- Moss Adamaris - "Cave, Northwest of the Fallen Malus, Night time"
Moss nodded. "I'll help you look for one when we get to Barad Eithel." he stretched to the side and slipped Ninjas of Love inside his bag, before settling back on the bed. "Today was some day . . . When I saw Malus, I couldn't believe you and Vidya did that . . . And you are unharmed!" he sighed in relief, hugging him. "Being able to be in another place at the blink of an eye is very handy, no wonder people want it." he absently ruffled his hair, thinking. He grinned. "It seems everywhere you go, Isa, you become popular." he chuckled.
Isa felt Moss move, getting off so he could put his book away. Then he resettled himself, head on chest with an arm around Moss’ waist. He hummed low and quiet, enjoying the ruffling as he pondered. “I choose you over others.”
Tilting his head, the redhead leaning up and pecked underneath Moss’ chin. “Don’t really care about being popular as long I know you’re okay~”
Moss tilted his head. "Do . . . you think I am jealous of them? I mean, I understand how they feel, but I know that you won't be theirs." he caressed his head reassuringly.
“Nope, I’m affirming~” Isa purred, slowly melting from the caresses. Body shivered when Moss accidentally teased the outer shell of his ear.
”Remembered ya mentioned before about not wanting others to be attracted to me and popularity can start that. So I’m affirming now.” He muttered, squeezing his waist gently.
Trembling from his sweetest touches, Isa hugged back tight. Nuzzling his face in Moss’ chest and smiled. “At first, I thought ya were fun to prank and kind. Your food is what brought me over to your stall after all, I just smelled home~ Even when I am a total newbie to fishing and afraid of water, ya were patient with me. Hearing ya sing made me relate to ya, I sort of swooned on the boat. I was surprised that ya still went with me after telling ya of my goal, keeping me company. However it was after we left the barn house that I started to crush on ya— and before ya start thinking it’s because of your orca form, it’s not!”
“When I got scared of showing my scars from hellmist, ya accepted me. Ya even went over and comforted me about them after seeing them. Encouraging me to let my hands out once in a while. . . I thought of the worst when I showed them to ya but ya proved me wrong. I saw how kind ya really are when we saved the victims from the demons. How determined ya were to calm them down enough to be reasoned with. Made me think that perhaps it’s not so bad to show your care to others either. So I started to be a little considerate towards others too. Gosh, when we were separated from the portal, all I could think of was how worried ya must be and that I needed to get to ya. The relief was overwhelming when we did see each other again-“ Isa sighed, squeezing Moss tightly.
”I choose ya over everyone because I can see that you care for others, kind even towards strangers, determined, a little crazy from jumping off a cliff with a robotic bull, protective, and patient. Yes, I’m aware of your past, but that doesn’t stop ya from loving your friends to the point of trying to find a way for them to return home. You’re wonderful and I feel like Loki just blessed me to be in your life and to have ya in mine. I’m just falling more and more for ya, Moss~” Isa admitted at the end, looking up to see the merman’s face. Smiling warm and enamored.
Moss was smiling shyly and hugged Isa with both arms and legs, and snuggled viciously. "I feel lucky to have you in mine too, Isa!" He looked up at him smiling. "What can I do for you? Other than Manuel, and looking for a forge later, and snuggling at night, is there anything else that you want?"
Isa laughed when Moss snuggled him viciously, upper arms and legs trapped by his beau. He hummed before snorting. “Snuggling because ya wanted to snuggle earlier, my sea turtle~” He chuckled, pecking the tip of his nose before plopping his head on the pillow. Pondering and coming up with a quick answer.
His cheeks turned red. Warm smile tensed up into an a bashful one.
Isa blinked owlishly before snorting. Looking away as he covered his mouth with a bare hand as he coughed back his laugh.
“ . . . Um . . . W-woo me? Hard?” He barely made a syllable in that last whisper, turning extremely red from his face down to his chest and shoulders. Isa covered his entire face with his pillow, hair slightly bounced as his head hit the bed.
Moss flipped on top of Isa, perked up and smiling. "Gladly~"
Gently he kissed him. Slow and passionate was Moss, strumming Isa's body in the familiar parts he knew best that made him shudder, spreading a pleasant warmth across his neck and chest that covered everything in a dazed cloud of sweetness. He enjoyed making his beau feel this way. Kisses became deeper, until Isa knew nothing, felt nothing, was aware of nothing but Moss' blazing, desperate need to be Isa's and Isa be his.
And he didn't stop until Isa went crazy.
That night ended with fireworks. Moss had Isa tucked against his warm chest, exchanging sweet kisses in loose-headed pleasantness, hand fondling the hair at the back of his neck.
A squeak escaped Isa’s lips as Moss flipped their positions; with the merman on top this time. The pillow was casted aside, revealing wide eyed indigos surrounded by autumn red strands. Lips gently pressed. The redhead hummed, sounding like a lazy happy purr as he was slowly glazed by Moss’ wooing, soaking in his slow passionate affection like a sponge.
Shaky sudden arches of the back, alluring sliding of bare limbs on bedsheets, quiet peaks of his voice with each strumming. The redhead dazedly gaze into Moss’ eyes, only seeing him as he teased and caused his body to shudder from pleasant tingles. Lured in by the bright teals and creamy white hair like he was hearing music that soothed his dented heart, healing it whole. The world around him blurred. His soul reached out for Moss’, happily whispering loving words as Isa went crazy.
Romantic words were purred in Moss’ ears as Isa gave back with loving kisses and affectionate touches. Wanting to be Moss’ and Moss being his. Wanting to feel just as good and even better than him-
Fireworks lighting up and dulling into a lull of soothing that night. Isa sighed pleasantly as tucked him on his chest before getting caught in a slow kiss. Again. And again. His body shivered as Moss played with his red locks, causing him to playfully trace nonsensical shapes on his chest. Slowly and sweetly kissing his face and horn before returning to his lips, breathing deeply. His skin with a tinge of pink, felt warmer under Moss’ touch. Isa’s floppy arms curled around the merman, squeezing him from time to time as he nipped under his rather red spotted chin.
“Fishuus kisshus~” Isa mumbled, smiling silly on Moss’ lips as they cuddled.
Moss laughed. "Your speech really gets confuddled when we're in the heat of the moment~" he drowned him again with a deep make out. "Isa~ get ready for cheesy romantic wooing from now on~" he played with his hair.
Isa lazily kissed back, raising the hand that was tracing up to wrap around his neck and weakly cling onto his shoulder. Addicted to his deep kisses, following those lips after they parted. Pecking a few times. He smiled warmly, gently rubbing the tips of their noses slowly. The apple of his red cheeks curved his dazed eyes up.
”Hmmm~ savorii cheesy gudneds~“ He purred in a slow whisper. Sighing as he kissed him again, leaning into Moss’ hand as he played his hair. Causing him to shiver from pleasant tingles on his head. ”Meh favoritry flavah~”
Yep, he was out of it. Isa was like that one person who got hit in the head with the bat of love.
”Moss, I love ya~” Isa sighed with a warm smile, sounding oddly clear. “Can I be cheesy with ya?”
”Who was I before?
I don’t remember.
Nor do I want to
remember a time without ya.
Where was I before?
I don‘t remember.
I just knew
when I found ya,
I had come home ~”
He made another, pecking Moss lovingly.
“I may never find
words beautiful enough
to describe all
that you mean to me,
but I will spend
the rest of my life
searching for them.”
”I have seen your dark nights
and your bright days
and I will be here with ya forever
waiting in your dusk.”
Isa kept reciting more and more poems, each one just as sweet as the last.
“I see ya everyday,
but I fall in love over and over again
whenever I wake up to see ya sleep beside me.
Whenever ya laugh and smile.
Whenever ya tease and have fun.
Whenever ya cook.
Whenever ya play with Okami.
Whenever we read together.
and I know I will fall even deeper in our future days together.”
Moss smiled. He snuggled Isa and slowly dozed off to the sound of his voice. More than the hot passionate make-outs, he liked this. And fell asleep with his nose buried in Isa's hair.
The next day Moss awoke early. After gently kissing Isa's forehead and slowly disentangling himself without waking him up, he tucked the blanket around him, donned one of his discarded shirts that had been thrown haphazardly during the night, then went out to the kitchen to cook him breakfast in bed. It was dark and cool in the cave, with nothing but the embers of last night's campfires smoldering in the grey morning.
Okami, sleeping next to the oven, wagged his tail sleepily at Moss, then rolled over his belly. Moss chuckled and rubbed him, still unused to the shorter fur, and squished the polar bear dog's belly fat and snuggled him.
He hummed, as he cooked. Then an idea popped into his head. To woo Isa hard, breakfast in bed wouldn't be complete without a flower. Finishing the main course. He left them to warm on the stove, and took Okami out for a ride.
The sandstorm was gone. He rode by the corpse of the fallen Malus, the sand around him rust red with dry crusty blood, and passed the oasis which had been ruined from Malus' stomping over it. The archway where they had sheltered before was destroyed and scattered around the waters, covering most of the pool. He turned south, and came upon the familiar place where he saw the orange berries. He smiled, there were cacti with flowers here, and picked a couple.
* * * *
Later, Isa would smell something heavenly waft next to him, and then feel the bed dip, as Moss snuggled him from behind carefully. If Isa opened his eyes, there was a beautiful breakfast for two steaming hot on the floor, coupled with their mugs, Moss's steaming oriental kettle, and a pair of small flowers next to a cake dessert.
Isa continued in his short poetry, sighing as he was brought closer to the merman’s body. Nuzzling sleepily under his chin as he muttered his words. Eyelids became heavier and heavier as he listened to Moss’ breathing slowing down.
The redhead fell asleep, smiling.
When Moss disentangled himself, he’d see Isa slightly pout and reached out to grab his pillow. Bringing it closer to his face and snuggled with it. Smiling once more and sighed.
——-
Groaning low, Isa took a deep breath and paused. Taking another sniff as he slowly comprehended the delicious waft of food in the air. But it seemed closer than the kitchen . . .
He felt the bed dip behind him, familiar arms wrapped around him as the redhead slowly fluttered his lids open. Revealing sleepy indigo eyes and grew wide in surprise. A breakfast for two, steaming hot with mugs full of tea, kettle still hot, and decorated with small flowers on top of desserts. The merman can feel Isa’s tummy grumbling. “Dat luush en’ smells guud~” Isa purred with a slur, placing his arm over Moss’ and covered his hand. Intertwining with his tanned one.
“Gud mornin’, Moss~” He squirmed back, pressing his back on Moss’ chest, and peeked over his shoulder. Sweetly smiling as he shuffled around in place, slowly and deeply kissed Moss. Arms wrapped around his waist and shoulder; one hand played with his creamy white hair. “This looks beautiful, Moss. Where did ya find the flowers? What’s that dessert called?”
"Morning, Isa, it's an emerald mint tart." Moss kissed him back, then looked away to yawn, and then plopped his lips back to Isa's pleasantly. "So, while I was exploring, I found a patch of bushes with small orange berries and some cactus with flowers a bit south of the Oasis, agapiméni mou. The berries make a nice gummy like jelly when you boil them, surprisingly, but this one is . . . is . . ." he looked away and yawn again, " . . . crisp, not rubbery jelly, so it's easy to chew."
His smile grew soft and warm as he watched Moss yawn. Silently thinking that Moss must have woken up earlier than usual to be yawning. Touched and enamored, Isa reached up and silently tucked a strand of creamy white hair behind his tanned ear before cupping his cheek tenderly.
“It looks beautiful, like I’m seeing the shallow sea floor.” Isa whispered. “Wanna eat breakfast now so ya can take a nap after? Ya can sleep on my lap, if ya like? Want me to sing a lullaby? Or wanna snuggle with me as a Jaguar?”
Isa hugged back, chuckling quietly. “Alright~” He purred. “Snuggles after breakfast ~” With that, the redhead pushed himself to sit, blankets sliding off to reveal his pale chest that’s covered in little red marks. He reached out the bed to grab the tray’s handles and bring it close. Placing it on his lap. As the pair ate, with Isa teasing and causing him to laugh with his dream, the redhead hummed. Lids fluttering in pleasant joy as he munched on their breakfast and dessert~
Isa couldn’t resist to wiggle the emerald mint tart, wanting to see if the jelly part will jiggle or not.
After finish eating, Isa snuggled Moss under the covers, whispering sweet words that will make a sailor blush. Humming a soothing tune as he watched him fall back to sleep. Slowly twirling a strand of white hair and lightly tug before combing it back.
The emerald mint tart wiggled. Moss looked at Isa curiously, then lifted his tart next to his and wiggled it. He laughed at their silliness, and Isa's funny dream, just leaning against the wall all chill and watching his eyes fluttering in pleasant joy as he munched on his food.
Moss reached out and caressed Isa's cheek, looking at him with love.
The talk about dreams led to random topics again. Moss wanted to hear once more how Isa drove Smoky up Malus' back and the blow by blow account of how he destroyed him and escaped on Smoky with an explosion behind them. It was . . . it was one of those things you thought only happened in books, and then all of a sudden it's real, in real life. Moss looked at Isa, impressed. And asked him what other crazy things he did before he met him.
After breakfast, Moss was grinning and blushing, as Isa made him swoon. "Agapiméni mou, you sound like the prince's bodyguard. Oh, just imagining you in ninja clothes . . ." he looked at him for a moment, then his expression transformed as though Isa was an emerald mint tart, and then made a growling noise and snuggled him hard.
He curled up against Isa's chest, as he was lulled to sleep by his tune and the feeling of warm familiar hands combing through his hair. Moss' hug was a lock and he did not let Isa go, until it was time for them to meet up with Vashur and go to Barad Eithel.
* * * *
Moss knew a merchant mage who could possibly hide them in the fallen flying city. "He's name's Leonid, an odd guy, but a good guy. I helped him out of a bind before in Menagerie Coast. He's got a shop in Barad Eithel. I'm sure he'll help us hide the caravan. I know that he's going to be at least in love with Smoky. He's into exotic things."
And so, after trading some new clothes from the Purrsians, including the usual veil to protect against the sand and more importantly cover their faces (Moss had a cloth head wrap with a leather cap to cover his horn, but it was difficult to hide such a pointy thing), donning some make up, dyeing their hair, and Vashur said good-bye to his brother, the group decided to travel straight to the fallen city. Vidya was very eager to get going. She had burst down the stairs upon everyone proudly showing off her arm free of crystal. It was still in a sling, and a bit noodley from being encased for so long, but she was happily showing how she could close her fist, and eat with two hands --- sort of, her hand still shook and went everywhere --- but it didn't matter to her and she just ecstatically used it for everything.
They decided to forgo using Smoky, and had Pluplu and Okami draw up the caravan. Moss in his newly dyed black hair, head cloth wrap and loose flowing desert clothes easily passed for a local what with his darker skin and teal eyes. In fact, he was looking like the thief in Isa's book, except he rode a polar bear dog instead of a black giant coyote and was looking so attractive his disguise was likely to garner attention; Vashur sat at the driver's seat of the caravan, behind the mounts, helping keeping a look out; while if one looked really high up, Vidya, who's disguise also wasn't as good (she tried to dye her hair another color, but it went wrong and now it was a rainbow of green, blue, and pink which will also likely attract attention), was standing inside the tower where Wild's plants were thriving, constantly being watered by her every morning; L, whose disguise was phenomenal (she looked like a ratty goblin complete with a crazy accent and believable back story), decided to stay inside and talk some more to Uroboros. She was talking to him a lot lately, about the goliaths, and everything. He was very interested with all that was going on, and had revealed to her that indeed that was what he was helping the maidens do. Goliaths were hard to destroy, but it was easy to destroy them if you controlled them, because then you can use them to destroy one another.
When they passed Malus, they were surprised to see him stripped. There were signs of a large group having been here the night before, possibly during or after the sandstorm. The red rust sand was disturbed in many places with deep foot prints, the wheels of many wagons moving to and fro from Malus, and the goliath had many missing parts, even the skin made of soul shards was entirely gone. That would have taken time and some very good tools to actually remove the durable skin. And if anybody approached, they would bump into solid air. There was an invisible barrier around it.
The heavy wagon tracks led towards Barad Eithel, though they weren't sure which silhouette of caravans and wagons on the Merchant Road belonged to whoever had been here last night.
* * * *
It was around two in the afternoon when they beheld the great ruin. It was ginormous. Great towers of patina gold, rusting brass, copper, and broken glass windows rose from the sands. The hot desert wind tugged at the flags of bandit clans on the spires, and everywhere there were armed patrols on fire salamanders or giant coyotes.
There was a great tunnel in the western end of the ruin, and inside the cool shadows they saw a fortress settlement of stone, and crumbling sand bricks, and colorful woven Purrsian cloths built along the sloping ruined walls. There were more Purrsians than people, and the place was bustling with merchants decked in golden ornaments sitting on colorful rugs where small piles of spices, trinkets, weapons, armor, spicy food, dried spell ingredients, pretty stained glass bottles, potions, and exotic monsters were being sold.
Most everyone lived in tents, and their tents were of the mage kind with some sort of enlarging enchantment because the group would see carts loaded with supplies enter into a tent as small as Isa's four man tent, but then nothing came out of the other side.
Their caravan garnered interested looks from its obviously foreign design, but no one gave them trouble. They were actually more interested in Moss riding Okami. He was . . . just so unique, riding a polar bear dog, face veiled mysteriously, and those teal eyes. Many red silken dancers with bells dangling from their clothes giggled as the caravan passed by, until the group found what they were looking for.
A purple tent with peacocks and a small green garden lawn and a fountain outside, and a sign with peeling gold paint above the tent that said:
Leonid's Exotic Eccentricities " Well behaved children are welcome, the rest will be made into pies"
"Yep, this is Leonid's shop alright." chuckled Moss. He looked at the others. "No, that's just a joke, he doesn't really turn children into pies."
“It really does wiggle!” Isa perked up, happy for that small curiosity to be fulfilled.
As he watched Moss enjoy himself to sleep from his humming, Isa smiled warm. Cheeks red from the loving gaze he received before, that was new. Made the redhead feel like a maiden or something fluffy. He also kept in mind of what mentioned about the bodyguard...it gave the redhead ideas for something fun for Moss.
—————
Isa wasn’t surprised that others have come to grab a piece of Malus. What did surprise is how much time they took everything from the large mechanical beast; very little time. He wondered if the people who took said items from Malus were folks who had better equipment and right now, he believes his uncle might have taken them. He does have good equipment, according to the Anubis brothers.
So now, as the group passed into Barad Eithel, Isa could only gape at the great ruins. Never having to see one this big or this...Golden before. It was massively different from the stone cold ruins around his place and the badlands. He was itching to go in and research everything.
”That’s a ruin?!” Isa muttered in a sultry woman’s voice as he rode behind Moss. He didn’t want to leave him alone while under the hot sun. Just in case.
His lighter blue gaze broke from the ruins to the giggling red silken ladies. Dark purple strands framed his sun kissed skin, reaching down to his middle back and tied in a loose thick braid. A simple golden head piece draped around his dyed head. Eyes narrowed before shining smugly as he pressed his chest on Moss’ back and squeezed his waist in a hug. His grin hidden under his loose embroidered scarf. The creamy white sleeveless jacket and magenta long tunic took advantage of his androgynous body with a yellow sash around his upper waist. Creating a tall womanly figure without tattoos. Moss can feel and hear Isa quietly growling and always held onto him just slightly tighter.
Ever since Moss took on the disguise, Isa had been more touchy-feely. With a blush on those cheeks that are slowly filling up with each meal Moss makes, slightly less angular.
When they reached a purple tent with peacocks on a small garden, Isa hopped off of Okami with Moss’ help. The disguised redhead blinked owlishly at the peeling paint above the tent and looked at the amused merman. “I see . . . I guess he uses magic to keep the garden well?” Peacocks? In the desert?
“Fascinating.” He mumbled, following besides Moss and staring at the flightless birds before passing through the tent’s flaps. Isa wasn’t ready for the spaciousness inside.