father. His timid smile was quickly replaced by pursed lips as the yelling continued. Having no idea what was said, Meville was only really able to blurt out several apologetic phrases in Vani in between the verbal barrage of whatever the other man was saying. On the bright side, the man wasn't trying to hit him or anything violent like that. For the first time in a long time, Meville was actually glad he wasn't entirely fluent in Vani. He was able to pick out several derogatory words and a handful of common and not so common insults. All in all, it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

[Lorelle]

Lorelle's father never one of the mean mannered. He was always so patient, gentle and kind, but Lorelle was his baby. She and her mother were the two lights that lit his world and any harm coming to either one of them was unheard of in the man's mind. The idea of a man's hands on his daughter or in her room drove him close to the edge. After taking one look at the room though and seeing Lorelle's dress from the night before and both sides of the bed disrupted, he got enough of a hint about what was going on to drive him over that edge. He practically fumed with anger as he walked over to the closet which was the only thing really in the whole room to hide in.

The doors were thrown open and spilling of heated words were poured forth.He was furious and it was quite obvious. But he wasn't just mad at Meville. He was mad at Lorelle and even his wife for putting her in this situation. Everything about it all disgusted, it always did. He just bit his tongue and didn't say anything for his wife was always very set on this idea of hers of finding Lorelle a husband and thought that she knew how to do it without really giving their daughter a say in the matter.

Lorelle stood behind and stuck close to the door. She watched as her father yelled at Meville and watched as Meville looked as though he was only catching pieces at a time. She then continued to watch as her mother decided to come in and see what was going on. The older female Vantha turned to Lorelle and started asking questions. Lorelle was so confused, she just stared at her mother in a daze repeating the words "I don't know, I'm sorry" over and over again. Everything was in a blur. Like time was moving to slowly to pick everything that was being said. It was chaotic and unorganized.

Finally, after what seemed like bells, Lorelle's father grabbed Meville by one arm and took one of Lorelle's arms with his other hand. Both were dragged out to the main room of the home and sat down. Lana, Lorelle's mother, followed suit and took a seat in one of the free chairs. Lorelle looked over at her, but really had nothing to say. She then looked to her father and watched as he paced the floor. She could almost swear that a path was being engraved into the wood as his steps were so full of anger and hatred.

"This is unbelievable. I can expect so much from some teen of the male gender, but not you Lorelle. I thought you were raised better than this," Her father finally spoke, "I guess I have failed as your father."

"No ..." Lorelle's pleading voice came to a stop as her father put his hand up signaling it too. "We're done!" the man ordered in a voice full of his authority as a father and husband, "We are done with all of this. Lana you are not to speak of this matter of marriage again. Lorelle, as long as you are under my roof I won't see this happen again." Lorelle nodded slightly, her eyes drifting to the floor as her father pointed at the blonde haired human in the room.

"You! I will never see you again in this house and as long as she lives here you will never touch my daughter again or else I will find a way to justify your death. Is this understood?" the man threatened, staring with blood colored eyes at Meville. Everything about him showed he was serious. His eyes, his body posture, the sound of his voice. He would do what he said if he got the chance and he wouldn't hesitate.

[Meville Brightshade]

The chaos seemed to increase to the point of absolute mayhem when Lorelle's mother came into the picture. Both her parents were yelling while Meville and Lorelle were both trying to simultaneously apologize and lessen the consequences of what was going to happen to them. Neither of them was doing a very good job at mitigating their predicament, though the yelling did finally subside as both Meville and Lorelle were gruffly escorted out the door, down the stairs, and shoved into chairs. It was a bit surreal when Meville actually thought about it. Here he was, in a stranger's house after having slept with her the night before, caught her father and forced to sit in her dining room. Though his face didn't reveal the smile Meville felt, the whole situation did have a bit of a comical feeling to it. For one, he wasn't nearly as affected by what was happening as Lorelle was. After all, the man who now paced about the floor wasn't his father. Still, Meville did harbor a healthy fear of the man as he stopped to address the two of them. Though he hadn't met or known Lorelle's father before, the distinctly red color of his eyes were definitely correlated with how much anger and hatred he felt. The disappointment in his voice was powerful enough to douse the little light of merriment in Meville as well as hand him an overflowing cup of shame. He felt absolutely terrible when her father addressed Lorelle, cringing slightly at his assessment of his parenting abilities. Due to everyone having calmed down slightly, Meville was much better able to comprehend everything that was being said. Though his head still had a splitting ache to it, the initial grogginess of just being woken was gone now, giving him enough clarity to handle the Vani language. When he stated "We're done." Meville retreated back into his chair, making himself even smaller against the intimidating figure of her father. Any sort of humor in the situation was completely gone now, and Meville felt only fear mixed with a tinge of respect and a good helping of humiliation. He nodded furiously at everything the man said in regards to him. When her father had finished, Meville continued to nod a few beats after the words were done. Realizing he was expected to respond, Meville coughed out a "Y-yes sir!" before he realized it wasn't in Vani. Slapping his hand over his mouth, he blinked twice before trying again. "I mean: Yes sir. I'll be as good as dead." He wasn't really sure what he'd meant by "good as dead", but it had seemed appropriate.

[Lorelle]

Lorelle's father stared at the young man a chime longer, but said nothing else. He just nodded his head, satisfied, before leaving the room and entering his own. The door closes with a bang that seems to shake the whole Arvinta. Lorelle cringed at the sound. She shrinked back into her seat and stared at the ground. The room was silent for the first time that entire morning. Neither her mother nor Lorelle moved or said anything for a long while. Finally the older woman looked to the young man in her living room.

"Leave this home," she ordered in a sharp tongue that was angered with Meville but her husband. She was more upset with him than the boy. In her mind the human did little wrong but go to far. Though she could live with that while her husband couldn't. However she was curious to know what the heck he was doing with Lorelle rather than the Frostfawn she asked to meet her daughter at the tavern. She sighed and leaned back in her chair before getting up and going into her bedroom where her husband sat on the bed.

Once both of her parents were gone, Lorelle looked over at Meville. Her mind was in a mix of emotions. Her eyes raced through all their colors, having trouble settling on just one. She sighed and shook her head. "Come on, I'll show you the way out," she said in a gentle Vani voice before standing up and leading him to the door. She leaned against the wall and waited for him to leave as her eyes once again found themselves looking upon the floor instead of him. "Goodbye Meville," she said quietly without looking up.

[Meville Brightshade]

When Lorelle's father departed, the room was left in the awkward silence that often followed an uncomfortable outburst. The three of them avoided eye contact by looking at the floor, or in Meville's case, his thumbs. He felt a combination of shame and regret, though the larger portion of it was shame. It wasn't often he felt this way, after all neither of his parents had ever been very stern with him or ever impressed the necessity for behaving well. Perhaps it was because it was one of the first times he'd ever been so closely involved in both crime and punishment that he felt so strongly about it. Either way, no one seemed to want to talk about it. The first words to be uttered were a command for him to go. As if released from invisible shackles, Meville nodded, keeping his gaze focused on his hands. Though her voice had carried an acidic quality, her anger did not feel the same as it had when Lorelle's father had been yelling. She seemed more distant, distracted. He wasn't really sure what it meant, but as long as he was going to be able to leave in one piece, Meville felt no need to voice his questions. He waited until she decided to follow her husband up to their room before turning to look to Lorelle. She avoided any kind of eye contact, choosing instead to lead him to the door with a sigh and some polite words. Once there, she opened the door and bid him goodbye. He stood there, in the frame against the cold, biting his lower lip. For what it was worth, he felt terrible about everything that had happened. While he only took responsibility for exactly half, it was still enough for his blue eyes to be tinged with sadness as he looked one last time at her downcast, yet still attractive features. "Lorelle, I..." He stopped, letting his eyes fall to the floor much like her own. "Erm... Nevermind." With that, he walked out into the snow, making sure to keep himself from turning back.

[Lorelle]

Lorelle couldn't find the words to say anything more. She just watched him leave. Her eyes staid on him till he was no longer in sight. When he finally wasn't anymore, she shut the door fully and went back into her room. She sat down on the bed and let her mind drift off. Her memories were a blur and everything just seemed to be moving to fast. She felt dreadful and the feeling of regret was heavy on her heart. She wished things had turned out differently, but she knew there was no way to chain the line of events that had already accorded.

Sighing, she fell in a heap onto her bed and tried to think of something good that came out of this as she fights her massive headache. It took a chime, but she finally did think of one thing good. It was all over. Everything. The whole finding her a husband thing was finished. It was up to her again. Lorelle was almost happy enough to get up and do what would have been a rather ridiculous happy dance when she connected the dots to show her this next chapter in her life. And the title was very clear and vivid in her mind. It was quite simply "My Turn" for that is what was being handed to her.