- Invitation Status
- Looking for partners
- Posting Speed
- 1-3 posts per day
- Multiple posts per week
- One post per week
- Slow As Molasses
- Online Availability
- On fairly regularly, every day. I'll notice a PM almost immediately. Replies come randomly.
- Writing Levels
- Adept
- Advanced
- Preferred Character Gender
- Primarily Prefer Male
- No Preferences
- Genres
- High fantasy is my personal favorite, followed closely by modern fantasy and post-apocalyptic, but I can happily play in any genre if the plot is good enough.
There wasn't the least bit of emotion in his eyes that could be labeled as sexual in nature. He looked far more like a parent looking at a child in the bath than he did a man studying an attractive young woman who was naked before him. All the same, he huffed his acquiescence to her request, even as he ignored her other blabbering. He turned away from her in the small pond, coming to settle just behind the first line of trees. There was a small spot among the foliage which offered him a place to sit, and he took it gratefully, settling down with his back to a moss covered tree.
He would not tell Kaya to hurry up. He knew the healing power of the spring, and it, like sleep, was not something that could be rushed. He knew the way that the water seemed to be capable of soaking into the skin, running through his whole body and flushing out all the gross, dark things that had built up inside. The water seemed impossibly light, and if he positioned himself just right he had discovered it was possible to simply float on the surface, like a leaf or the petals of a flower. This was the place where he would always come, whenever the lickers could find no other targets, and took him as their prize of the day. He hoped it would be able to provide her some of the comfort it had offered him over the years.
It was strange, being back in this place. Scary, in some ways, but also somehow cathartic. He had never wanted to come back. Had never dreamed there would be a situation that would drive him back here. Yet, here he was. Every plant, every rock, every path, every stream, it was all so familiar. He knew it all intimately. Some nights, he still dreamed of this lush land. It would have been impossible to imagine that nothing had changed. That he was still the abused little whelp that had suffered at the hands of the only parents he had ever known. That he was sitting here, cowering, silently begging that the lickers would overlook his dark form in the shadows of the trees, even though he was growing so quickly that it was becoming harder and harder to hide.
Yet it wasn't the same. It was different. Everything was different. The lickers were gone. They had been destroyed. He had destroyed them. He might not have meant to return, but he had. And when he had, he killed them. Not out of vengeance, although he certainly deserved it, but to protect a woman who was about to suffer the same fate as the woman who had born him. It had been for all the right reasons. Now, it felt like some ghost that had haunted his past, that had always hung just above his head, darkening his world even though he couldn't see it, was gone. The squirrels were the most terrifying thing to rule this forest now.
He turned his thoughts away from the past, longing to let those memories slip away, even as he knew they would be with him for the rest of his life. But they no longer haunted him so. He had freed himself from their bonds. It was time to start thinking about the future.
The first thing, of course, was figuring out what to do with Kaya. There was no telling where the voider would spit them out, but as long as he was careful and timed it correctly he would be able to get them out safely. He had done it before. Once that was done, he would help Kaya find a city. At that point they could well be on the opposite end of the world from Riven, but Kaya's pack, her supplies, everything she had, was gone. Riven no longer mattered. All she needed was a city. The people there would take care of her, at least long enough to get her back on her feet. Voider survivors were rare, and, if nothing else, the tales of what was inside would be enough to earn her some clothes, food, and shelter until she was able to... do whatever it was most people did to survive in cities.
He would leave her to that. For a time, he would roam the desert, traveling wherever the wind carried him. It would be familiar and easy. It would give him time to figure out what he wanted to do. Before, survival had always been enough of a goal. But before this point, before guiding Kaya across the desert, he had only known what a purpose was once before. When he had determined that, no matter the consequence, he would escape the lickers, and flee this voider. But he had never before known what it was to have a goal that he wanted to have, that he wanted to complete, and complete well. Now that he knew, he wasn't sure that he was going to be able to go back to simple survival.
Maybe he would find more people. Help them cross the desert. If his time with Kaya had taught him one thing, it was that he was better at hiding among people, acting as one of them, than he would have thought. There were always desperate people. And while he might not approach the cities to find them, there had been more times than he could count where he had seen the traces of people, had known they were approaching a voider, but he had turned to run the other way. Out of fear of the voider. Out of fear of the people.
He would need time to think. To see if he would really dare risk it. But if there was one thing that the desert always provided, it was answers. Kaya had certainly learned a few answers, even if she hadn't known she'd been asking the questions.
Kaya. He felt a small stab of pain. She thought him a monster. Detestable. He could not begin to imagine why she had saved him. Maybe it had been her way of repaying him, since she seemed so obsessed with debt. It certainly hadn't been gratitude. He would get her to a city. Then she could go about forgetting him.
He would not tell Kaya to hurry up. He knew the healing power of the spring, and it, like sleep, was not something that could be rushed. He knew the way that the water seemed to be capable of soaking into the skin, running through his whole body and flushing out all the gross, dark things that had built up inside. The water seemed impossibly light, and if he positioned himself just right he had discovered it was possible to simply float on the surface, like a leaf or the petals of a flower. This was the place where he would always come, whenever the lickers could find no other targets, and took him as their prize of the day. He hoped it would be able to provide her some of the comfort it had offered him over the years.
It was strange, being back in this place. Scary, in some ways, but also somehow cathartic. He had never wanted to come back. Had never dreamed there would be a situation that would drive him back here. Yet, here he was. Every plant, every rock, every path, every stream, it was all so familiar. He knew it all intimately. Some nights, he still dreamed of this lush land. It would have been impossible to imagine that nothing had changed. That he was still the abused little whelp that had suffered at the hands of the only parents he had ever known. That he was sitting here, cowering, silently begging that the lickers would overlook his dark form in the shadows of the trees, even though he was growing so quickly that it was becoming harder and harder to hide.
Yet it wasn't the same. It was different. Everything was different. The lickers were gone. They had been destroyed. He had destroyed them. He might not have meant to return, but he had. And when he had, he killed them. Not out of vengeance, although he certainly deserved it, but to protect a woman who was about to suffer the same fate as the woman who had born him. It had been for all the right reasons. Now, it felt like some ghost that had haunted his past, that had always hung just above his head, darkening his world even though he couldn't see it, was gone. The squirrels were the most terrifying thing to rule this forest now.
He turned his thoughts away from the past, longing to let those memories slip away, even as he knew they would be with him for the rest of his life. But they no longer haunted him so. He had freed himself from their bonds. It was time to start thinking about the future.
The first thing, of course, was figuring out what to do with Kaya. There was no telling where the voider would spit them out, but as long as he was careful and timed it correctly he would be able to get them out safely. He had done it before. Once that was done, he would help Kaya find a city. At that point they could well be on the opposite end of the world from Riven, but Kaya's pack, her supplies, everything she had, was gone. Riven no longer mattered. All she needed was a city. The people there would take care of her, at least long enough to get her back on her feet. Voider survivors were rare, and, if nothing else, the tales of what was inside would be enough to earn her some clothes, food, and shelter until she was able to... do whatever it was most people did to survive in cities.
He would leave her to that. For a time, he would roam the desert, traveling wherever the wind carried him. It would be familiar and easy. It would give him time to figure out what he wanted to do. Before, survival had always been enough of a goal. But before this point, before guiding Kaya across the desert, he had only known what a purpose was once before. When he had determined that, no matter the consequence, he would escape the lickers, and flee this voider. But he had never before known what it was to have a goal that he wanted to have, that he wanted to complete, and complete well. Now that he knew, he wasn't sure that he was going to be able to go back to simple survival.
Maybe he would find more people. Help them cross the desert. If his time with Kaya had taught him one thing, it was that he was better at hiding among people, acting as one of them, than he would have thought. There were always desperate people. And while he might not approach the cities to find them, there had been more times than he could count where he had seen the traces of people, had known they were approaching a voider, but he had turned to run the other way. Out of fear of the voider. Out of fear of the people.
He would need time to think. To see if he would really dare risk it. But if there was one thing that the desert always provided, it was answers. Kaya had certainly learned a few answers, even if she hadn't known she'd been asking the questions.
Kaya. He felt a small stab of pain. She thought him a monster. Detestable. He could not begin to imagine why she had saved him. Maybe it had been her way of repaying him, since she seemed so obsessed with debt. It certainly hadn't been gratitude. He would get her to a city. Then she could go about forgetting him.