Ascending Legends

[BookWyrm]

Dayn practically beamed as he heard Arryn join in. He watched as she curled up on his chest, their duet quiet and intimate. Dayn reached up and traced his finger around her ear as they continued on, the song in question one of love, joy, and facing the world together. As they hummed out the last of the song Dayn gently pulled Arryn into a kiss. "Here I was thinking that I would have to hum it alone. I should have known better."

 

[Dragongal]

"You really should have, mo chroi." Arryn smiled before kissing him again, gentle and long. She pulled away and curled up against him again. "I wonder if we'll be here until Yule. I'd like that, I think, but you'll need a proper jacket for the Northern winter and there's been attempts on both our lives... but both of those people are gone now." She kept a straight face but she felt a vacant pang in her heart from where the silver had noce tried to lodge itself as she recalled the memory. She shifted a bit in his arms before settling again.

 

[BookWyrm]

"I think it would be nice to not have to worry about traveling this winter." Dayn thought about that for a little while. "I think I could take some time off from traveling for the winter. As long as you don't mind it."

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn shrugged. "We'll still get nasty glances from people sometimes, and we didn't get our house built, and someone still might try to kill me, but I'd definitely not mind it at all. I think you'll like the Yule celebrations. I hope you do, at least. Tell me, do you southern nobles sled in winter?" Arryn laughed, trying to hide her fatigue.

 

[BookWyrm]

Dayn blushed slightly. "Sledding is perhaps the most tame thing we do in winter." The crimson color in his cheeks flushed brighter as he looked away, trying to stifle a smile and a laugh, but having no real luck at it. "I don't like the idea of another attempt on one of us, but nasty glances I can deal with." Dayn kind of hoped that his diversion of the conversation was enough to pry Arryn's intrigue away from his comment, but he half expected to be interrogated. Oh gods, I should have kept my mouth shut.

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn smiled mischievously. "Dayn, come on now, what do you mean? You're embarrassed about something, I've got to find out what." She wasn't a perfect angel either, but Dayn wasn't telling her something hilarious.

 

[BookWyrm]

Dayn sighed, still blushing, as he started the story. "It was the middle of winter. Hamish, Geoff, Japhet, and I were all together at my families estate. There had been a bit of a blizzard come through and we were snowed in for three days, so by the third day we were rather tired of being inside. Well, while searching through the cellar we found a few barrels of dwarven brewed dragon spit." Dayn laughed, his cheeks now bright red as he recalled the details. "We got so drunk, I'm surprised we could stand, let alone walk. But somehow we found ourselves outside. Hamish is bright red at this point and starts taking his clothes off, saying that he's burning up. Well, suddenly," Dayn shook his head, "for some reason we all followed suit. One of us had the bright idea to run down to the river and jump in to cool off. So there we went, jogging naked through Riverbend. Mind you, at this point people had started to come back out and clear the streets around the town, and then here we come practically falling all over ourselves on our way to the river.


"Before I go any further, I need to tell a key part of this story. There were other noble families visiting our fief that year, and they had stayed for the winter. Well, among the two families there were four young noble women. So, with that in mind, we get down to the river and find it frozen. Hamish jumps off the dock and breaks through the ice, so we of course follow suit. We're laughing and cutting up when suddenly the four young noble women are standing on the dock watching us. Japhet looks at us and then back at the ladies before shouting come on in the waters great! So they did."





Dayn shook his head, covering his face as he smiled. "We got into so much trouble when their families found out. But after it was done we were just glad we didn't freeze ourselves. But, the best part is, in the end Japhet married the oldest of the girls."

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn was curled up on her side, laughing so hard all of her muscles hurt and it was hard to breathe. Finally she gasped, "I am never letting you near the dragon spit stocks." She sighed, and after a few minutes spent giggling, she said, "Oh Lord, I could tell you stories about Night's Ascension members getting drunk, but I am not in the mood at the moment. You already know I sang that ridiculous diddy to Mom." She sighed, closing her eyes as she snuggled up to Dayn and laid back against him with a contented smile. She was tired, but she wasn't going to let Dayn know; she'd promised to stay up with him all night.

 

[BookWyrm]

Dayn laughed about as hard as Arryn was. "That is probably for the best." Dayn wrapped his arms around Arryn as she laid back against him. He leaned down and kissed her ear gently. He had been able to forget about his nightmares and pain. It was incredible what you could overcome when you were around the person you loved. Though he had started with the intention of not going back to sleep before long Dayn was breathing softly and sound asleep.

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn opened her eyes and looked at him, before smiling and pulling the blankets a bit higher, closing her eyes for sleep. As she'd fallen asleep content and happy, she hadn't expected the nightmare that snared her. She could feel the dark shard in her heart only she couldn't move, and she had to watch as Dayn came to help her, only to get attacked by the hunter again. Dayn was still human, but she could imagine it just as clearly as if she had seen it, his screams of pain, writhing on the ground as the silver cut him up internally and the hunter put those hooks through his hands again...


Arryn woke up with a slight jolt, a few tears in her eyes. She looked at Dayn sleeping peacefully and smiled, carefully adjusting the blanket so it would be around him more, then laying against him and falling asleep again, this time with no nightmares.

 

[BookWyrm]

Dayn managed to pass the rest of the night without stirring until three hours after sunrise. He woke up with ease, blinking a couple of times before yawning and checking Arryn. He smiled, content to see her asleep as well. He readjusted the blanket to cover them evenly before laying his hand on her cheek and gently rubbing his thumb across it as he snuggled up against her. He wasn't going to outright wake her up, but if she did he hoped it'd be a pleasant way to wake.

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn woke slowly, smiling as she felt Dayn's thumb on her cheek. She put her hand over his as she opened her eyes, being very careful about his wound, before taking his hand in both of hers, kissing it lightly. She smiled up at him and pulled the blankets up a bit, always holding his hand with at least one of her own, both preferably. "How're you feeling, mo chroi?"

 

[BookWyrm]

"Warm, content, and sore." Truthfully Dayn's body was aching from stiffness and injury, but he had managed to sleep for the rest of the night. "I am a little hungry though. I'm just worried about not being able to stomach anything."

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn reached out and gently ran her hand over his jaw, healing the remains of the fracture. "We'll take it slow then. Stick to water for a bit, then you can have bread and apples later. I'd like to actually use a proper disinfectant on your wounds later, especially the ones on your back." Arryn kissed him lightly before curling against him again

 

[BookWyrm]

Dayn grimaced at the thought. It would no doubt sting, but he knew it it needed to be done. Having some bread and apples later sounded nice though. He wrapped his arms around her as she curled up against him, gently playing with her hair as he quietly mulled over his thoughts. "Only if the bread is soft. Although it is healed it still is sore."

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn nodded. “Understandably. The bread will be plenty soft, promise.” There was a knocking at the front door, and Arryn stiffened visibly, her eyes narrowing as she looked toward the front room. There was muted speech, and a few moments later her mother came in carrying her dagger, saying, “Your little friend dropped it off when he heard you were both alright.” She set the dagger on the bedside table, and was about to leave before she said, “Arryngale, you should probably change out of your bloody clothing and take a bath. And clean the gash on your cheek too, it’s too deep to be left with dirt and blood all over it.” That done, she walked out. Arryn relaxed a bit, and looked at Dayn, miffed at the interruption, rubbing the gash on her cheek that was surrounded by dried blood. It was clear that she didn’t like the idea of leaving Dayn alone.

 

[BookWyrm]

"I'll be fine by myself for a little while. Go ahead and get cleaned up." Dayn leaned in and kissed her. "Besides, one of us needs to look presentable."

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn looked at him searchingly for a few moments before nodding. She carefully crawled out of the bed before taking her pack and going to take a bath. The hot water only reminded her of how sore she was and the blisters on her hands. Luckily most of the blood had been on her clothing and not her skin. She soon discovered that all of her clothing was dirty, whether torn, covered in mud, or blood. She changed into dirty clothing and went to her old room, sorting through her chest of clothing before changing into a clean, white shortsleeve shirt and black pants. Shortsleeves were something she’d not worn since the incident. She ran her hand over the open scars, and shivered a bit, before collecting all of her dirty clothes and tossing them in a pile to deal with later. After braiding her hair, Arryn focused on cleaning her wound. The cut was surprisingly deep, almost to her cheekbone, so she treated it with care and applied a bandage, using a mild medical tape to keep it in place, taking up almost half of her left cheek, the bandage very close to the bottom of her eye. She returned to Dayn, smiling slightly.

 

[BookWyrm]

Dayn smiled as he watched Arryn leave to take a bath. He knew she worried about him, all of them for good reasons. When she had left Dayn sat up and stretched, grimacing in pain as his wounds stretched out. Once he finally got to peak stretch he yawned, only to choke and cough, feeling something wet splatter on his hand. He looked down to see blood. He sighed before grabbing the towel they had been using that night and wiped off his hand and mouth. Just as he sat the towel back on the table his body convulsed. He groaned, curling in and grabbing his stomach as pain shot through his body. "Dammit." The pain finally stopped, but only after leaving him on the floor, hunched over in pain. He felt a lingering pain that shot through his body, taking his breath away. He had just managed to stand back up and catch his breath when Arryn walked in smiling. He returned the smile though he was shocked to see her in short sleeves. He gingerly walked over to her and took her hands before kissing her forehead. "Short sleeves are very becoming on you love. But then again," he reached up and pushed back a loose strand of her hair, "You always look beautiful."

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn blushed a bit, before saying, “You’re making me think you’ve done something bad, all these compliments.” She ran one hand over her bare upper arm, still looking at him, then glanced at the ground. “Who knows, I might’ve gotten the feathers tattooed eventually. I-I don’t hate that part that much.” She glanced back up at him, then to his empty bed. “You shouldn’t be up and moving around until we get more of the silver out…. You lost a lot of blood, too.”

 

[BookWyrm]

Dayn smiled, trying his best to hide his lightheadedness from her. "Can't I tell you you look beautiful without you questioning me?" He looked at her a moment before shaking his head. "I guess I can sit back down." Dayn turned to walk towards the best and tensed, the pain shooting through his body again. He managed to catch himself on the edge of the bed and pulled himself up before laying down the rest of the way. "I thought it was over." Damn. His palm found it's way to his face as he laid there, cursing his own stupidity. He took a deep breath and sighed heavily. He knew if he didn't tell her she would be upset. "I had another episode. Not a long one." Dayn reached out and took Arryn's hand, rubbing it gently as he faked a smile, trying to put her at ease and hopefully lessen the chastisement he knew was coming.

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn sat on the edge of his bed, gently rubbing his hand. "I'm glad you seem to have recovered so quickly. We'll fix this all soon, and you won't have to worry about it again." Arryn moved closer to him and crossed her legs, taking his hand again and gently rubbing around the wound without actually touching it. "We need to properly bind your wounds soon. I've been able to keep them clean and stop bleeding, but I'm nearly out of mana. I don't want to do it when you're tired or weak, and you just had an episode, so we can't at the moment. I'd like to try to get more of the silver out when I get enough mana."

 

[BookWyrm]

Dayn cringed at the thought of removing the silver. It would hurt, a lot, but there was no way around it. If left inside him it would always cause him pain and hinder is abilities. What would happen if they were in a fight and he had an episode? Don't think about those things. "I can manage you binding and cleaning everything. I don't want you draining yourself again." Dayn sat up, leaving his hand in hers, and scooted closer to her. "I can't predict when the episodes will come on, so right now is the best chance we've got to get it taken care of. We can worry about the flecks later." Dayn leaned in and rested his head against Arryn's shoulder, nuzzling against her neck as she rubbed his hand. "Thank you for last night."

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn smiled and said, "Don't thank me for something I gladly do." She sat back and brushed back his hair, saying, "you sure that your body can handle the pain...? We can wait a bit longer, it'd be okay...."

 

[BookWyrm]

Dayn smiled as Arryn brushed back his hair. She had a way of making the simplest gestures come off with the most emotion. "I can handle it. I guarantee it won't be the worst thing I've lived through." Dayn leaned up and kissed her neck slowly, gently caressing the opposite side of her neck as he let his lips linger and play across her soft skin. He finally pulled his lips away and nuzzled against her. "Not only do you look beautiful, you smell beautiful as well." It was an off hand compliment for sure, but for someone with as sensitive a nose as his it meant a lot. "I think I'm addicted to you."