Taj and Aero: Advent of the Feather King

Alex was glad that Oriana didn't feel the need to argue. True, her opinionated and straight-forward character was part of what he liked about her, but at the moment he was just glad that it had been curbed for the moment. Giving her a quick peck on the forehead, Alex turned and knelt on the ground in front of her, spreading his wings wide to either side to make things easier. "Get as situated as you can, and put your arms around my neck. Hold on tightly."

*~*

Rose turned her murderous glare on Tristan when he felt the need to speak, his stupid grin infuriating her to no end. She wished that she knew how to throw daggers, because she would at both of the twins. Maybe not at something vital, but a good deep wound in the leg or arm would be a good start. Of course, she would refuse to heal them afterwards, as punishment. Ryleon's words calmed her a little bit, but only a little. She would make sure to put rocks in Ilario and Tristan's boots in the morning before they got up.

Grinning, Ilario looked around, then frowned when he realized that something was missing from this picture. "Speaking of love birds, anybody see where Alex and Oriana got off to?"

Oriana gave Alex a strained smile as he kissed her forehead and watched as he turned around for her to get on his back. She frowned at the condition of his back, torn and broken skin all down his back letting blood run down to mix with the dirt that had collected there. Her only hesitance wasn’t the dirt or blood, but the pain she knew he had to be in, though at this point they didn’t have much choice. Moving carefully, Oriana settled herself on his back with a small distressed noise that came from moving her wing. Once she was sure she wasn’t going to fall off his back, and she had ever so slowly pressed herself against him so as to minimalize the pain he would have. “I’m ready.” She said softly into his ear once her arms were wrapped around his neck.

Tristan continued to grin until Ilario spoke and then he looked as if he just remembered something. “When I came over to help Alex, I asked where Oriana was and then he just ran off…” He looked confused at his own information, “That was a little while ago.”

Ryleon gave a concerned glance to Rose and then back to the twins. “Perhaps I will take a flight around and see if I can spot them.” It concerned him that Oriana would go off on her own…she wouldn’t normally be the type even more so in a fight. He spread his wings and with a hard push was off into the night sky, starting to make slow, long circles around the camp.

He bit back a groan when Oriana applied her weight, his shoulder stinging where he'd struck the ground and waited until she gave him the okay before straightening. Avians by their very nature were lighter than humans, which was the only reason Alex had even considered trying this. Tightening his grip on her legs, he flapped his wings, getting a feel for her weight and his wings protested the action, but he ignored that and pushed harder, jumping into the air. For a second Alex thought that perhaps he wouldn't be able to get off the ground at all, then his wings pushed down again and the momentum snapped the hold of gravity and they were in the air. It took a bit of circling to get up the cliff face, gaining altitude was harder with a heavier load, but then he was over it and saw Ryleon flying overhead in the darkness, presumably looking for them. In the distance he could spot their camp fire, smaller than when he'd left but good enough to fly by and banked toward it cautiously, making a shallow turn for fear of tipping over.

He tried to settle down as softly as he could, but came to a bit of a jogging stop, kneeling when he'd lost enough speed and was just glad that the trip was over with. "Rose, a little help would be appreciated here."

Rose couldn't make out the details as the two touched down, but she did see Alex land, and her hands knotted in Demetri's shirt as reassurance, but when she heard Alex's voice relief washed over her. The light brown splotch on his back must have been Oriana. Letting go, she darted away to their side quickly, kneeling and putting her hand on Alex's shoulder, jerking it back when it came back wet with blood. "What happened?" She asked, mildly horrified, though probably would have been downright terrified if she could properly see the state that the two were in. "What do you need me to fix first?" They both would need healing, she knew that without being able to see clearly.

"Oriana." Alex replied immediately without thinking about it. "Her wings."

As Alex took to the skies, she bit back a groan as they took to the skies, she held on tightly as the rush of air pushed on them until they reached the lip of the cliff. She saw a distant pair of wings in the sky and guessed the same that it was Ryleon looking for them. When it came down to the landing, she knew it was going to be painful no matter how gentle Alex was. "I'm sorry..." She mumbled, feeling the need to apologize for...well everything.

Oriana couldn't help but to grip tighter onto Alex, letting out a pained noised once they finished landing as pain shot up her back. She kept her head down, even as Alex started talking to Rose, letting the pain wash over her before moving. She looked up to Rose, tears threatening to be released and a certain anger hidden there. "Do the broken wing, and then this back. That alone will take a lot of energy." There was a hiss to her voice the dared either of them to protest what she said. Her other wing, having been stabbed would be fine and the dark bruise on her cheek that had formed from being punched was just as easy to heal. There were other bruises on her neck, legs breast and elsewhere but she wasn't even concerned with them.

She slowly moved herself off his back, biting her lip as she did so, and sat herself on the ground, her wing sitting at a painfully awkward angle.

Ryleon took notice of the two flying towards camp and made a sharp decline back to camp, keeping back towards the twins and Demetri while Rose went to heal them. Worry found its way in his gut when he noticed that Alex has been carrying his sister and he couldn't help but wonder what happened.

Nodding to both Alex's and Oriana's instructions, Rose mustered her voice and found Oriana's broken wing, tracing the base of it lightly with her fingers and moving down the appendage as she sang, gently guiding the bone back into is proper position as it mended back together again, feeling the drain that the magic took on her body poignantly but kept it up until the break was sealed completely. Sighing and leaning back, she gathered her strength again and stood, turning to Alex who was sitting on the ground now at Oriana's side, watching the whole thing intently with his dark eyes.

When she came forward, Alex waved her off, spurring some confusion on Rose's part. "Get her other wing too." He said, knowing that Oriana would argue with him about it since it was her idea to heal his shoulder first. "My wound just needs to be cleaned and bandaged up. Rose can get it in the morning if she's up to it. But if he cut a tendon in your wing, you might never fly again." Unflinchingly, Alex glared that Oriana, daring her to argue while Rose stood between the two, looking between them and waiting until the matter was resolved.

Oriana felt the weird snap when her bone went back into place and sighed in relief when the pain finally stopped searing through her back and was replaced with a warm, tingling feeling of the healing magic from her cousin. She leaned back, far more comfortable when Rose went to heal Alex and mumbled her thanks. She snapped her attention back to Alex however when he refused treatment and her eyes met his. He was dead set in having both her wings healed and she looked at him helplessly. His logic was too good for her to say anything to but she felt her heart sink. It had been her fault that he was hurt, and now he would remain so until morning.

She hung her head, not wanting to face him any longer and gave in. "Go ahead Rose." She mumbled softly, knowing if the woman wasn't there the tears would be rolling down her face once more. It was all messed up, she wasn't this person.

He didn't smirk or grin even though he'd won the test of wills. Alex was entirely too worried for Oriana's health to feel proud about it, only relieved when Rose knelt down next to her cousin's wing, examining the bleeding knife wound an closed her hands over it, chanting softly under her breath.

Ilario went and rummaged through their supplies, grabbing a leather holder of water and handed it to Alex, who took it gratefully and uncapped it, pouring the water over his dirty shoulder with a grimace that was impossible to hide. "Can't leave that go for too long." Ilario mumbled, going back to their supplies and dug out some gauze and bandages, standing by for when Alex would need to use them.

"Thanks." Alex replied through gritted teeth, rolling his shoulder to test the damage and found it the same as before. He would live, but it would be best to not sleep on that shoulder.

Ending her chorus, Rose very nearly fell over, taking a moment to simply catch her breath and survey her handiwork. The blood was still on Oriana's feathers, but the wound should be closed underneath, which was all that she really cared about at this point.

Oriana couldn't deny the relief she felt when Rose had repaired her wing and when the girl fell back she looked over her for a second. With a strained smiled she thanked her and then looked to Alex. He looked in pain, and there is doubt that he would be. Looking down at his shirt that she had on, she could see all the blood and dirt on it from his back. She couldn't stand how she was feeling, and stood, walking to the side side of the camp, contemplating just opening her wings and taking to the skies. Flashes of being under the large man popped into her head, how helpless she had been, how helpless she was to do anything for Alex.

Demetri saw Rose go down on her bottom and walked over to where she was. "Are you alright?" He asked, leaning down and picking the girl up bridal style. He looked down to Alex, and over to Oriana. If there was a feeling he could relate to, it was being helpless after being tortured for so long.

All joking and toying aside, Tristan could feel the tension in the camp and it made the usually energetic boy quiet for now and made himself useful elsewhere, helping Ryleon get more firewood and make sure the tents were up and good.

Tonight would be interesting for sure, assuming that any of them could get to sleep after the attack and surrounded by dead bodies. Sighing, Ilario rolled his shoulders and got to the task of moving the bodies away from camp so that at the very least their stinking wouldn't wake them up in the morning. Looking at the cliff, he thought about it for a whole two seconds before deciding that nobody would miss the dead brigands if he just chucked them off the cliff.

Half way through wrapping a string of bandages around his shoulder, Alex saw Oriana suddenly stand. He did a classic double-take, then scrambled to his feet, wincing when he tried to use his hurt arm to get himself to his feet and took off after her, tying off the rest of the bandages in a hurry. "Where do you think you're going?" He asked, catching up quickly and standing by her side, turning to try and catch a look at her face.

Rose didn't have the energy to resist Demetri picking her up, and even if she did, she wouldn't have. Instead she looked up, muttering a small 'thank you' then leaned her head against his chest.

Just as Oriana was about to take to the skies and lose herself in a blanket of stars, Alex came to her side. She didn't brother making eye contact with him, rather she had an unfocused gaze towards the sky. "I'm not sure." Which was the truth, she had no real intent of running away or anything but being around everyone else and keeping it together was hard. "Sorry." She turned her gaze back to him and attempted at a smile.

Demetri leaned down and kissed the top of Roses' head and walked back towards the tent, walking inside of it and setting her down on her blankets, making sure she was comfortable before sitting back. "I'll go help your brothers." He said not really liking the idea of chucking bodies over a cliff but it was better than sleeping in the tree with all of them on the ground.

He could tell that it was exceedingly hard for Oriana to keep a straight face like she had been, and Alex frowned at the realization, putting his hands on her shoulders and giving her a gentle squeeze. "There's nothing for you to be sorry for." He whispered earnestly. "I should be sorry for not getting there sooner. I should have kept better track of you during that fight. When I realized you were missing I-" He had panicked. That was the best way to describe it, but the word stuck on his tongue. Squeezing her arms gently again, he inhaled deeply. "I can't loose you."

Oriana searched his face, trying to measure his reaction and was surprised when she saw honest sadness on his features. She turned and hugged him, making sure to keep her arms on his chest and off his back to keep from causing him further pain."I'm here, Alex, you didn't lose me." She tried to comfort him. "I felt so helpless..." There. She had said it out loud, well only loud enough for Alex to hear but that was still more than she thought she could have done. "So..I just don't know what to do is all..." She tried making it sound smaller than it was, to make it easier but it wasn't.

Alex wrapped his arm around her body, hugging her close and cradled the back of her head in his palm, wanting to comfort her. His strong little woman admitting that she had felt helpless very nearly broke his heart, and he wished that he'd done more than push that bandit off a cliff and stabbed him. He deserved much worse for making Oriana feel like this. "You aren't helpless. You're one of the least helpless people that I know." He tried at a smile for her, brushing his fingers against the length of her jaw and looked her dead in the face. "What that man did… it's alright to have been scared. I was scared. I'm just… here for you. When you need it."

As the morning light broke over the horizon and the group had broken down camp, they made their course in a further southward direction. It was a generally a quiet flight, most of them still tired from the night before so when Demetri suggested to set camp early he didn't get much in the way of resistance. The sun was still high in the sky as camp was set but it would be a good chance for them to rest.

Ryleon had the idea to keep the twins away from everyone, asking for a sparring match to get rid of his 'energy' and get some more practice in to keep him sharp. Both the couples in camp seemed like they needed some time to themselves.

Demetri rested on the ground, setting himself close to Rose and relaxing. "Are you a little more rested?" When he had set her in the tent the night before she fell asleep almost instantly and he just realized how much energy it took from her to heal people. He looked down at his wrists, where scars had used to of been and smiled gently.

Oriana set herself on the edge of camp not feeling as bad as she was the previous night thanks to Alex. She looked over to him and grinned. "You've turned out to be nice." She said softly, not wanting to damage his rep with the rest of the group.

Sitting on a fallen log, Rose simply nodded her head to Demetri's question, her gaze flicking up to look at Alex and Oriana off by themselves. She hadn't asked what had happened with the bandit, bit it didn't take too much effort to guess. Her ripped clothing had said it all, and she was just silently grateful that Alex had managed to intervene before thing had gotten too bad. Shaking her head as if to dispel the dark thoughts, Rose tuned to look back at Demetri with a small smile on her face. "I'm much better now, thank you. Stopping early for the day helps as well."

Alex scoffed playfully, rolling his eyes in an obviously dramatic way. "Me? Nice? Hardly. I'm actually a very selfish person. I'm only nice because it's you." He leaned over and gave her a quick peck on he cheek, as if that would prove some sort of point.

Demetri nodded, enjoying the silence now that the twins were gone but felt like the other two needed their space. "I think I want to go for a walk." He stood, stretching and looked down to Rose, offering her a hand up without a word in offering. While Demetri wasn't the most social person still, he was more than okay to spend time with Rose out of the public eye. He didn't need any more comments from the twins anyway.

Oriana smiled, finding herself laughing at Alex's playful banter. It had been awhile since they had been able to tease each other like this and she found it oddly comforting. "Uh huh, heaven forbid you lose your bad playboy reputation." In honesty she hadn't thought of Alex being a playboy for a long while, not since he had stopped treating her like a game to be won. She leaned over, putting her hand on his neck and pulling him in for a gentle kiss.

She took his hand with a smile, rising to her feet and patted off her pants where she'd been sitting on the log and squeezed Demetri's much larger hand. Looking over her shoulder one last time at Alex and Oriana before turning and walking at Demetri's side, content to be with him wherever he might lead. "It's so strange." She said after a little while, looking up at the canopy of branches that stood between them and the sky. "Being here like this. Sometimes I can't believe that we've only been gone a few months, and other times it seems like this is all I've known."

He smiled as he kissed Oriana back and slid his arm around her waist and settled it there with his palm on the side of her upper thigh. Slowly he pulled his hand over hers and pulled it away, and broke the kiss, folding her hand and brushing his lips across her knuckles. "I dunno, people might get suspicious when I don't start hitting on Rose for no good reason. It's a risk I'm willing to take though."

Demetr looked up in the same direction as her, and then smiled briefly in remembering when they had first met and that in a strange way it was a good thing that dragon had gotten a hold of him. It sounded worse when he thought it like that but otherwise he would have been flying around lost, and alone for who knows how long. "Remember when I wouldn't even speak to you?" He asked with the faintest of smiles.

Oriana got a disgusted look at the mention of Alex hitting on Rose again. "I doubt I'd be happy with that." She admitted, holding onto Alex's hand as she watched the pair walk into the forest. They seemed to have grown closer without her noticing, having been out of it the night before and not seeing their kiss from before.

Rose chuckled quietly, tangling her fingers with Demetri's and shrugged. "How could I forget? I don't think I gave you much opportunity to talk." She admitted with a laugh, remembering quite vividly the first time she'd laid eyes on Demetri. "I just kept going on… but you were the first boy that I hadn't met before. Daddy always made sure that the other boys at social functions kept a good distance away from me. He didn't want them laying a single finger on me." She saddened at the memory of her father, wishing that he were here, even if he would try and chase Demetri off. She missed her parents dearly, and her siblings too.

Following Oriana's gaze, Alex watched as the two walked away into the forest, Rose's clear laugh echoing back through the forest until they disappeared from view. He shrugged mentally, glad that the two were finally done dancing around each other and were on good terms. It was just one less piece of drama to deal with. Squeezing Oriana's hand gently, he turned his attention back to her. "I doubt anyone would be happy with that arrangement. I'd pick you over her any day."

Demetri remembered rather well what Kol was like, and Talos too for that matter and how over protective the two were. What would they do now if they knew about their relationship? He looked over to her, the happy smile she had a second ago replaced by a sad one. Stopping, Demetri stepped in front of her putting his hands on her shoulders. "They seemed like fighters, Rose, they will hold out until we find them." For the first time in his life, he was giving positive encouragement and it felt a little uncomfortable for him to be doing so...but Rose looked so sad it was breaking his heart.

Oriana grinned, "You wouldn't have much other choice for the time being. Besides, I think we make good partners." She spoke more to herself than Alex, "I'd like to see Rose fight pirates." She laughed to herself, the notion alone just absurd, and she had forgotten she never really explained that was her profession.

She stopped when Demetri did, looking up at him through her long dark lashes and blinked slowly. He'd never reassured her before, not like this, anyway. Her heart warmed at the gesture, and nodded in agreement. "I know. Daddy always told us how he was a great swordsman, and uncle Talos is a war hero. They'll make it…" It was her other relatives that she was worried about. Aunt Lena was strong too, strong like Oriana, but her mother was the very picture of frailty. Worry gnawed at her again, and she bit her lip, dropping her gaze away from Demetri's face to somewhere more around the region of his collarbone.

Alex blinked at that, suddenly remembering that she'd mentioned fighting pirates before, and instantly became curious. "You never told me that you fought pirates. Is that like a… family business? Does Ryleon do it too?" He had a hard time imagining Ryleon being particularly enthralled with becoming a pirate slayer, but the boy did have skills, despite his quiet ways.

Demetri felt his heart skin, watching Rose only getting further sad as they spoke and he did the only thing he could think of to make her feel better. Gently taking her chin in his hand, he titled her head up and pressed his lips against hers gently pouring his feelings into it. He might not be able to make her feel better with words but perhaps this would show her he wanted to be there for her.

Oriana grinned, "Weird I never told you, but yeah. It's mainly my Pa, mom and myself on the boats. Ryleon stays back at the house most of the time and a good thing because if not they would have burned down our house more than once." She laughed at what seemed like a distant memory and leaned back slightly. "I don't know how it started, my parents were doing it before I was born, apparently."

Rose was surprised by the gesture and didn't respond for a second, then fully leaned against Demetri, giving in completely and taking solace in the comfort he offered. Slowly she raised her arms from her sides, trailing the tips of her fingers over his sides and up his chest before wrapping her hands around the back of his neck and stood on her toes, pressing more into the kiss. It felt good to have him there, to finally be able to kiss him and both of them remember it afterwards. She smiled at the irony glad that at least now that particular bit of madness was past them.

He cocked his head as he listened to that tale, leaning back when she did and watched her face, a warmth stirring in his chest when he saw her smile. Good, at least she was still capable of the expression. "You lived by the coast then?" He asked, not really remembering much before he had been saved from the metal monstrosities by their group. It was a lot of staying below decks and dealing with chafing manacles, no time really for spectating. "What was it like?"

Oriana nodded, secretly thrilled that Alex was taking further interest in her past. "We live right on the coast line, but outside of any city which makes it easier to keep away from pirates for the most part. Its just the four of us in a small house but it..." She paused for a second to find the correct word for what she was thinking, "suits us well. The ocean is our backyard." She looked off into the sky, and her mind was in a different place, a different time...when she was back at home with her family and her heart ached to see her parents again. "Probably pretty boring sounding to what you used to live in." She had nearly forgotten they came from different worlds, he was more suited to Roses' life style.

Alex shook his head in denial at Oriana's assumption that he would prefer a great mansion on the seaside. "Not at all. It sounds… great, actually. Nobody around to wait and watch and wonder what the next big political scheme is… It sounds a lot simpler." He had spent most of his time playing to the game of society, so a single house in the middle of nowhere actually sounded quite wistful to Alex. "And the pirates never come and, I dunno, get revenge or anything?"