Taj and Aero: Advent of the Feather King

“He never told us what happened, and I don’t think I want to know…That is something for the two of you to share, and if Demetri ever wants to tell someone else that is his business. Though, Rose, I think if there really was anyone to heal him it would be you.” Without another word, Oriana dunked herself under the water and began swimming around, enjoying moving around underneath the water. Coming to the surface quickly, Oriana found a rock for her clothing to sit on while she continued her bath and went back to swimming around.

~*~*~*~

“That’s good to hear, honestly, I wasn’t sure if I should put it past you or not…no offense…” He went silent for a few more minutes and then looked to Alex. “What about Oriana…do you actually…like her or is she a play thing?” He wanted an honest answer out of the man but wasn’t sure if he was going to get one. He had been acting lightly different around the girl and it brought interest to the couple for Demetri.

A small blush colored Rose's face and she followed Oriana's lead, laying out her now clean clothes on a nearby rock to keep clean and then dove in the water, though she popped back up quickly with a small shriek. "That's so cold!" She said with chattering teeth, hugging herself to keep warm in the water. Only very reluctantly did she unfold herself a little to clean off her body, scrubbing down with her hands. "I don't know how you stand it. I'm getting out."

*~*

"Oh no, none taken." Alex replied with a wave of his hand, looking far too casual for being thought one of those men that took advantage of drugged women on a regular basis. Rose's shriek had him looking up over the rock to see if their services as defenders would actually come into play, but up seeing that there were no bandits or else lake monsters, he settled back down. He then settled a look on Demetri that conveyed a dry sort glare. "You know, everyone else in the group is under the impression that you know as much about emotions as you do about swordplay, but I think that is all just a facade. I am under the belief that you are secretly far more perceptive than even me." Alex studied Demetri's face for a little bit, looking quite suspicious. "Why do you want to know?"

Oriana looked to Rose. “Come now, it’s not as if we can have the nice hot bath water like at home.” She floated on the surface for a long moment before following her cousin’s suit and then stood awkwardly on the shore. “I wish I had something to dry off with.” She mentioned with some afterthought and then sat on a boulder, shivering slightly. The wind was the only thing keeping the woman cold as she shook her wings in the other.

~*~*~*~

Demetri wasn’t sure if he should be offended about the comment on his swordsmen ship, he had been working on it a lot with Ilario. At Alex’s question as to why he shrugged. “It interests me. So you have fallen for her then.” He said with no triumph in his voice, only stating facts and how Alex tried to avoid his question. “Oriana is…brash, and seemed like the exact opposite type you would want…and yet…” He let his sentence hang in the air so it could speak for himself.

"Me too…" Rose agreed at length, spreading her wings and flapping them to get the water off, spraying it everywhere, then went about wringing the extra water from her hair. "I hope that we find them soon." She said quietly, squeezing a generous amount of lake water from her golden locks. "They must be scared, taken captive by those things…" Her voice trembled slightly, some from the cold, but the rest from emotion. Rose's heart hurt to think about her younger brothers and sisters, locked up in some dank dark cell all alone.

*~*

"Fallen for her?" Alex scoffed, waving his hand in dismissal. "Please, my good man. You do not fall for someone that easily. And she is exactly all of that and more. Stubborn, strong-willed and somehow nearly completely unaffected by my charms. An interesting creature indeed." Alex took a glance over the rock edge again and grinned, pointing. "Now hush and watch. This is the kind of stuff you get killed for if you're caught."

Oriana frowned. It was easier not to think about her parents but it had to be a lot harder on Rose thinking about not only her parents but all her siblings as well. Her heart constricted painfully at the memory of her mother pushing her away from the circle of floating beings around herself and her pa. She shook her head, “Just think about how we will destroy them once they are found.” Of course Oriana would resort to thinking violent instead of heartache.

~*~*~*~

Demetri gave him a helpless look and turned slightly to look over the rock. They really shouldn’t be doing this but in honestly if he left now they would defiantly be caught and beaten to an inch of their life, revived, and have the process repeated a couple times. Oriana was so scary. At least with Rose he knew that he might not be nearly killed but her cousin…

Once she was done wiping off as much water from her body as she could get off, Rose bent down and picked up her bathing robe, slipping the material on and shivering slightly. A small smile graced her face, though it was of a sad nature rather than of a happy one. "At least we can now. With Tristan's enchantments we can at the very least defend ourselves. I just hope… that we get there in time, is all. Before anything bad can happen to them."

*~*

Alex watched the goings on below with great attention, making sure to soak up every detail that he could before the girls got dressed again, though he wasn't paying all that much attention to Rose, leaving the girl for Demetri's eyes. Truth be told, he was surprised that the man even bother looking, having assumed that he would simply look away and blush. "So, what do you feel for her?" Alex whispered, nudging Demetri's arm slightly.

“Don’t think about it, knowing you, you’ll get all depressed and it will hinder you.” She didn’t so much mean it as an insult but it honestly was just her way of cheering Rose up. “We will get to them.” She stated, grabbed Alex’s jacket and brought it to her. It still had his scent on it…Oriana turned slightly from Rose as she put the material on and brought part of it to her nose, inhaling gently. She found herself liking the smell far more than she should and she quickly dropped the fabric and pulled the jacket closed.

~*~*~*~

“I don’t hate her.” He admitted freely, turning back around as Rose put her clothing on, there was a small blush on his face that he thought he hid well as he sat against the boulder. He wasn’t exactly sure how to put what he thought of Rose. Yes, he had thought she was beautiful and it turned out she could easily excite him but that was something new to him. She had never acted on such feelings before, probably scared she would scare him off…. Honestly she might have if she wasn’t high and he wasn’t locked in the room.

Rose tried really hard not to take offense at what was supposed to be Oriana's version of encouragement, but it was hard and in the end she just resorted to wringing out her clothes more forcefully than was required. "I hope you're right. I really do. If they're hurt I-" Well, she'd cry is what would happen, she already knew that. But with the training that Oriana was giving her, maybe she could do more than just cry over the matter. Chopping one of those metallic warriors to bits sounded like a fabulous idea.

*~*

And explosive sigh left Alex, unable to help it due to the massive ignorance that Demetri had just shown. Either that, or he was great at sarcasm. "Well that's obvious." He hissed, glancing once at the man and narrowing his eyes at him. "You helped Rose get off, of course you don't hate her. Come on man, dig deep. I know you can find your humanity in there somewhere…" Alex turned back around in time to see Oriana turn away from directly facing Rose and… sniff his jacket? "Did she just-?" Really?

Oriana relaxed, seeing her cousin angry was better then turning her into a sniffling mess and having to hear her bothers make fun of her for the rest of the night. “Shall we head back? I’m sure they have a fire up by now.” Not waiting for her answer, Oriana grabbed for her clothing and held it out slightly away from her to keep from getting wet again.

~*~*~*~

Demetri didn’t answer; he honestly didn’t know, so better to keep to himself until he could figure it out. When suddenly he stopped asking and had his attention fully on what was happening behind him. “What?” He turned around slightly; there was nothing out of the ordinary so he guessed that he had missed it. It wasn’t a usual occurrence for Alex to be surprised by something.

"Hopefully…" Rose snorted, gathering her clothes up and rolling her eyes. "They can't do anything without being prodded into action… Unless Ryleon went and got wood, which is probably the case." She sighed heavily. Oh her poor cousin. He just wasn't outgoing enough to compete with her brothers who had no qualms about shoving their younger counterpart around.

*~*

"I think… I think that Oriana just sniffed my jacket…" Alex's gaze was riveted to the girl, trying to see if she would do it again, but the two just gathered up their clothes and headed back to camp, passing by them without looking up, which would have been very detrimental to the two men hiding out on top of the rock. Still, he kept himself laying belly down on the rock, scratching his head in slight confusion. "I can't believe that she did that."

Oriana walked back with her cousin contently. “You and Ryleon get a long pretty well, don’t you?” She wasn’t surprised that they were close seeing as neither of them really had a spine but she shrugged. It was good for her brother to have someone to related to…being so out of place normally at home. She grinned, remembering his rare pirate runs with their pa. He always came back a little more scarred then the last time he went out, only mentally of course.

~*~*~*~*~

Demetri blinked. “Sniffed it? As if it smelled bad or something?” He asked, waiting until the girls were out of sight and sat up on the rock looking slightly confused at Alex’s statement. “I mean…if it smelled good, is it that bad?”

Rose nodded to Oriana's question, fiddling with her wet clothes absently. "Yes. Unlike Ilario and Tristan he actually has a heart." She didn't feel at all guilty confessing this, for it was a well known fact that the twins tormented their sister on a regular basis for no other reason than that they were bored. "He's a good listener too, and very kind. Can we swap brothers?" She smiled and giggled a bit, trying to imagine Ryleon as her brother instead of the twins. Actually, it wasn't all that hard, and she only giggled more at the realization.

*~*

Suddenly self-conscious, Alex sniffed himself to see if he smelled bad. "No, it can't be because it smells dirty… So I suppose that she liked it…" He was absolutely befuddled, and let Demetri know as much, the emotion slathered all over his face. "…she likes the way that I smell?" Of course that wasn't a bad thing. But for some reason the fact made him feel kind of squeamish. Well, not squeamish exactly, but that was the closest word he could fathom without actually having to admit the deeper feelings behind the sudden feeling.

“ I don’t think I have the energy to beat down pirates all day and then come home to beat the crap out of two annoying brothers…so, please, feel free to keep them.” Oriana stated walking back into the camp to see her brother hunched over the fire with an annoyed look on his face. She could only put it to the twins who were sitting uncomfortable close to the man and gave them a dry look. “What did you do to him?”

“Nothing, we collected firewood, is all.” He gave her an innocent smile that gave away what innocence he might have had as he plopped an arm on his cousin. “We had good bonding time, right Ryleon?” He gave an annoyed grumble and went back to poking their dinner.

Oriana looked around. “Where are Demetri and Alex?” Suspicion suddenly grew on her face as she saw Tristan’s face twitch just a little bit more with amusement. She honestly couldn’t believe that they would be peeping on them with Demetri hanging about…but…She looked back and around. “Well?”

~*~*~*~

Demetri couldn’t read Alex, other than his confusion. There was something underneath it that he didn’t quiet get. “And?” He asked tilting his head. “You obviously don’t find it a bad thing…”

Well, at least they had the fire going. That was a start, right? Rose was glad that dinner was under way, suddenly becoming extremely hungry. She listened to the Tristan make a very poor assurance that the two boys hadn't tortured her cousin while they were away, draping her clothes over the siding of the tent as she did so but was careful to keep her panties to herself. She didn't want Ilario or Tristan burning them while she wasn't looking. Oriana's inquiry into where Alex and Demetri had gotten off to put a pause to her clothes hanging though, and she looked around the campsite as if she expected to see them readily on hand. Turning, she examined her brothers carefully, wondering what mischief Alex might have gotten Demetri into. It never occurred to her that the two would have gone off to peep on them.

"They went… scouting. You know, for bandits and stuff." Ilario replied with a roll of his shoulders, trying as hard as he could to keep a straight face. "Someone needed to look out for the campsite while we were collecting firewood, right Ryleon?" Grinning, Ilario nudged the younger boy in the shoulder.

*~*

"No, it's a good thing, I think…" Alex heaved a sigh, resting his head on the rock and remaining silent for a moment. "You might as well go back, Demetri. I'm going to take a bath. Don't worry about any bandits, I think that I can handle them." He shot the man a wink, remaining where he was laying on the rock. Hopefully he would just leave without asking any more questions…

“…I’m going to look for them.” Oriana stated, putting her clothing down. “I don’t much like the look on your faces.” She said, turning back in the direction she had came this time more carefully looking around the rocks and tall grass.

~*~*~*~

Demetri nodded, giving the man a slight pat on the back for his odd behavior and jumped off the rock and looped around the walkway they had come back from. There was no need for him to get caught if they went looking for them. Demetri didn’t know how lucky he had it that he had decided on his course, for Oriana was headed right in his direction, nearly being seen by her but he continued on his way back to the camp and to a few staring face.

~*~*~*~

“Alex?! Demetri?!” Oriana yelled around the lake area where she was. If she didn’t find them, she supposed there really wouldn’t be a problem with it and perhaps Ilario and Tristan were just being stupid when Alex and Demetri were seriously keeping watch. It sounded odd due to Alex being involved in it all, but she kept her hope that Demetri was still there and it might be kept innocent.

Alex simply laid there against the rock for a few minuets after Demetri left, letting a slow breath escape him before he dared to stand, feeling rather uncomfortable in the lower bits of his body. "Damn women…" He mumbled, leaping off the rock and spreading his wings to break his fall. Once at the base of the rock he stripped off his clothing, wincing when it came to the pants part. He had just kicked off his trousers when he heard a rather familiar voice calling for him. He cursed darkly, considering his options. Well, he could call back and let Oriana fully naked and half erect, put his clothes back on, or else jump in the water. He seriously debated the first option for a moment and with the look of a defeated man turned and promptly jumped in the lake.

Oriana was about to call out for the two boys again when suddenly she heard a splash in the water and it scared the living day lights out of her. Her wings flared out slightly as she let out a small scream of surprise and she jumped on the back of her heels ready to jump out and kill whatever made the noise. She looked on the waters surface and held a hand on the hilt of her sword. “What the hell was that…” She backed away from the water’s edge a bit and looked in both directions.

Alex winced when he heard Oriana's scream, the sound loud enough that he could hear the faintest muffle of it even from underwater. Great. He surfaced and wiped his face off, pushing back his inky black hair to keep the dripping locks out of his eyes. "Oh, come to peep on me, have you?" He asked, noting the frightened look on her face and her battle-ready stance. Oh, so Oriana actually could feel fear? A slow grin appeared on his face at the discovery. That was two secrets now that he had to hold against her.

Oriana whipped her head in Alex’s direction and had to take a moment to calm herself before she realized that Alex was in the water. Naked. In the water. Without clothes on. Suddenly her face turned a dark red and she spun on her heel to keep from facing him. He was just out here taking a bath?! “N-No! You and Demetri weren’t back at the camp so I went to look for you guys.” Her voice sounded a little nervous. “But if you are just bathing, I will leave you to it then.”

"Uh huh." His voice contained a fair amount of disbelief, though he was sure that Oriana was telling the truth. That didn't mean that he couldn't poke some fun at her, of course. And because it was Alex, any attempt to poke fun would ultimately result in him taking up the offer. "You know, you can come in here and join me if you like. What've you got on under my coat? Nothing, right?" He grinned, knowing full well that she was indeed wearing nothing under the coat, having seen her dress. "How do you like it, by the way?" Alex waded toward the shore quietly as he could, seeing that there was an opportunity here to make poor Oriana as embarrassed as possible.

“No, thank you…the water is a bit chilly for me.” She answered, keeping her back turned to him. She decided not to answer to the fact that she wasn’t wearing anything under the jacket…of course she wasn’t, she needed to clean her clothing. “How do I like what? The Jacket? It serves its purpose.” She said matter of a factly. “Don’t tell me you were out here the entire time Rose and I were…” She sounded a bit agitated at this, like she was about to turn around and pummel him if he answered wrongly.

He was a little disappointed that Oriana didn't hesitate to tell him nothing extraordinary about her enjoyment of his jacket, but that was water under the bridge now. Now came the decision… to come clean, or play the game a little longer? "Of course we were out here the whole time. We were patrolling for bandits, didn't the twins tell you?" Alex managed to say it like it was a matter of fact, no perversion involved. Which really was quite a feat in and of itself. "Demetri's gone back now though, so it's just you an me out here…" He did let that familiar goading tone creep back into his voice now, knowing that she was probably at a limit to the amount of his comments that she could handle for one sitting. "The water might be chilly, but I could certainly keep you warm."

Oriana had enough of his excuses and dodging of her questions and she felt herself grow angrier by the second. At his last comment she just decided to snap, spinning on her heels and leaping at him from where she was. Before she even realized that one she was jumping on a naked man or two getting her last line of clothing wet she was in the water and on top of Alex. “You make me so angry!” She growled at him, not even realizing the awkward position she was in. God damnit this water was cold.

Alex had expected one of two things from Oriana after his attempts at getting her to go away so that he could deal with his manly issues. The first and most likely was going to be that she exploded on him, yelling at him about his perverted stupidity. The less likely yet more preferable option was that she would simply walk away and leave him be. However, his ability to underestimate Oriana's rage showed right then when she leapt on him, coat and all, and got right in his face. The press of her warm body against his cold skin was a shocking change from the chilly waters he had purposely emerged himself in, and a slow grin curled his lip despite Oriana's anger. Or rather, because of her anger, actually. "You know, you whole body lights up when you're angry with me." Apparently, that anger had also caused her to forget that she wasn't wearing anything under the jacket and was letting it fall open, exposing a rather generous amount of skin. Alex took the opportunity that was given and reached out with both of his hands, putting his palm against the skin of her rub cage, his thumbs resting on the underside of her breasts. "Sorry if my hands are cold."

If Oriana’s body wasn’t hot from anger before it was on fire now from embarrassment. She couldn’t decided if she was angrier at herself or Alex for his comments and where his hands currently rested. What made it worse was Oriana was just up against his rather cold feeling body but what more she felt something brush against her leg. Oh. Good. God. She could die right then and there and felt like her face was on fire. “ALEX!” She shoved him hard, as hard as she could and made her way to the shore as fast as her body and wet clothing would take her.

She closed the wet clothing around her as tight as possible and glared at him from behind a rock. “Come near me and I may have to kill you.” She growled, though it was muddled by the chattering of her teeth from the new cold she was feeling. She looked like a miserable, angry wet dog and she knew she would be in either Alex’s wet jacket all night or her slightly less damp clothing of her own. She got herself into a mess this time.