Taj and Aero: Advent of the Feather King

"Come now, that's an unfair question." Alex replied with a grin, laughing a little to himself. "There's very little to do if you want to define it as self-interest. I was taught all the normal things that young rich men are taught. Reading, writing and what I've already told you of course. But flirting with women was almost as much of a requirement as knowing how to balance a bank book." He leaned back on his hands, thinking for a moment about all of the endeavors that he had as a younger man. "I was supposed to be choosing a wife before I was kidnapped, you know. Actually, I've been overdue for a marriage for a couple of years now. See, I discovered very early on that even though I wasn't going to inherit most of my family's wealth, girls of the court still wanted to be chosen as my wife, especially if they failed at enticing one of my elder brothers. It became a game… If it was hard to get my way, then the women stuck around for a while, but in the end I found that all they wanted was my money, and that they in turn had realized that if they held out on me I would be more intrigued. Quite a malicious cycle, now that I think about it."

*~*

Rose slapped her hand over her mouth, her eyes going wide. No. No way. "Oh no no no no no…" She whispered, horrified by what Demetri was telling her. Why did she ever ask?! In a flurry of feathers and fabric Rose stood, her eyes filling with tears. "I'm so sorry…" She mumbled in a trembling voice before simply taking off into the vastness of the plains, totally unaware of where she was going but needed to get away. Oh how awful! She had done something like…like… THAT! And then had demanded that Demetri do the same to her. What kind of person was she really?!

Ilario looked up when he saw golden hair fleeing the scene, nearly getting bonked straight on the head when Tristan swung for him. "Hold up." He said, jumping back once to get out of Tristan's immediate swinging range. "OI! SNOWMAN! What'd you do to our sister?! You better go get her before she disappears!!"

Oriana listened to him with a slight smile on her face until something caught her attention that sounded slightly…. familiar. If it was hard to get his way…the women stuck around for a while…Her shoulders slumped visibly. So, it really was a game to him, of course it was, she had known he was up to something from the start…but hearing it out loud stung a bit more than she had anticipated or understood. Her gaze drifted to the fire, “Indeed.” She tried to keep her same interest level up, an obvious frown on her face. And he was supposed to be getting married? What was he doing here instead of going back home? There was nothing here holding him back…oh, except for his little game with her. Oriana felt utterly defeated by her lack of knowledge when it came to things like this.

~*~*~*~

Demetri opened his mouth to say something to Rose, but by the time he even tried she was already running off in a hurry. Damnit. He sighed, and stood from where he was debating to go after her or not. His mind was made for him though when Ilario told him to go after her. With a look that held far too much emotion for one man, Demetri took after Rose, easily jogging in the direction she had went. He soon caught up to her and grabbed her wrist with infinite gentleness. “Rose…please…stop.” He waited a second to ensure she wasn’t going to try and run and released her arm. “I’m sorry…” He dipped his head, his dark locks of hair falling over his face.

Silence passed between the two for a long uncomfortable moment. Alex watched Oriana's gaze fall, some emotion welling from the center of his chest that began to eat away at him from the inside. What? Was he regretting telling her the truth? She was incredibly dense, he had known that, especially when it came to her own feelings it seemed. Just the dejected look on her face… It tore at the tiny bit of humanity he had in his heart. "Rose… Had a little talk with me." He confessed, a tad bit reluctantly, folding his legs together and resting his hands in his lap. "You should know, you were a target in my game." The word 'were' was emphasized strongly, Alex's eyes locked onto the side of Oriana's face to gauge her expressions. "I don't think that you're a horse, for what it's worth."

*~*

When Demetri grabbed onto her wrist half of her wanted to struggle out of his grip, the other half of her wanted to simply collapse into his arms. Sorry? Why was he sorry? "You must hate me." She managed to choke out between sobs, her breath coming heavy from running, though she was getting her tears under control. "After I told you that you could reply on me, an then that happens… I'm no better than my brothers." Her whole body trembled, shaking from the intense emotions.

Oriana almost jumped when Alex started talking again, thinking that the silence was going to drag on for a lot longer, but what surprised her more was his topic. Rose spoke to him, why? Oriana felt another slight prick at the mention that she was part of his game, but he did say were and not are. When he said that he didn’t think she was a horse she looked up at him, slightly shocked. “How-…” No, she didn’t want to know how he knew she thought she of herself as a horse and decided to blame it on Rose and her little talk with him. She nearly laughed at the statement though as she placed a hand on her now slightly red face. “Oh? Have you finally given up then?”

~*~*~*~

Demetri looked down to her with concern and took his hand to gently lift her chin to look at him. His eyes bore into her own as he spoke, “Your brothers treat women like play things... you do not, and…” He gave a slightly bitter laugh at his own irony, “You are probably one of the only people I don’t hate.” He admitted to her, though he couldn’t fathom why.

"Give up…?" Alex asked at length, arching an eyebrow in response to her question. He was glad to see that she had been brought out of the rather unbecoming mood she had been earlier, and decided that her blush was kind of cute. "Oh no dear lady, I have decided to pursue you all that much more." That trademark confidence of his was back, though with a little less cockiness than normal. "A jewel such as yourself is something to be pursued to the ends of the earth. Fear not, fair one, for I shall always be nearby should you call for my services. Especially if you would like to indulge yourself with my services." Alex gave Oriana his most charming grin, so at odds with the rather lewd thing that he was implying as to slightly be comical.

*~*

Rose sniffled, her red rimmed golden eyes searching Demetri's face. "You really don't hate me…?" She asked in her watery voice, trying hard not to cry anymore, though she found it difficult to stop completely. Suddenly she couldn't stand it anymore and she leapt forward, clutching the front of Demetri's shirt. "I'm so sorry… I'll make it up to you somehow, I will."

Oriana sighed, secretly that was what she wanted to hear. The thought of Alex no longer bugging the living day lights out of her day in and out seemed like something she didn’t want…She didn’t even want to think of why and put the thoughts to the back of her head. “As if.” She laughed at how ridiculous he was sounding. It was a rare emotion indeed, for Oriana to feel sad, and she was glad it was over as soon as it started. She sighed a little in defeat but in a content sort of way, if that was possible. Oriana sat in a comfortable silence with Alex for a few minutes longer as an amusing thought came to her. “I can see you being the dancing type.” She thought about him in a fancy outfit and girls wearing similar things to Rose did on a daily basis.

~*~*~*~

“Of course no-“ Demetri was cut short when suddenly the girl was clinging to his shirt as she continued her sobbing and promised to make it up to him. He held his arms out slightly, awkwardly not knowing what to do and then put a hand on her head gently. “All I ask is you stop crying.” He mumbled down to her.

A small smile broke out over his features, not the sarcastic or cocky kind that normally graced his handsome features, but an honest smile devoid of sarcasm. "Are you curious to try and find out yourself?" He asked in a slightly lower tone of voice. Dancing and swordplay are actually very similar. If you can do one, you can handle the other just fine." A devious light was in his eye suddenly, an idea occurring to him. "You are a fine swordsman, now that I think about it. And your cousins seem to be of the upper crust sorts, so you must at least have heard of dances. Come on, stand with me. You can beat me up in a sparring match later if you'd like." Alex stood and patted his backside off, holding his hand down to help lift Oriana to her feet.

*~*

Eventually Rose did stop crying, her body stopped shaking with the overwhelming emotion of shame and she stood back, rubbing her eyes with the heel of her hands in an attempt to push all of the tears out. "Alright, I'll stop then." She finally managed to say, her voice thin and weak. "Can… can we still be friends?"

Oriana wanted to say no to him but the offer to beat the crap out of him over a sparring match sounded just too good to pass up. She took his offering hand and stood, dusting off her clothing. She looked at him a bit awkwardly. “I’ll admit, I’ve never actually danced before.” She had heard Rose talk about then every now and again but in honesty she figured Kol would never allow her to go. If he did then she would be able to interact with other males and perhaps might not be in love with Demetri this moment.

~*~*~*~*~

Demetri looked down at Rose once more. Still be friends? What kind of question was that? He felt laughter bubble up inside of him and chuckled softly putting a hand to his mouth to stop the foreign noise from escaping him. “I think I can manage that.”

"I'm sure that you will be fantastic at it." Alex replied with a grin and took Oriana's hands in his own. "Like I said, it's like swordplay, only minus most of the violence." With a wink, he placed on of her hands on his shoulder and put his now free hand on her waist. "We'll start with the basics. You're pretty intelligent, so I think that you'll catch on quick. It starts with a step back-" He guided Oriana through the basic steps of a waltz, unable to help the grin that appeared to be plastered to his face while he explained step by step what he was doing in order to get Oriana to move the way that he wanted to.

*~*

Rose was confused by Demetri's attempts to stifle his laughter, and separated from him in order to see what was going on. Why was what she said funny…? Not that she minded him laughing. It was one of the few smiles that she had seen the man crack since knowing him, and she couldn't help but to smile in turn. "Alright, good. Thanks Demetri, I um… well, I would have been very sad if I couldn't be friends with you anymore."

Oriana was far too concentrated on the moves to look at Alex’s face. She enjoyed learning new things and if it was similar to swordsmen ship she was confident she could do it. Learning basic moves and steps was a necessary base in learning the arts of the sword so she actually did catch on quickly. She grinned up to him. “This is easy.” She didn’t even think about his hand on her waist, enjoying herself fully.

~*~*~*~

Demetri stood back from the girl and then thought about something. “Can…you actually do me one more favor? Tell your brother’s I did not do anything to harm you?” He asked, knowing full well the twins would grill him otherwise and wondered where the protective brother attitude was when they were making fun of her all the time.

"You're doing great." Alex replied in a soft voice, picking up the tempo of the movement of the steps, always the same pattern. The grin that she gave him at her success was heartwarming, that same strange emotion that had been plaguing him as of late rearing up and stirring things up in his stomach that usually remained motionless. Her concentrated face was just so intriguing… and he couldn't help himself any longer. Alex bent his face down and placed a small kiss on Oriana's forehead, the touch lingering for only a few seconds. He then disengaged his hand from her slim waist and spun her around. "A reward for doing so well." He supplied in a low voice, hoping that the girl wouldn't smack him too hard for the invasion of her space.

*~*

Rose did giggle at that, her sniffling having decreased a bit in loudness and wetness now that everything was right with the world. "Those two… Yeah, I'll let them know. Though I don't think that they'd care much. They never care much." She frowned, clenching her hands slightly. "But I'll tell them anyway if they ask."

Oriana was so into what she was doing that when Alex bent down to kiss her forehead she was stunned into not moving and if Alex hadn’t spun her around she didn’t know if she actually could. A dark stain of a blush rested on her cheeks as she gently put a hand to her head. “Pervert…” She mumbled, but did nothing else. Her heart raced and she felt an odd feeling in her stomach. Why did he make her nervous?

~*~*~*~

Demetri patted her head her head gently again and faced the direction of the camp. “Shall we head back?” He looked up at the stars dotting the sky, it was an oddly peaceful night only made better that his conscious was no longer eating him alive for what happened with Rose. Though he had an odd feeling Alex would bring it up again and sighed.

The two shared a moment of silence in which Alex debated whether or not to simply grab the girl and run for the hills, but ultimately decided against such action. Instead he drew his sword and took a few steps back, falling into a ready stance. "En garde. I promised that you could try to beat me up if you wanted in a sparring match." he shot Oriana a grin, gesturing at her own sword belt. "Up up, unless you would like to continue the dance lesson."

*~*

"Yeah… yeah, let's go back. I can't see out here worth a darned." Rose wiped at her eyes once more, then apparently had herself back under control. It was a wonder she hadn't stepped in a hole or something she thought, walking back to the camp at Demetri's side only to come upon a very strange sight indeed. Apparently Alex and Oriana had gotten tired of simply standing around, and Alex was looking ready to do battle. She sighed, folding her hands in front of her. "And everything was so peaceful when we left."

Oriana had to take a moment to comprehend what he was saying but grinned in return looking at his sword. “Don’t blame me if you get a scratch on that pretty face.” She withdrew her sword spinning it a few times to get it comfortable in her hands. She was more in her element now and sparred no time leaping on Alex to attack him.

~*~*~*~

Demetri walked back with her in comfortable silence and looked with interest as Alex and Oriana began to duel. “Is it really a bad thing though?” He looked closer at Oriana. “She seems to be enjoying herself.” He commented helping Rose to get closer to the fire and away from the darkness of the surrounding area.

The next two days had the avians flying over the seemingly endless plains, training to fight in the evenings before heading to bed and waking early in the morning to put everything away and get going again. On the second evening they could make out the cliffs that separated the Northern part of the island from the Southwestern quarter, a tiny little village sitting at the base of the sheer cliffs and nestled next to a grand lake that was fed from the water coming off of the plains. They stopped before dusk could set in near the lake's edge and far enough away from town that the residents wouldn't come and bug them.

"Oh finally, a chance to bathe." Rose said when she landed, shrugging off her pack and stretching mightily. She was sore from all the training that they had been doing, that combined with the long flights they had taken were serving to strength then girl up, much better than her pitifully weak state when they had left Turich's mountains. They had been away from home for ten days now, and though she was a little homesick, Rose was glad to be out here looking for her parents instead of hidden away in their ruined mansion back home. "Oriana, would you like to go wash with me? We might as well take the chance to clean our clothes as well."

Alex looked up at the mention of Oriana possibly getting naked, hiding his grin by working on pulling out the tent poles from his own traveler's bag. Of course he should probably offer his coat before she got naked, but he was certainly not above letting her not learn from her mistakes. That… and there was some opportunity to be had here. The plains still left the place rather flat, but there were great big boulders that clustered around the lake's edge. Perfect for hiding behind for a couple of girls in a group of men, but also perfect to fly up on and watch without ever being noticed. So, even if Oriana did think to bring something to cover herself up with before getting undressed and wet, he still had an opportunity to peep.

Oriana landed and rolled her shoulders. “A bath sounds nice…” She thought a moment before it looked like she realized something and turned to Alex. “Can I borrow your jacket again?” She asked a rather slight blush on her face, but she had no other choice unless she wanted to sit near the lake until she was dry…though she believed Alex wouldn’t let her anyway. It was a fair bit warmer where they were and she wouldn’t mind going without but she didn’t want to take the chance to let Alex see her. Again.

Tristan grinned up at Alex and Oriana and put a hand on his hip. “Aww, they are sharing clothing now.” He was all for pushing them two in a relationship, even more so when it seemed that his sister would not get anywhere with Demetri. He was still under the impression he had a certain apathy for her. Despite their…’alone’ time.

Rose narrowed her gaze at her brother, finding her thin robe that she wore last time and tossed it over her shoulder. Alex, however, was rather encouraged by Tristan's goading which was accompanied by a snort from Ilario. With deliberate slowness, he removed his coat and handed it to Oriana. "Think dirty thoughts while you're wearing this please. It keeps the cloth wrinkle-free."

"Boys!" Rose said in an aggravated tone and grabbed Oriana by the wrist, stomping off toward the lake with a rather angry look on her face as the two walked. Ilario was having a ball, and she was pretty sure that Alex would probably be making some sort of stupid face like he always did. Things quieted down when they actually got to the lake and she sighed heavily, dropping Oriana's arm and went about the process of getting undressed. "I wish I were strong like you Oriana. Then I could beat Tristan's face in when he's being stupid."

*~*

Back at camp, Alex's plan was formulating in his head, and one look over to Demetri had the gloomy man's fate sealed. After getting the tent rigged up and ready to go, he walked over to the quiet lad and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, want to come with me to go scouting around the lake? There are probably bandits around here or something, and I wouldn't want the girls to get kidnapped while they were bathing."

Ilario of course heard this and had to try hard from laughing. Of course Alex would try something like this. It was brilliant. He put forth as much will power as he could muster into keeping a straight face. "Oh hey, yeah, could you do that? I'm going to take Ryleon and go hunting for some sticks so that we can have a fire tonight." Even as he said that he went and stood by the younger man, feeling rather proud of himself for coming up with such a believable reason to keep the boy from interfering with Alex's master scheme.

Oriana wanted to leap on each boy and punch them so hard they couldn’t talk for a month but before she could Rose went to her work scolding them and then dragging her off. “You wouldn’t want to be both the healer and the fighter to your own brothers, Rose. I can’t see that being good on anyone’s pride.” She stripped her clothing after kicking off her boots and set them neatly on a rock. She set Alex’s coat near it and sighed. She dipped her foot into the water and shivered. “It’s a bit chilly...” She warned her cousin.

~*~*~*~

Demetri eyed Alex but shrugged, finding his logic sound enough. “Alright.” He stood and walked off in the direction of the lake with Alex and suddenly he became a bit worried. “Alex…this is the same route the girls took…” He sounded as if he was catching on and then sighed, no..he couldn’t…right?

Ryleon opened his mouth to protest the ideas going around the camp but couldn’t going with Ilario and soon Tristan to look for firewood. “I don’t trust either of you..” He spoke mostly to Ilario, being the main instigator of it all.

"I would only heal them so that I could smash their face in more." Rose said with a determined scowl, stripping off her clothing in an almost violent fashion. She followed after Oriana, wincing at the chill of the water. Well, they wouldn't be in there for long. She felt her skin prickle all over with goosebumps and shivered once. "How I wish that it was summer time…" She mumbled, walking waist deep into the water before dropping her clothes in and go about the process of scrubbing them clean. "So, how are things with you and Alex? You seemed pretty happy sparring the other night."

*~*

"Of course this is the same route they took. If they got in trouble, we would want to be near by, right?" Alex shot a grin at his companion, looking around for a place to hide and watch the show. He wanted to see just exactly how Demetri was coming along in his development of emotions, and this seemed as good a chance as any that he was going to get. "Ah, that rock there. We can probably watch out for the girls pretty well from there. Come!" With far too happy of a grin to be totally innocent, Alex simply grabbed Demetri's arm and took off, landing a short while later just below the crest of the rock. He climbed it a bit and peered over, slipping back down the face of it and giving his fellow man a thumbs up. "I was right. Perfect place to keep watch."

*~*

"Oh Ryleon, you need to loosen up." Ilario said with a gringo that usually indicated that Ryleon should do just the opposite. "We're just getting firewood. You need that to cook, right? Plus I'm starving, and the girls are off being useless, so it's up to us to get dinner ready."

“Summer time would be lovely…” Oriana decided to just go for it, getting in the water and dunking her head as fast as possible, taking her clothes under water with her. When she took back to the surface she went waist deep and stood, rubbing at her clothing. “I…” She looked down at the water. “I don’t get him. He told me you talked to him and how he doesn’t think I’m a horse…A little hard to believe though, ya know?” She said with a nervous laugh, which quickly died off.

~*~*~*~

Demetri followed Alex and as soon as they landed he frowned as he caught sight of the girls. “You brought be here to peep on them, didn’t you?” He gave a dry look to him, “Not like I haven’t seen most of her away…” He mumbled quietly, talking about Rose of course, having no interest in the scary Oriana. He still didn’t see how Alex held so much interest for her either.

~*~*~*~

“I swear if one of them comes back with a black eye…” Ryleon mumbled, picking up twigs here and there.

"He doesn't?!" Rose nearly shrieked, incredulous. "You mean, that actually worked? I didn't think that-" She stopped, a dumbfounded look on her face, then resumed cleaning her clothes silently for a little while. "I saw that he was really starting to bug you, so I thought I would save him and the rest of us some grief and I took him out behind that Inn in Didienne. I told him to quit bothering your and treat you like a person… I didn't think that he'd actually listen."

*~*

For a moment was about to make a snarky remark, then it actually sunk in as to what Demetri had said. "You've already-?!" He was speechless for a second, only able to stare at the man dumbfounded. "I knew that Rose had gotten into your pants, but to think that you got up her's too… What happened?" He had to be careful to keep his voice down, conscious of the fact that if they raised their voices both he and Demetri would probably be in severe trouble.

Oriana looked at her stunned now. “That long ago? The idiot took that long for /something/ to sink in?!” She rubbed at her clothing angrily getting all the dirt off of it and then calmed once she felt her frustration was taken out on the poor material. “What about Demetri? Is he talking more to you? Or you to him?” She asking, wanting to get off the topic of Alex.

~*~*~*~

Demetri turned a few shades darker. He had already told the story once to Rose, who was involved, perhaps it would be easy to tell Alex? “She..pleasured me…and I her…” He twisted his hands nervously, it honestly wasn’t something to brag about and he hoped Alex wouldn’t take it that way and then go blabbing about it. “She was about as naked as she is now…just had…her underwear on…” He admitted sighing as he did so this time. It wasn’t as hard to say it and he was sure Alex would not have the same reaction as Rose.

Rose felt a little bad for her cousin, grateful that she didn't have someone as stubborn and hardheaded as Alex was. However, at the mention of Demetri, Rose flushed a bit and sank down into the water, scrubbing her pants. "I asked him what really went on that night. It was… a bit shocking… but.. that's over now, and we're still friends, which is good. He's opened up to me a lot, I think, though he still keeps to himself a lot."

*~*

He wanted to congratulate Demetri. High five him right there and pop open a bottle of something cold. The man had finally got himself some tail, but there was one little hang up. "She was still in her underwear? That whole time? So how did you…?" He looked from Demetri, to Rose and back again, a look of confusion plain on his face. Suddenly, it dawned on him, and he looked even more awed. "You lucky son of a dog. How is it that your girl is the one that gets drugged and mine only gets drunk?"

Oriana kept her eyes on her clothes to keep from making Rose feel even more uncomfortable. “That’s progress isn’t it?” She asked trying to sound optimistic for her. The man really never spoke to her and she was fine with it. He seemed depressing and that just wasn’t her style to deal with. She was impatient with people like him and she knew it. So it was best to avoid him until Rose could make him normal.

~*~*~*~*~

Demetri continued to fidget. “You honestly couldn’t /want/ to take advantage of a high women right?” He looked down as if to remember something. “She was so…forceful about it. I don’t think I really had too much of a choice…” He grinned slightly at the man, it felt unnatural to have his face making such gestures but in the situation it called for it. Rose had driven him nuts with her constant rubbing on him and her soft skin against his drove him past control. Alex would have given in long before he did, and wouldn’t mind either, he told himself.

A wistful sigh escaped Rose, finished now with cleaning her clothes as best she could given the situation and took to simply floating in the cold water, running her fingers through her hair. "Yes, it is, and that's all that I can ask of him. I… I wish that his past hadn't been so traumatic. Physical wounds are easy to fix… but the ones that stem from emotional wounds… I don't know if I could ever help to fully heal him."

*~*

Alex leaned against the boulder that the two were hiding against and shook his head at Demetri. "I wouldn't actually have sex with an inebriated woman, no. That's just way too easy. But if I can get some free fun out of it…" He shrugged his shoulders and made an open-handed gesture. "Why not? I don't purposely drug women, either. It's like cheating. If I can't win them over with my natural charisma, then what's the point in the effort? They're just going to run for it when they wake up sober anyway." Briefly he looked up over the edge of the rock, saw that the two girls were still mostly concealed under the water and decided to bide his time a bit more and talk with Demetri. This was possibly the most he'd ever heard the man say, and certainly the first time he had ever seen him grin.