Morning Ecstasy [Arabella]

[Eldon Sunkiss]

Timestamp: Day 88th of Winter, AV 510 Location: Sunkiss Pavilion, Morning

Eldon wheezed lightly. His weak, faint cough managed, somehow, to startle the reimancer from his sleep. Eldon didn't open his eyes, he didn't have to. The raging glaring sun was powerful enough to light up the white pavilion, causing the entire structure to look more like a beacon in pure darkness than a home. His eyelids were only a raging fiery orange under such brightness. Slowly, Eldon opened his eyes. It was more of a faint cracking of the lids as he winced into gazing at the visible world before him. Too bright. He had to close them again to avoid retinal destruction. Eldon rolled over, off his back, and onto his side. There was a quick chill that rolled over him as the fur blanket slid from his tan skin. He started to shiver at once, turning onto his other side, and retreating under that large warm blanket. By some unknown force, Eldon found himself drifting off to sleep once again as his arm wrapped around something very warm. Being as painfully soar and tired as he was, which felt wrong since, as far as he could remember, all he had done was sleep for who-knows-how-long. He should be energized, should be ready to take on the world. Hell, he should have been returning to his anger-driven rages against that Zith, but he wasn't. He didn't even dream terrible things last night, which was also uncommon since he lost his father several days ago. He was just, tired. Eldon was nearly asleep when he recognized that something felt off. He should have been colder, but was sharing warmth as if he was sleeping next to an animal or something. Perhaps that would have been alright, but there was something particularly... "grab-able" about this thing. Eldon opened his eyes again, only partially since the brightness assaulted him as if he was some scornful beast of darkness, and lifted the fur blanket, where he saw what he had been fondling. A woman! Eldon sat up instantly as his eyes went into mini-spasms trying to wake himself up from what he was certain to be a dream, a bad perverted dream. But no, there was a girl lying in his bed with him. And she was naked! Eldon was naked! Eldon felt himself get struck with a heavy dose of dizziness, he was moving too quickly, he must still be, at least a little, drunk. Perhaps that explained something after all. He hadn't done too much sleeping at all! Oh, sick, Eldon was going to be sick. This was going to get him in so much trouble. Eldon sat there for several moments, just staring down at the naked woman huddled underneath his blanket in beautiful nudity. It was strange that something like this could create such an array of contrasting emotions. But dammit, this was somebody's daughter, somebody's sister. This somebody might kill him if this little event was discovered. "Caiyha, help me."

[Arabella Starweaver]

Waking up slowly she head a seering headache, her eyes gazed around and she realized she had no idea where she was. Rolling over she saw him, he looked terrified, and for the life of her she couldn't remember who he was. Arabella's large eyes flicked over him trying to remember why she was here in his tent. She closed her eyes and tried to focus through the pain and the pounding in her head, why couldn't she remember anything? She re-opened her eyes, almost hoping he wasn't there anymore, she would be in a lot of trouble if anyone found out about this, spending a night alone with a man was frowned upon, especially in her pavilion. The look on his face was priceless, like he had seen a ghost or something, she had no idea whether or not she should say something or if she should wait to see if he spoke to her first. Arabella didn't want to panic, clearly he was doing that enough for the both of them. She took a few deep breaths and again tried to think. All she could get was small flashes of laughter and drinking, which would explain the headache. Why couldn't she remember anything? She suddenly realized the state she was in, completely naked, sun blaring down on her pale white skin, she grabbed at the furs and wrapped them around her, trying to make things less awkward for the panic stricken man. "I don't suppose you remember how we go here?" she had to ask, she was so confused. It wasn't like her to get so drunk she couldn't remember things. Wrapped up in her own thoughts one suddenly crept up on her, 'Kay' her face paled, oh god, he would kill her, he was already angry with her for once again not obeying him, but this was likely to get her killed. Her panic grew and she began to move frantically around the man's room muttering to herself some indeterminable statements about how she didn't want to die and not wanting him to be killed because she was so stupid. She was in for it now, she was in so much trouble and had no way out of it. Unless the man kept his mouth shut, but he seemed to be scared out of his mind, so there was no guarantee of that. Arabella tried to revert back into her calm state, but it wasn't working as well as she hoped. She heard him ask for help, foolish man, no one would help them knowing what they just did. This was bad, even for her, and she was unsure of how to fix it. "What the hell, what the hell happened, you answer me right this instant! she didn't mean to yell but now she was angry, always letting that rage get the better of her "What did we do and how did we get here!? she was furious, more with herself, but she needed to take it out on someone. If she was in trouble, so was he, and she'd make sure he knew it. Clearly he had taken advantage of her being drunk, which was rude and she was extremely offended by it. She would blame him for this, then she'd be okay...but then she'd feel bad. Sighing, she sat back down and peered at the floor, hands over her face. She wanted to cry.

[Eldon Sunkiss]

By the time Arabella had woken up, Eldon had gone into some ridiculous series of exceptionally deep breaths, inhales and exhales, trying desperately to calm himself, but the knot in his stomach was as strong as ever, and his panic was relentless. It wasn't until the girl had taken the blanket, wrapping herself up to cover her indecency, and exposing Eldon's naked body once more, then Eldon even noticed her being awake. He messaged his temples roughly as he tried to cure the raging headache. No, it wasn't going to happen. This was only the first and immediate stage of his punishment. To her initial question, Eldon could only shrug, but was shamefully silent. He knew this was bad, she knew this was bad. And of everything he remembered from the previous night consisted only of two things. The first, and biggest clue, was the night spent at the Trough. It was the tavern, more Ale than an Olidosapux could carry was consumed, and the second was a name. Her name, Arabella. Perhaps that was wrong, something he came up with, but it sounded right. Sounded right in this very wrong situation. Eldon didn't know how to answer her question, except with one of his own. "Did you go to the Trough last night?" Eldon didn't know if it would be better that she had, and like him, was wasted beyond reason, or if she was sober, playing a victim, and planned to blackmail him for who knows what. Sick, still sick. Eldon wanted to run out of his pavilion, not even take time to clothe himself, and flee from Endrykas. That wasn't the manly thing to do. Sh-sh, calm down. It's alright. I'm no genius, but if you have as bad of a headache as I do, then I think I have a good guess." Eldon had to assume she understood. They were both drunk, he was depressed, perhaps even lonely, if she felt even a faint connection to that, it was possible she had been drawn to his miserable state. Alcohol did some strange wonders upon people. "I think... we went to bed together." That was possibly the most obvious deduction ever, and it wasn't what either of them wanted to hear, but it had been true. They had sex. It wasn't deniable. Eldon cursed himself under his breath as he lifted his palm to his eye, trying to cover himself from at least a portion of the sunlight that lit up the tent. He was in agony, and remembered now why he never drank. His father had forbidden it, and though Eldon had done it before, this was only his second time, he was desperate to forget. Now he was desperate to remember in the hopes that, just perhaps, it wasn't like it seemed. And by the gods he was sore. She must have been crazy. "Arabella? I think that's your name. Look, this is bad, for both of us. I... I think it'd be best to... deny this to anybody, everybody..." This could ruin Eldon's reputation, her reputation could be even more damaged, being a woman. Worst of all, it could get him killed if she, by any chance, was related to any easily provoked men.

[Arabella Starweaver]

His breathing was beginning to drive her nuts, he was acting insane. The situation was bad but he needed to calm down so she could think. She had moved her hands from her face to tell him so when she realized he was naked. She had taken all the furs and now he sat before her totally naked. Arabella couldn't help herself, she let her eyes trail over his body, practically devouring him with her mind. He was gorgeous, at least she would die for a worthy cause, she was beginning to thing this was well worth the trouble she would be in. Even when she was drunk she had good taste. These thoughts had left this almost wicked looking smile on her face, she was pleased with herself in a way. And she didn't care at that moment, who knew what had just happened. Her mind whirled again, she kept hearing Eldon in her mind over and over again. Was it this beautiful creatures name? She would assume it was for fear of looking stupid, it could be right, how would she know? She hadn't realized she was still staring at him and quickly looked away, not wanting to make him freak out again, he had finally stopped the insane breathing. The Trough? It wasn't a place she generally hung out at, but she thought for a few moments. She had gone, she needed to get away for a while and no one would have thought to look for her there. She obviously drank way more then she knew, and was embarrassed by it. Arabella like to be in control, especially of herself, and being that drunk had obviously stopped her from that. "Yes, I was there last night, sitting at a back table." she didn't know why she remembered that small detail. She could see herself clearly walking into the bar and trying to find a lone place to sit away from everyone. Why would he come all the way to the back of the place to see her though? That didn't make any sense. She was confused again, but didn't want to think on it for to long. She glared at him as he stated the obvious, the had clearly slept together. They were naked and were curled up intertwined when they woke up. She could still feel his warm body up against hers, and remembered the connection to him. He had looked so sad walking into that bar, and her face had mirrored his, there was no where to sit when he came in, except with her. Fate had a cruel way of playing games with people, and she wasn't happy about the turn out, at least that's what her outward appearance showed. Inside this was the best she had felt in a long time, she was ashamed of that feeling, she should hate herself for what they had done, so why didn't she? Why was she somehow okay with this and almost happy about it? There was no answer to her questions in her own mind, and she doubted these questions would go over well if she asked the man before her so she remained quiet. She heard his suggestion and agreed. "If my brother finds out about this we are both dead, and I don't mean a little, I mean he will kill us in a horrible and painful way." God she would be in for it if Kay ever found out. She realized he had said her name and nodded "I'm Arabella, and you're Eldon right?" she hoped she was right, that would be embarrassing if he remembered her and she didn't remember him. She was still peering at him against her will, she couldn't help it, and she couldn't help enjoying it either. She got a chill, and a flashback to the night before, it made her blush scarlet. She could almost feel the heat from the night before, it still coursed through her. Arabella tried to push the thoughts away but they were persistent. He would be able to tell what she was thinking if she couldn't wipe the dazed and pleasured look off her face, she tried to hide it and cover her face up.

[Eldon Sunkiss]

Eldon nodded lightly as he struggled against the sound of drums crashing against the walls of his skull. His eyes felt like they were throbbing. His hands, pushing against either side of his head displayed this without him having to say it. "That... yeah, I think that's right. We must have drank too much... the Ale probably convinced us we were... in love..." Eldon paused a moment to swallow, which was such a large lump in his throat he could have sworn it was audible. "And then... yeah." Eldon bit his lower lip as he lifted his hands from his head to look at her again. Was he still very drunk, or did he actually catch her eying him? Eldon sighed, convincing himself he was being foolish and still inebriated from the night before. Eldon only nodded when she told about her brother possibly killing them. It was as he feared, yet confirming it somewhat relieved him. He was no longer fretting about what happened. At least now he knew what to expect. He shrugged and grinned. Now that he thought about it, the whole situation was just a mess, part comedy, part confusion, all fun. It as so bizarre that he could dread what was to come from this despicable situation, yet still not convince himself he regretted it at all. He looked at her, who only turned red as something came to her mind. Perhaps she was remembering something, something that was worthy of turning the many shades of the sun over. Eldon chuckled lightly, it was a little childish, but adorable. And miraculous, he eased up. The tension faded. Eldon lay back down on the cot, which was too small for two grown people to actually sleep on (he had to assume that there was little sleeping to be done, and when it was, neither of them would notice or care if they were part on grass). He was tired, in pain from the hang over, in pain from... fun, and just emotionally exhausted. Eldon waited for Arabella to finish her bashful huddling before finally replying. "That's me, Eldon." He chuckled briefly as he closed his eyes. He was too tired to worry, too tired to care if he was about to die. Maybe, if he just drifted off to sleep, everything would be fixed, change for the better, or at least he could bypass the pain that was inevitably to follow. Still, he felt very exposed, and though he was a little more bold to be sitting in front of the opposite sex in the nude that she was, it was also a little cold. Winter was almost over, but the cool night's breeze was still lingering in the air. Eldon just lay there, eyes closed, a faint but genuine smile on his lips, and the occasional chuckle rumbling in his throat behind sealed lips. "So, what are we going to do then? Keep it a secret?" Eldon wondered if it was even a secret to begin with. The neighboring pavilions weren't exactly far, and not close to sound proof. What if they were as aggressive and energized as he believed? It was unlikely that they were exactly discreet. Hell, they might already be found out this very moment. Still, Eldon smiled. It was foolish, but honestly, it was funny.

[Arabella Starweaver]

Love? What did love have to do with it? It was fun, what was it they called it...ecstasy. That's what she remembered feeling, especially as the flashbacks kept rolling over her. She let her hand trail over her left shoulder and looked down at it, a bruise, he had bit her, so these memories were real. She blushed again and stopped poking at it, it hurt slightly to the touch. "And then yea? Is that all you can say?" she was almost offended he didn't remember it like she did. Maybe she was over-doing it in her mind, maybe it wasn't as great as the visions led her to believe. If it was, it wasn't something you'd simply forget and gain no memory of over time. "You're saying you remember nothing? Nothing after we left there?' her eyes flashed, getting slightly darker, her anger was obvious, or was it something else? Hurt maybe? It wasn't something she generally felt. She dismissed the feeling without another thought. He was laughing? How could anyone laugh at a time like this? Arabella didn't understand, confused once again, a feeling she was rapidly becoming familiar with since waking up in this strangers arms. 'strong, beautiful, wonderful, masculine arms...' "NO!"she flushed red again, embarrassed she had chastised herself out loud for her awful thoughts. She had to get these thoughts and feelings out of her head or she would go totally insane. She tried to focus on anything but him, she finally settled on a corner, and stared it, refusing to look at him, if she didn't see him the thoughts would go away. Or so she thought, the memories kept pushing at her, and she kept getting angry at them. Her stupid brain was ruining her will power. He confirmed his name, she was glad she got it right, and looked back at him. Damn it, there goes that idea. He layed down, he wasn't helping the situation or the irrefutable lust she suddenly felt again. It was obviously the drinking, that's right, she hadn't gotten it all out of her system, it wasn't lust, it was drunkenness. That's what she told herself, and she decided to believe it. She couldn't possibly want someone she didn't even know, it didn't make sense. She eyed him again, laying down with his eyes closed he almost look glorious, the sunlight bathed him in its glow and made him shine. Her mouth was open, like she was going to say something, but it was more of awe than anything else. She snapped it shut, nearly drooling. These thoughts would go away or else! His nudity needed to stop, it was driving her insane and she couldn't stand it anymore. She threw the furs on him. Wrapping her arms around herself she let out a long sigh of relief, that was so much better, the temptation was hidden now. Like a gift...wrapped up waiting to be-damn it why did that keep happening? She wanted to shut her mind off for a while. She closed her eyes and leaned up against a wall, trying to relax. She wondered if anyone knew she was here, or if Kay realized she had never come home last night. If they were found it would be bad, she should leave, but she didn't really want to. "I guess we have to keep it a secret, there is no way around it is there?" She wasn't sure, as far as she knew there wasn't. Kayiri had kept her very sheltered from the opposite sex and didn't tell her much about the laws around it other then if anyone touches you I'll kill them. He had said that since they were kids, and he had meat it. She only hoped he didn't find out about this. She would hate to see Eldon die.

[Eldon Sunkiss]

Eldon opened his eyes again to look at her, since now she was both visibly and audibly angry with him. It was so strange, being in so many different emotional corners at the same time. Eldon, maybe was being ridiculous, but though she was upset with him not because of what had happened between them, but because he couldn't recall anything quite so vividly as he should. There were scattered images, blurred memories, bits and pieces of conversation that he didn't understand, but nothing solid. He sat up again as he continued to massage his temple. She seemed to have recovered or come farther along in her recovery than he had. "I remember some things." Eldon, this time, blushed faintly. His skin was darker though, significantly tanned by the many days under the sun, out on the plains, working at the Watering Hole shirtless. His blushing was a lot less noticeable, but he could feel it just as easily. "But I don't want to embarrass you anymore than you already have been." Eldon winced lightly, admitting to himself more than to her that he felt entirely responsible for what had happened between them. He felt responsible for approaching her, for drinking so much, chatting with her so long, offering her more drinks than she should have had, drinking more than he could comprehend. Perhaps it had been equally their faults, but he felt like he should have done better to watch himself, to protect her instead of harming her. "I'm sorry. I accept all the blame for this." Eldon lay back down, at about the same time his entire body was concealed by a flying furred blanket. Eldon, instantly feeling the warmth from her body lingering on the fur reminded him of that feeling from last night that he could not see, but he heard so acutely. He also noted that it was still cold, and he wasn't about to let her get sick just because he was embarrassing her with his nudity (he assumed that was the reason). He stood up and carried the blanket back over to her, wrapped it around her shoulders, and turned away. "I'll find some pants, and I'm sure your clothes are around here somewhere." Eldon moved across the pavilion to the opposite side, opened a chest, rummaged through it, and pulled out a pair of heavily worn, brown, pants. They were in desperate need of patching, the knees and ankles of the legs were either nothing but holes, or worn away completely, still, it concealed his privates. Eldon closed the chest and sat on it, and though his body was facing Arabella, he held his gaze on the grassy floor between his bare feet. Fear, irresponsible joy, desperate need for forgiveness, he was being just as emotional as she was, given it was less vivid. He was still dealing with that, plus the loss of his father, which he was certain he told her all about in his drunken stupor. Eldon sat there a moment, recollecting his wits as he started pacing the pavilion, all the while collecting articles of clothing he knew weren't his, thus were obviously hers. It wouldn't but a minute to find everything of hers, except a shirt. A shirt. Eldon knew she couldn't leave without that. Eldon knew she couldn't even leave wearing his shirt. It would spoil the entire secret, such a silly and dangerous secret. After searching for several more minutes, he turned back to face Arabella. "I don't suppose you know where your shirt is..." Eldon paused as he set her pile of clothing down and, in a rather hasty manner, walked to the entrance to his little pavilion and through open the cloth. And sure enough, his memory did come back to him, her shirt had been cast off several meters outside and before the Sunkiss Pavilion. Damn... they weren't only aggressive, but in a hurry. Eldon felt sick again as he ran out to retrieve it, and ran back inside. "Don't be angry." Eldon folded the shirt and placed it next to the rest of her belongings. It was more of a pleading than a suggestion really. The two of them were so eager, thanks to the ale surely, that they even began stripping (themselves? each other?) before they were inside. It wasn't often Endrykas saw such hungry passion as that, surely. Throughout that entire night, Eldon had lost control. Yet he wasn't certain Arabella had it either.

[Arabella Starweaver]

Arabella felt his eyes on her, she opened her own and saw him looking at her. She didn't understand any of this really, she was just confused and didn't know how to handle all of this. He was taking all the blame and she remembered then, it hadn't been his idea. Oh god, of course it was it was her idea to leave. She could hear the laughter now in her mind, heard them yelling what they were saying to each other, so drunk they could barely walk. They tripped all over the place and held onto each other, taking each other down to the ground when they fell. He fell full out and she fell on him. Oh good, she just had to remember this now, of course she did, she remained concentrated on it though, not understanding why. They were laughing like imbeciles, and they looked like them too, she hoped no one had seen them for what happened next. She had started it, not him, if anyone was to blame it was. She was staring at him, and kissed him, practically pinning him to the ground with her entire body. He pulled away slightly but gave in and rolled her over. Arabella blinked a few times, she couldn't remember how they got back to the pavilion, just that they were shoving each ther up against the walls, pawing at each other. She remembered where her clothes were now, just outside the room. There hands were all over each other, roughly pushing and tearing at each others skin. How could his back not hurt, she looked down at her fingernails, there it was, skin-evidence that what she saw was real. She had dragged them down and around his back, through his hair, pulling him closer to her. She didn't even know how she knew what to do, she had never slept with anyone before, never even seen a man naked up until now, it didn't make any sense, just like everything else. She let out a small almost moan-like sound, embarassed she tried to cover it up by coughing, the vision had gotten to her but she wouldn't let on that it had affected her in anyway. "You don't owe me an apology, I owe you one, this is MY fault. I'm so mortified, I'm so sorry this could be so bad for you, my brother Kayiri, he is crazy you could be in so much trouble and I'm so sorry I didn't mean to do it oh please don't be mad at me" she just babbled, crying now, something no one had ever seen her do. "I don't know what came over me, all the drinking and I was upset and we were just on the ground and I'm so I can't I don't know...." she was hysterical, her speech broken and hard to understand she continued her ramblings. "I didn't mean to cut your back open either oh I'm so sorry does it hurt I didn't mean to please don't be mad I won't tell anyone about it no one has to find out I didn't mean it!" it was like she had gone off the deep end, freaking out about every little thing she could think of. Her eyes watered and tears ran down her face and fell onto her legs. How could she have been so stupid? He gave her back the blanket, she pulled it around her, trying to calm down. "My clothes are outside the room." she practically whispered it in shame. She tried to avoid eye contact with him but looked up when he turned his back to her. Streaks of puffy red lines were everywhere, it looked like he had been in a fight and she was so embarassed she had done that. If it was possible, her face reddened even more. She couldn't believe she had ripped his skin open like that. She didn't know what to say about it. He placed the clothes by her, he looked embarassed as well, maybe she had offended him in some way. She was still crying, and she was furious for herself for it, it was almost a sin to show weakness in front of someone else. She was strong and tough and far to proud for this, but she couldn't seem to help herself, the tears kept flowing and she was making little choking sounds and breathing quickly. It was awful, she had never felt so terrible in all her life. He ran outside, why was he outside? Then she saw it as he folded it. Her shirt. "You have got to be kidding me..."she muttered to herself. She was half naked outside! How could she have let that happen. Another vision, she was backwards, her back towards the pavillion, they stopped her arms wrapped around his neck her lips pressed against his, he pulled off her shirt and moved his hands down her back. She blinked, not wanting to see more of this. She covered her tear stricken face with her hands, how could he even look at her, she was jut bad. "Kayiri is going to kill me if he finds out, this can not be happening right now." she didn't know how to get out of this. Arabella still felt everything she saw, it was like reliving a horrible nightmare, but she enjoyed it. Her skin pricked with goosebumps and she tingled all over. She loved the feeling she had, warm and welcoming and comforting. All the things she had been thinking and going through, wanting to get away from Endrykas seem to disappear when she had the flashbacks. She just wanted to live in that moment. She hated that moment. It tormented her, it was evil and wrong and against her brother's rules. But why then did she want it to keep going? She was lost, her tears continued but her breathing had evened out, she tried to calm herself down. Curling into the warm blanket she looked up at Eldon, her face a mixture of sadness and happiness.

[Eldon Sunkiss]

When Eldon had finally gathered her clothes and stopped with his self-pity irresponsible attack on himself and looked up at her, she was tearing, crying, sobbing pitifully. She looked like she was, at least emotionally destroyed. Eldon frowned as he walked over to her, huddled in that blanket. He knelt down and wrapped his arms around her, doing his best to comfort her, but trying desperately not to cause her further discomfort. She was already so upset, and it was making him feel miserable for even allowing this. If her story was true, which he wasn't sure if it was just something she was doing to try and make him feel less guilty, then it was her fault for creating the opportunity. Eldon was still a villain himself though, he took it. Eldon lowered his head, placing his forehead on the back of her scalp. "Shh, stop that. We got into this mess together, we'll get out of it the same. I promise." Eldon reached around her from behind, tugging the blanket closer to her. He continued to whisper in her ear, anything to ease her fears. "I know your brother. We're friends. He may hate me after this, but I owe him a good fight after what happened last season. Nobody is going to die." Still though, it seemed that the best choice would be to keep this silent, pretend it never happened, and acted as though they never met. But that was impossible. Something as passionate as that, it may not be perfectly clear to them just yet, but it would never leave them. Eldon continued to sit there, kneeling behind Arabella, clothed only in Eldon's blanket, his arms wrapped around her in platonic embrace. It seemed so trivial for that action though. After what they did, there was hardly anything platonic about how they felt. Ale or not, they were both very attracted to each other. Aggressively even, the scratches, bruises, achy muscles and other regions, they were all reminders that what they did was, despite being despicable, was incredible. Eldon smiled, getting the idea that maybe, just a little humor would cheer her up, or if anything, take her mind off of blame and such. "You know what? You were pretty loud last night." Well, truth was that they were both very inconsiderate to the neighbors trying to sleep. The giggling and screaming, moaning and everything else made for one sleepless night for the entire vicinity. Eldon, however, couldn't help but wonder why she was so heavily guarded by her brother. She was obviously an adult now. She didn't need a brother to follow her around like a father does his baby daughter. Perhaps their father was long gone, and Kayiri had taken that role to heart, and carried it too far. Eldon couldn't help but feel a little anger for Kayiri, forcing such a life on Arabella like that. Perhaps this was wrong, and Eldon was definitely being crazy, but he had to ask. "Does this have to end? How long until your brother allows you to be the beautiful woman you are? Certainly what we did was irresponsible, but... what if we keep going? We can be more responsible, we can explain everything when the time comes." Eldon felt his jaw tense, he was almost shocked that he even dared to ask such a question. It wasn't as if he asked her to marry him or run away with him. Just, if they kept seeing each other to see if it could work out. That in itself was more responsible, even if just a little. No, that was bad. Eldon shook his head as he contemplated slapping himself with all his might. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. It's probably too soon, and after what happened it would be just..." Eldon sighed, obviously giving up on trying to recover from the situation. He fear now how she would take what he said.

[Arabella Starweaver]

Arabella was still trying to stop herself from crying, it was difficult, she felt so bad. Something like this could ruin her reputation, not to mention his. But he was sweet and came over and talked to her. She leaned against him, like a rag doll she went limp. She didn't know if she should respond to him or not. How would the get through it together? If anyone found out they'd be in trouble, and whether he knew Kay or not, he was likely to be in for it. Her brother wasn't someone you screwed with, even she knew that and she was his blood. He was never one for chances about things like this. He wouldn't think twice before coming after Eldon or her most likely. She clutched the insides of the blanket tightly around her, taking slow deep breaths. Her tears eased up a little, she needed to relax, she couldn't be practical when she was acting like this. "We must never speak of this, ever." it almost hurt her to say that, she didn't want to not think of it or speak of it, she wanted to keep it up in fact. It was selfish to think that way, he probably just wanted her to leave his pavilion and not come back anyway. She would force herself to get over it, she had to. There was no other option here. She could still see it and hear it, it played over and over again, new bits and pieces coming to light. Apparently the cot was unused, that made more sense, no one could fit more then one person there. She was like a common whore, she had done it on the floor and almost out in the open. Arabella couldn't shake the embarrassment and then he said it. She whirled around and slapped him. It was loud too, it echoed a little and she shrank back from him. "Oh my god, Eldon I am so sorry, I didn't mean it..." her voice trailed off and she lifted her arm to touch his face. It was slightly red where she had hit him, if Kay didn't kill her probably would for that. It just happened, she reacted to his comment and snapped. She kneeled in front of him now ashamed with herself "Oh gosh, I'm really sorry, I was just so embarrassed, I didn't mean it.." guilt crept up on her again. The blanket fell from her shoulder as she touched his face, exposing her left side. She didn't seem to notice it, she was focused on his face, feeling bad. "Was I really?" Kept seeing each other? Was he completely mad? They'd be found out for sure then and they'd be in even bigger trouble. One indisgression could possibly be over looked, but more then that? It was like he was asking her to be punished. Even as she thought all of this her mouth of course worked without being connected to her mind. "I would like nothing more in the world then that...but...I mean, its not up to me who I'm with. It's up to Kayiri. It's always been up to him." It was true, she didn't make those decisions, her brother did. It was a law, Drykas women didn't marry unless they had permission. At least that's what she had always thought. People had asked before, and been turned away, which had never bothered her. Arabella never like any of them anyway, nor did she know them. She should tell him to go away, to leave her alone, but the idea of never seeing him again caused her pain. She felt almost a desperation to be close to him. "We would have to be very careful, if anyone saw we'd be in trouble. You know that." if he didn't know it he should now. She should have shook some sense into him, maybe she should have slapped him again, or ran out, naked or not. But she didn't, she sat there kind of staring at him. She didn't know what to say, he had tried to take it back, she was so embarrassed for talking like she had. But it was just how she felt, and she couldn't seem to keep her mouth shut. So much so that she leaned in and kissed him, stupidly, because clearly she was a glutton for punishment. If he rejected her, she would simply leave and push him out of her mind forever. She could do that, it wouldn't be that hard, right? She pulled her face back, she felt heat creep up her neck and there was that tingly feeling. The laughter came back in her head, had it really been so simple to just give herself to him? Arabella's eyes gazed at him in the darkness of the night before and she heard herself say it, thank god he couldn't remember anything, telling perfect strangers you think you love them was a bad thing, but it echoed in her mind. He had had her pinned down, and asked her how she felt and that's when she said it. God how embarrassing, she is telling strangers she loves them now. She would never drink again. She prayed he didn't remember that part of their shared night together.