Eiyuu Kishi Den

Alera Tai'var wrote:Orion was all business, as usual. While Kitsa made her excuses to everyone, he went to work. By the time Kitsa moved to explain her plans, Orion had sailed to the side of the unconscious Air. In one swift, graceful movement, he wisked her slim form into his arms. Orion felt strange sweeping her up from her own brother, but Kitsa had informed everyone that they would be doing the assisting and Lanir had made no move to get her out of the room. The fair-faced elf looked over his new charge as a nanny might a child: analytic concern. "Do we have a room set up?" Orion asked Kitsa as he adjusted Air in his arms to hold her head up better.

KitsaStormeyes wrote:"Umm, yes," Kitsa replied, then darted back to the table. Sairina provided her a key to the room Air would share with Y'ezela. The quarter-elf returned to Orion and quickly turned up the stairs, kicking up her flamboyant skirt as she went.

"This way!" she called the pale elf and led the way upstairs. Kitsa brought him down the hall until she came across the room number that matched the key. After unlocking the door, Kitsa opened it up and stepped aside to let him pass.

Alera Tai'var wrote:"Thank you," Orion said softly as he passed her into the room. It wasn't too bad of a set up, considering how often he did not even have a bed. The silver-haired elf seemed to float across the room as he came to the closest bed and, with all of the care of a mother for a babe, laid her on the bed. He adjusted her to lay on her side. There were rumors of people who killed themselves somehow by laying on their backs after passing out. Certainly, he would not be faulted for laying her down the wrong way. The slight fingers of his hand pulled her bangs away from her face and behind her ear.

"I shall sit with her," he said, feeling strangely responsible for her.

Kitsa watched Orion closely, her head cocked to the side curiously. The way he cared for Air seemed quite paternal in Kitsa's eyes. The quarter elf straightened and smiled softly. "I shall sit with you as well then," Kitsa said and sat on the other bed.

She was silent for a moment, but she broke it by decided to speak her mind. "You seemed very father like in the way you laid her down," she stated. Kitsa wasn't normally so blunt, but she far too curious to see how he would react to such a comment.

"I had a good teacher," Orion replied, his eyes not moving from the sleeping form of Air. "I once wished to be just like him and raise a family." The echoes of childhood hung in the air around his heart, threatening ti swallow him whole. The wonderful times he repressed, the suffering that stealing them away caused, and the end of his last hope for a relationship's death swirled around him, suffocating his potential for love. "Those dreams in me are not yet dead."

She looked so peaceful, despite her rather outrageous arrival into that state. His heart lurched, as if Air was his own daughter, to guide and help through the world. Perhaps this was how it felt with those who gained child through orphanages, though they were rare. Though she had others around her, Orion felt that he was the only one who could look after her as a father could. Certainly, the high elves would not. As for the others, they viewed her as a friend. Of them all, Orion felt to be the most responsible. He couldn't help but feel even more so for the half-elf girl before him. She seemed so fragile.

Perhaps its source lay in a hidden sense of comradery or his desire to fulfill the hole that a family would fill in his life, but, no matter the reason, Air was more than a charge to him. She was like a daughter, though he barely knew her. When he decided to help Seri, he did it for the mission. When he got to know Kitsa some, it became about seeing someone who saw beyond his silence. Now, it was about protecting those who needed it most. It seemed so simple now, but, to his logic, it could make no sense.

Kitsa watched Orion intently, almost baffled by how emotional the pale elf had become. What he said struck her deeply as well. 'Those dreams in me are not yet dead.' Not that Kitsa had even considered fulfilling those dreams after meeting him so soon, but it taunted her feminine nature. A man who wanted to be a father. Well, that thought could be pushed aside for a better time.

The quarter elf reached out and placed her hand on his. Her dusky skin was a stark contrast to his moon-white hand. "I am pleased to hear you have not given up on such a dream," she said softly. "You have some hope then, to find a woman you can trust?"

"Trust...?" Orion muttered in a daze, almost as if he was confused. It confused him because he had already forgotten that he was seeking it. Like it had already been fulfilled somehow. "Oh... trust, yes..." He was agile on his feet, but not with his heart. He was sure that much was clear.

"What of you?" he ventured, coming out of his haze.

"I...don't know. I have kept myself apart from humans, for the fear of marrying a man and outliving him. My father was a half-elf, and married a human before my mother. He outlived her, and their children, and it devastated him. He only allowed himself to give in to my mother because he assumed he was near the end of his life," Kitsa explained. It was getting a little far from her personal goals, but she wanted so badly to tell someone about her dear father. "He told me that I may live as long as three hundred years, and I am a hundred and ten now. I suppose I would like to marry and have children some day. I also worry that if I marry an elf, that he would suffer the same way my father did with his human wife."

"...suffer?" Orion muttered. He paused, as if contemplating her words. "It is an unavoidable part of life. I know this." He looked over to Kitsa. "I believe that, if you were in my place now, you would say that you might consider letting the person choose whether or not that life is acceptable, instead of constructing a wall to block the experience of love out for fear of it's consequences. It is similar to what you have taught me. Perhaps the question should remain: What kind of suffering is worse? Expressing and enjoying love and then losing it to memory or suffering lonliness for your entire life, with love always but inches from your reach?"

Orion nodded, as if to pat himself on the back. It sounded right. It sounded... like someone who cared. This caring was something he felt, but it was hard to break common practice. Words were chosen carefully. "For a long time, I was like that. I sealed myself away to hide from others, prefering to dwell in my lonliness. But then someone came along and taught me the value of a companion," he said, looking back up to her. "And, even if that person dies or I die, I think the other would rather we known each other than to have never met at all."

Oh Marfa, he is talking about me! Kitsa thought after his last comments. Her dusky cheeks darkened with a blush, but then the quarter-elf chuckled nervously and looked down at sleeping Air. "You are right," Kitsa replied, avoiding his eyes after she had embarrassed herself. "Though in all my one hundred and ten years, I have not fallen in love and tested my resolve to those theories. No one has yet to capture my heart." But someone is certainly on the right path to do so, she added.

Orion's stone heart hung low. No one? Perhaps he was expecting too much too quickly. Give it more time, he thought. Orion didn't know how she felt about him, but he knew that Kitsa was the only woman he had met in his years that touched something deeper than his stoic attitude. Already, he couldn't imagine walking alone anymore. In this, Orion amazed himself. He had never thought anyone could do what she did to him.

"Time will tell," Orion said slowly. "Surely, someone as beautiful and kind as you will find a deserving soul that will make you feel as if you could float through the air as sylph does. When that happens, every flower will bloom for you and the fairies will celebrate it. Even Ento, the great king of spirits, will smile for you. Of that much, I am certain." He nodded, as if to put a period on his statement.

"The others downstairs are probably wondering what is taking us so long," he said, changing the subject quickly. Orion was feeling a bit shakey, since he had been so bold without even considering it. Was he too pushy? This was so hard. His head hung back to Air, as Kitsa had done herself. It signified the end of a moment. It wasn't quite a rejection, but it wasn't quite acceptance either. "Someone should stay with her, but it would be unwise for either of us to miss a meal."

Kitsa noticed that Orion seemed a little crestfallen. Had he taken her comment the wrong way? She certainly liked him, but she had only known him for two days. There was no trying to fix what she said without making the situation worse, but she did mean it.

"I will ask a barmaid to bring us dinner," Kitsa replied. She smiled a little, hoping to make him feel better with her next comment. "I like spending time with you, and I think we would both be comfortable around fewer people and less drama."

"This is true. I think I would prefer to stay up here as well," Orion responded with a slight smile. He wouldn't tie her down with conversation, since she said she was going to run downstairs and back...

Kitsa stepped out of the room and hurried downstairs to place their orders for dinner. The barmaids would bring the meals up to them. She requested a loaf of bread and water for Air as well, to settle her stomach if she needed it when she woke. For herself and Orion, she requested a bottle of red wine.

Air rolled over in her sleep. "...no I don't have change for a silver..." she mumbled groggily. "...mommy...I miss you..." she whimpered, her body curling into the fetal position. She tucked her head against her knees but continued to sleep.

The silver-haired elf leaned forward and pulled the thread bare sheet over Air's body, tucking it lightly underneath her chin. "Sleep in peace," he whispered as his soft hand ran ober her cheek. Orion could remember when he was a boy that his mother would say that every night and run her hand over his cheek. Perhaps Air was too old for such things, but it felt right. He sat back on the other bed in silence, wondering what was to become of her next...

Kitsa returned upstairs a short while later with a tray. The inn had food hot and waiting, so there was no need for her to wait for it to cook. Two plates of warm food and a bottle of wine for herself and Orion, and a small loaf of bread and big mug of water for Air.

The quarter elf opened the door with one hand, slipped inside, then bumped it closed with her hip. She gave a broad grin to Orion, then noticed that Air had curled up into a fetal position where Kitsa had been sitting before she left. "Did she wake?" Kitsa asked as she brought the tray over to the nightstand.

"No," he whispered back. "She tossed a bit," Orion said, staring at the sleeping girl. He left out her whisperings, which he hoped she stopped from there on, just so as her inner wishes and sadnesses remained her own. Kitsa would probably keep it to herself, as Orion would, but it was probably best if Air chose who she ended up sharing her feelings to.

"Thank you..." he stumbled as the tray arrived. Truth be told, the silver elf was a bit mesmerized by how the red material of her skirt seemed to chase her around on the wings of the inn air. It fit her just so. "For the dinner, I mean," Orion sputtered, attempting to recover from his rather obvious staring.