The Discordant Dirge

[Skie and Avery]

DISCLAIMER: This thread contains graphic sexual content. Continue to read at your own risk.


Sweet bitter words unlike nothing I have heard.
Sing along mocking bird; you don't affect me.

Korn - Coming Undone

The forest was silent of fauna this morning. The only sound was the patter of rain on the trees, and on the fallen leaves that lay scattered on the forest floor. It always seemed to rain on days like this, when the gray skies and biting wetness seemed to make things worse than they already were. Two figures stood in Concordia, hunched against the chill that was both a product of the day's weather and from something within their hearts. Autumn was coming, bringing with it the first chill of impending frosts. The winds were sweeping in from the north, sending the leaves dancing through the forest. Today they waltzed for death, brushing and piling up against a small stone.

Avery bent down, sweeping leaves away from the stone with the palm of his hand, his tears falling down his cheeks to mix in with the rainwater that covered the dark slate. His fingers brushed away the last leaf, so verdantly green, though reds and golds were beginning to brush lightly along the edges, and now he could read again what had been chiseled onto the stone.


Netimrael Killian Nito
Prince and Future King

Two Moons Shone for You
Thousands More Will Weep
For Missed Opportunities

He looked to Elena, wanting to hold her against him, but he was unsure. For the first time since he'd taken his song bird out of the forest, he was truely afraid to touch her. He could sense that something in her had shattered when they first saw their child laying cold and blue on the floor. He'd slept, they told him, for a week. The coma took the details of the day he'd lost their newborn son from his mind, but he could tell that each moment was etched onto his wife's mind. He hoped the stone would help.

Their child wasnt buried here, outside the safety of the Moontae village. He was in the royal ossuary, where his remains would never be disturbed by a digging animal or grave robber. The marker stone was merely something he'd done for Elena, to bring some humanity to the death. Some small measure of the familiar could help, he hoped. So, still weak from the wound Skie'd nearly used to kill him, he had the taken the stone from the caverns that laced their way throughout Concordia. Once engraved, he'd placed it under the willow tree, planting the beautiful Soema flowers around it.

His mother's namesake would not be forgotten. Avery bit back a sob as he thought of Natamrael, and how happy he'd been the day that Elena had suggested they name his son after her. Netimrael was the male form of the legendary succubus Queen's name. He had had so many hopes for his son, hopes that he was as amazing as his grandmother, as wonderful as his mother. The child had resembled him, with the first tufts of his baby hair the dark dual colors of his mother. His son had been the greatest joy of his life.

Avery's grief was threatening to drown him, but he knew that as long as he had her, he would be fine. Tentatively, he reached for Elena's hand. While they stood out here alone, the funeral proceedings in the village were still going on. They had slipped out to mourn alone together, to stand by the stone while the willow's long, vine-like boughs whipped in the shower around them. While they couldn't see the high gates to the city, they could barely hear the wake, the voices of the Moontae all raised high enough in grief to cut through the magical barrier that should have muffled any sound the city made. The King of the Beauty recognized the song from his childhood, and frowned for a moment. As quietly as the melody was coming to him, he could hear a note or two that was off, and he wished that Elena would speak so that he wouldn't have to listen to the discordant dirge any longer.

[Moonlit Raven]

Cold. That was all I was truly aware of. I watched Avery brush the leaves away from my son’s grave and felt nothing but a distant wave of sadness. I watched as Avery and the skies do what I could not, cry. The moment Netimrael’s chest had failed to rise. The moment the soundless wails of his soul began to haunt me, my tears had ended. My gaze shifted from the etched stone to the leaves scattered around us. The dying leaves seemed ironic all of a sudden. The loss of summer heralded the coming of fall and the loss of my son.

A silent wail echoed through my head, I wished for a moment I would add my own screams to them. I wanted nothing more than to lie on the tiny grave and weep until my body was dry. To rend my clothing, tear at my hair and score my flesh. Perhaps if I cried out loudly enough the gods would undo this one injustice. I shuddered, turning half away from my son’s grave. I didn’t want to see the torn earth nor hear the wails of his spirit. I wished I could reach out to the confused soul and comfort it. Its life had been taken from it long before it had ever truly lived.

Closing my eyes I could still see Netimrael smile toothlessly at me as he cooed happily. I wanted nothing more then to see the bright green eyes of my child disappear behind his fat little cheeks as he laughed at some antic of his father. Finally, I felt a single tear fall down my cheek, its warmth scoring my eyes and skin like acid.

Avery’s hand slipped tentatively into my cold hand, I squeezed it lightly. My heart constricted at the phantom tug of a baby’s lips upon my breast. Moving closer to Avery I wanted to bury my face into his but I hesitated. I didn’t know if Avery was strong enough to take care of me as he grieved. I did know if I was strong enough to survive being held.

“Why?” That one word had been asked a million million time through the ages but never before did it weigh so heavily on my mind. Never before had I asked an unanswerable question.

[Skie and Avery]

There it was, a small pressure on his fingers and the shift slightly to his side. It was the most reaction he'd gotten out of her since he'd woken from the coma, the most reassurance he could see that she could still feel love for him. He looked down upon his wife, the tears still spilling as he wept. She was haunted in ways that he couldn't understand, and her nights of pacing their room, moving from window to bed to empty bassinet was taking their toll on her. Dark circles framed her eyes, her body hunched inwards under the invisible weight. She had always seemed so strong, even with her slight stature. Now, she was tiny, and he could almost see the fractured cracks in her psyche. He wanted to slip his arms around her, but he felt he couldn't. She should, he thought, be repulsed by him.

"All my fault..." he whispered, his baritone weakened to the point of breaking. He remembered, just days after Netimrael's birth, the crying coming to a pitch of previously unknown volume. He had rolled out of their swinging bed and somehow managed to find his way to the bassinet through the haze of just awakening and commenting to the babe as he held and comforted it into silence, 'There's a reason some animals eat their young.' How was he to know that not two months would pass from that day when his long-gone sister would walk back into his life, and take the thing that had become most precious to him?

He hated Skie, his love for his sister poisoned to the point where thoughts of her brought nothing but a blinding red heat into his mind. As much as he tried to tell himself that if anyone was to blame here, it was she who had so callously delivered the fatal wound, he still couldn't escape the fact that he had not been able to stop it. He and Elena had celebrated the rare fortune they had with this child, and somewhere in the dark night he had joked about it being gone. The Moontae were firm believers in things that listen carefully in the dead hours. Avery was a firm believer in his guilt as a murderer, as sure as Skie had dealt the blow.

He turned away from the grave, away from Elena. His disgust with himself was more than he could bear. Natamrael had given up her life to save her children, yet here he stood over the morbid reminder of the youth that had never gotten the chance to prove his worth. The heir to the throne was gone, but a glance back at Elena warmed his heart, even if just slightly.

A single tear had trailed down her cheek, leaving it's dark mark upon her pale skin. It was the only good sign he'd seen in the last few days, a sign that there was still hope for her. Resolve strengthened in his chest, and he thought he might be able to see some light within all this darkness. He turned back to her, catching her eyes. They nearly tore away, and he knew it was because their son had inherited his forest-green gaze. Somehow, they managed to hold the look, and Avery gave her a smile that was far too weak, and far too forced. It was the only thing he could think to do, though. He couldn't stand this anymore. He couldn't stand to see her without the joy, or even the anger, that he had grown to covet on her face.

"We'll try again." he said with determination. "This won't be the end, and we'll have more."

[Moonlit Raven]

Hurt slowly filtered though my mind when Avery pulled away. Was his grief to much to too allow him to hold the mother of his dead child? Does he blame me for not looking after our son more carefully? Is Netimrael's death my fault? Was I bad mother? I looked at Avery, the guilt on face, in his eyes made no sense. Was comforting each other too much to ask for?

"We'll have more?" I echoed. The numb quality that I had ridden the last few days, slowly began to break. Emotions I didn't want to deal with slowly came back to me, wrapping my mind in their smothering grasp.

“Avery, there may never be another. My darker side grows stronger within me all the time. How can something tainted with death create life? Avery, I can the cries of our son’s soul and you want me to think about bearing another child!” I stopped my hands covering my mouth to take back the words that spilled forth. I didn’t want to tell Avery my curse had grown in new ways. I hadn’t wanted him to know I still hear our son. I didn’t want him to know my mind was shattering under the constant wails.

I knelt on the earth beside Netimrael’s grave, lightly touching the stone. The stone was cold and smooth under my cheek as I rested against it. I grasped a handful of earth and watched it trickle through my fingers. The cherished days of life now nothing more than dust. I looked at Avery, truly seeing him this time. Hurt, weak, he still held on to hope. I wondered what hope was there for us? Skie’s actions felt like the beginning of a end for us all.

“Avery, I just want you to hold me. To let me hold you. Tomorrow can be for worries, tomorrow we can wonder what is next.” Exhaustion, days of worry for my husband and son were finally bearing down on me. I found myself no longer strong to withstand it all. I had no pillar of hidden strength to cling to.

“I am weak.” I whispered to myself, bitterness wrung another tear from me.

[Skie and Avery]

Her confession worried Avery, but not nearly as much as her collapse onto the dark stone. The rain had begun to thicken, the distant rumble of thunder crashing at the edges of his senses. As the heavier raindrops found their way through the branches of the old willow, plastering his hair to his face with their wet caress, Avery fell to his knees beside his wife. He gathered her in his arms, her words spurring him into movement.

As he let her cling to his chest, he buried his face in her hair. It smelled of her, of earth and sweat. She had gone unwashed the last few days; they both had. Their grief was like something that had stepped in and stopped everything normal and nice in their lives. Death seemed to shadow them constantly, even though it had done it's duty here.

He had always known that as part vampire, she walked hand in hand with the Reaper all her days. The monstrous blood that flowed within her tied her to the bitter enemies of their people, and to have a half vampire queen had been difficult enough. Hadn't they stayed strong enough through that? Hadn't he been a proper man and accepted his sister's return with open arms? Why had he been betrayed? Why had the child they'd tried so long to create been taken away before it's first words had been spoken?

How could that perfect creature with the perfect wings be killed before he ever had a chance to learn to fly?

And now, here it was, worsened somehow by the fact that Elena couldn't leave him in the ground. She claimed she heard his cries, but that couldn't be true, could it? The dead were gone; that's just what dead was. He closed his eyes as he pulled her closer, kissing the crown of her head. Worry was blossoming now in his heart, more fiercely than before. Was she falling into madness? When she'd slain Netimrael, Skie had seemed not herself at all. If this sickness was catching, and Elena had become a victim of it, he wasn't sure that he could do what needed to be done when the woman he held in his shaking grasp turned into nothing more than a monster with the most impossibly beautiful brown eyes. For now, though, he just let her anguish roll through him as he whispered the only truth he could comprehend into her ears.

"No matter what happens, I will always love you."

[Moonlit Raven]

The warmth of our home enveloped me. Gratefully, I had clung to Avery as we walked through the streets, returning to our home. I didn’t want to see the emotions on any face. I didn’t want to see the sadness or the creeping suspicion I felt should be there. Pulling away, I let Avery enter first.

Standing in the still open door, I ignored the water dripping from my clothing. The bassinet near our bed held my attention. The transition from sadness to anger happened faster then I ever would have thought it could. I lunged across the room and grabbed the bassinet. I swore that I could faintly catch Skie’s scent drifting up from the blankets. The edge of the bassinet cracked under my grasp.

“Damn your sister and damn your mother for bearing such a treacherous beast.” I hissed, partly to the empty air and partly to Avery. My hands tore themselves away from the tainted cradle and ripped through my hair. The pain I felt from my abused scalp as I pushed through the tangled locks felt good. My anger flared, burning away the sadness in my heart and willingly I fed it.

“Why Netimrael? Why my baby? Why did she take his life and spare yours? Why did she only wound you, only cast you into some coma?” I asked, turning on Avery. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t to blame. I was angry, my fury had no target for it so it lashed out, without direction. Too many questions fought to be spoken, stilling my tongue.

Instead, I shrieked angrily. Gripping the cradle, I drug it across the room, flailing at the cradle bed Avery and myself slept in as it got in my way. I slapped my hand against the wall, opening the portal to the outside and threw the bassinet out into the rain. Stomping after it, I kicked it until my foot ached too much to continue.

“A life for a life. I want hers in exchange for my child’s.” I yelled at Avery. I was unaware of the nails that pierced skin and the blood that stained the soggy ground around me.

[Skie and Avery]

He stood still as she raged, watching her course across the room and back like a man entranced. He had made the bassinet himself, with the help of Mansematiel. Somehow, the blond man and himself had managed to carve a cradle that didn't list too far to one side after the fifth attempt, and when they'd covered it with down-stuffed cloth Avery's pride had swollen farther than Elena's late-pregnancy stomach. The first time Netimrael's tiny head had been laid to bed within it, he'd been close to weeping with pride and happiness. Now he watched as it was rent into pieces, wood cracking under Elena's fists and bleeding fingers.

He bit his lip to keep from defending Natamrael for her sin of bearing children who ended up hurting each other. Her comments on Skie were easily ignored. There was no denying that he, too, had felt the cold hate growing in his breast for the sister he had once been so close to. Within the course of an hour, four lives had been destroyed, one of which was totally obliterated.

"Skie's been punished," he said quietly as the rain beat onto the cobbles outside, washing away the evidence of Elena's wounds. "She might be dead, too. Most don't survive what was done to her."

It was then that he walked out into the rain, letting his lone wing stretch out to shelter her from the downpour that was falling like thick silver tears all around them. The thunder rumbled in the sky, and he took her arm gently, drawing her back into their home. They were miserable enough already without the elements beating them further down. When the door to their home had slid shut behind him, Avery moved to the bed, taking a blanket from it so that he could cover her shoulders, and help ward out some of the physical cold that had been all too quickly seeping into his own skin, and surely hers as well.

It was not nearly as raw as the cold that was soon to come within their very hearts and actions.

[Moonlit Raven]

A week had passed since the burial of Netimrael and still I felt as mad as ever. My anger was my shield, burning away the despair in my heart. Since that first night, all pieces of the cradle I destroyed were removed, hidden from me. I almost regretted my actions. I almost wanted the blanket that rested within its wooden walls, almost.

For seven long days I avoided Avery during daylight hours, instead I threw myself into being a good ‘Queen’ to my people. I found myself drawn to the children, I played with them often. The nights I spent clinging to Avery as I tried to sleep. I cursed the gods as the soundless wailing never left and seemed to haunt my dreams.

I remembered, finally, that I had another baby. Not human, but a baby none the less and I needed to take care of it. I carefully picked up the large cocoon like egg that held my pet. For a long moment I studied it. This one I would not let down. No one would take it away from me, ever. Fashioning a cloth sling, the egg went into it. It rested against the front of my body for warmth and for my scent that would permeate it.

Humming to it as I once had Netimrael I thought it was time to see Avery’s best friend and once of the wisest Moontae I knew. Mansematiel. I need his advice, the occasional glance from Avery worried me. I needed to know how to tell Avery what lay heavily one my mind.

~~~

As always I found the Shields near the fountain. Watching them speak between themselves I found myself reluctant to approach them. Coward. I chided myself. Sighing heavily and thinking that I was a fool I approached them. The conversation died as soon as they were aware of me. Either they were speaking of me, if they were I was sure I didn’t really want to know what it was, or they were speaking of things I didn’t need to know. Nodding greetings to Illianiel and Serraphiel I jumped straight to the reason I was there before cowardice won.

“Mansematiel, may I speak with you?” Fidgeting, I stroked the egg over and over.

“Of course.” I let out the breath I had been holding in relief.

“Thankyou, Mansematiel.” The warm, heavy arm he put around my shoulders was welcomed. I leaned in against his firmly muscled side. Until that moment I had not realized how Moontae I had become. The casual touches and affectionate gestures that were common place had been missed. I shook my head. No, I had missed Avery’s touches. The others were the same as always.

Mansematiel led me to an isolated place. It would be a garden once spring returned. For now the browning leaves and stalks were too symbolic for me to look at. He sat beside me on the bench, close enough that warmth of his body to reach mine yet far enough that he didn’t crowd me. I smiled a little at the careful gesture.

“I’m sorry if I haven’t been a good Queen for you. For the Moontae.” I held up a hand cutting off anything Mansematiel might have said. “Only recently have I learned what to be Moontae is. I know I have a lot more to learn yet.” I reached out and lightly traced the edge of the draconic wings that graced Mansematiel’s back.

“I’ve been hearing things. Since the death of Netimrael I’ve been hearing his soul wail. It doesn’t stop. Only once before have I heard the voice of a soul. I can’t speak to them. I can’t help them. No one else can hear them it seems. I’m being driven mad I think. The worst thing is I’m not sure of myself anymore. Mansematiel I’m not sure if I deserve to stand beside Avery. I’m too weak to be Queen to the Moontae and too be a good wife to Avery. He needs someone to stand beside him, not one he has to hold up.” I looked up at Mansematiel, hoping that he could help me answer my own questions.

[Skie and Avery]

The Center Shield sat quietly for a moment, taking in everything his Queen was confessing to him. It wasn't easy to hear these words, and to know what they might mean. True, she could be gaining psychic abilities that would let her hear the dead, but what if those voices drove her mad? What if there were no voices and the death of the babe had destroyed whatever sanity she had left? Mansematiel didn't like it at all. He'd always liked his Queen, and the way she seemed to be a grounding force for Avery's sometimes wild fancies.

"I think," he finally said with the careful words of someone who had far too much to lose by slipping up, "that situations like this are difficult for everyone involved. Sometimes the mind needs to be able to repair itself and until it does, strange things happen to the perception." He reached for her hand, squeezing it gently before he continued. "It would be best to stay strong, my Queen. The Beauty want you to do what you need to find yourself again, and no one would blame you if you took your rest for a while. The official duties of a Queen can be abandoned while you heal. What is most important here is that our King needs you, and I think that you need him as well."

He tried his best to give her a reassuring smile before his eyes moved upwards, to the boughs of the nearest tree. A shadow moved between the branches for only a moment before falling to the ground. With an audible thump that shook the nearest wilting flowers with tremors and disturbed the soil through the grass, the figure landed in a crouch. Slowly standing, one wing slowly flaring out behind him, was the King of the Moontae. Avery regarded his wife and friend with suspicious eyes, an unhappy sneer on his face.

He hadn't heard their conversation, but what he had seen through the thick-laden leaves had left him unhappy. For a week since her outburst, Elena hadn't spoken to him. She was a ghost in their home, a spirit that moved restlessly in silence. He was terrified that his refusal to speak of Skie, to promise her head on a silver platter, had torn them apart. She'd taken to doting on that infernal egg, make believing it was a child. The way she strapped it to her belly reminded him too much of the way he used to caress and kiss the peak of her pregnant stomach before Netimrael had come, and to think that one day the egg would hatch and she'd have a "child" that was all legs and hair and fang was too much. Their baby had been precious; he would not have it replaced with a monster.

Now came the final insult. She couldn't bear the burden of speaking with him, her own husband, but she went off to whisper and touch other men? He had never questioned this faithfulness and monogamy thing Elena had imposed on him. He'd taken steps to make her comfortable here that any other Moontae would have completely ignored. Hadn't he been a good husband?

Still, he was looking at a scene that told him right where he stood. He should have known it anyways; the words she'd flung at him the week before and his own doubts had been teaming up to crush his ego down into something that was merely a shadow of it's former self. Now, faced with the end of the only thing he had left, he responded with anger.

"So, this is how it is?" he demanded, his words coming so forcefully that they had nothing of the lilting tones of a question. Instead, he was snarling like a beast. So be it, he thought. If she loved that damn monster egg so much, maybe what she needed was a beast. "Is this why you've been avoiding me?"

He didn't know why he had chosen to show himself. Another angry growl tore itself from his throat and he threw up his hands, turning away from the pair. His wing was shaking so hard that the flecks of silver that glittered along it were mere blurs. With difficulty, Avery began to walk away, kicking aside piles of autumn leaves as he went. Before he managed to leave the clearing, he glanced over his shoulder, glaring at the two before spitting out words too acidic to take back.

"If I'm so repulsive to you, you can stay with him."

[Moonlit Raven]

Avery’s sudden appearance shocked me. I wondered if he over heard the doubts about myself I told Mansematiel. The growled accusations held me stunned in one place for a long moment. …you can stay with him. Hastily I pulled off the slung containing my pet and handed it to Mansematiel.

“Take care of it.” I said firmly as I got up. Angry once more it was the easiest thing to catch up to Avery. I started to reach out and grab that wing then though better of it. I settled for snatching the closest swinging arm. Throwing my weight back I jerked him to a halt.

“You wait one moment, you self absorbed bastard. Never have I been unfaithful to you. Never! Just because I go to another to ask questions and seek comfort with a touch what right does that give you to question me. To yell at me? None!” I stepped around in front of Avery, leaving the barest hint of space between us. I fought against the changes the anger and outrage brought on. I would not be reduced to my animalistic side in this fight. I would not lower myself.

“You want to know why I was talking with Mansematiel? Well?” I continued on before I got any answer. “I’m not sure if I should be here. I’m not sure of many things, even my own mind.” I quieted down for a moment, Mansematiel’s words echoing in my mind. Instead of hitting Avery, I poked him in the chest though every nerve in my body screamed to hit him.

“The reason I have avoided you is every time I see you I see our son. I see the looks you cast at me. I see the lack of love I once saw burning so brightly in your eyes. Before you come and accuse me of something look to yourself Averymiel Nito.” Finished snarling to my husband I stalked back to Mansematiel. I glared at him as his mouth opened to say something. Wisely he shut it.

I took my pet from him and carefully put the sling on. It took more effort than I liked to force my hands to be gentle with the egg. I took my time adjusting the egg to sit beneath my breasts comfortably in order to get a hold of my anger. I almost wished I could fly like the Moontae so I wouldn’t have to walk by Avery. His back was still stiff with anger.

“Things are going to change Avery, they need to.” I stayed as far as I could possibly get from him when I walked past.

[Skie and Avery]

Therefore my soul is like unto the poison of serpents;
Even my righteous deeds, being mingled with this poison,
Must be named deeds of deceitfulness.
From the Shinran

The night stood heavily in the city. Avery could feel it pressing on his back from where he perched atop the outer fencing. Below him was the gates that led from the portal into the forest of Concordia. It was the forest he surveyed now, trying to keep his eyes from wandering downward where he could see, as shadows against the wood, the notches a small blade had cut into the wooden post. They'd been made nearly two years ago, when his sister had set sail for Raiaera. As he stared with a hard gaze through the lower branches of a willow tree where a small stone seemed to glow in the moonlight, he wished like hell that she had just stayed there in the elven country.

It was then that movement caught his eye. Avery turned his head to the side, hearing footsteps crunching down a sidestreet leading to the square behind him. The portal's illusions hid the shadows stretching closer from him, but he knew that whoever was leaving the city at this time of night wasn't someone he wanted to have to talk to. It was the work of a moment to cast the spell that would render him invisible to the naked eye.

Four figures passed under him without comment and out into the forest. Avery's eyes bore down on them from where he sat concealed, and his gaze was little more than a glare. The shields were leading, followed by the stalking figure of his wife. Elena had been joining in on the nightly hunts since their argument. While she slept in their bed, her body would be huddled to the far side, that confounded egg always between them, her arms and body cradled around it to keep it warm. Her closeness to it, and her strengthening friendship with the shields as she spent her time in their company rather than his was wearing on Avery. His thoughts lately were always on the prospect of losing his wife once the spider hatched. He knew he should have kept her occupied at home rather than let her to the Bazaar.

The first order of business after smashing the beast flat would be to hunt down the auctioneer that had brought the poison into his House. As Avery watched the party disappear into the darkness, his mind kept returning to the egg. Now, it sat in their home in a shoddy cradle fashioned of dried wicker and blankets. The young, developing beast was helpless now, and it's lone defender had just slipped between the trees to hunt with his royal guard. There was no one watching him now, no one watching the egg. There were so many ways to make it look like an accident.

As Avery jumped from his place on the gates, his mind on fire with all the ways to go about saving his wife from this repulsive obsession, he let the illusion drop. The streets were empty now, as the midnight prayers had been said and sent and the Beauty were resting now, waiting for their beloved sunlight to come back to the world. He was the only one moving today as he entered his home, and walked to the basket bed that held his wife's most prized possession. He thought, as he stood in the silence and stared at it, that he could hear a tiny heartbeat, or even a soft scritching from within the shell. The candles that Elena had set around it, symbols of protection etched with her own nails into the wax, cast an eerie light over it. It seemed somehow more sinister than it had been this morning. It would only be a matter of months now before the thing would emerge, all legs and hair and fang. It sickened him to think that Netimrael died only to make room for this.

His eyes went to the book case. Elena had complained that it didn't seem sturdy enough a few weeks ago when she'd been climbing to reach a tome near the top. Could he push it onto the egg? How would he explain it? With a sigh, he abandoned the idea, no logical explanation for the fall of the large case coming to mind. He sat on the bed, his lone wing snapping angrily behind him as he thought. The appendage ached, and he somehow thought it was the prospect of his surgery tomorrow that made it do so.

This must be done now, he thought. Before he emerged from under the Healer's touches whole, renewed by his sister's unwilling sacrifice, this egg must be dead. His eyes again looked at one of the candles. Amidst the symbols she'd painstakingly etched, small stones were pushed into the wax. He'd only half listened once or twice when they'd been out and about in the forest on walks during her pregnancy, and Elena had been needful to talk about things. She'd pointed out stones and pebbles, explaining how colors and the properties of some rocks could help in spellcrafting. Hearth magic, he called it, though that opinion was never uttered aloud to her. These little spells she put around the house with stone and word and the very will that they be happy and harmonious were important to her. They were everyday, and as their happy home had been pushed into chaos, he wondered if she felt the sting of that protection failing.

It was obvious that she still believed in the stones and runes she had once etched to the very outside of their tree home, because now they were employed to protect this thing. A smile graced his visage, made ghostly and terrible in the candlelight. It would be perfect if the dancing flames of her protection were the same thing that killed this spider. Anything could knock a candle down. Earlier in the week they'd gotten a squirrel trapped in the home without really knowing how it had gotten in. It would be easy work to find a wild animal and toss it into the home while the fire had just begun. By the time Elena arrived to see the city working together to extinguish the flames, he would no longer have to put up with this notion that the spider could take the place of their beautiful, perfect son.

As Avery again stood over the cradle, his only dilemma was which candle to use to put an end to this madness.

[Moonlit Raven]

The stillness of the forest enveloped me and willingly, I gave my self to it. With a single minded determination I flung myself into the hunt. Little moonlight spilled down from between the still leafy branches high over head. A cool wind brushed my skin with its icy fingers, whipping my hair about. Yet I paid it no mind.

Before me the familiar winged figures of the Shields silently stalked through the shadows. For a moment I regarded the three that were slowly becoming friends. The confident, gilding footsteps making it seem as if they drifted across the forest floor. High above, between partly covered skeletal branches, the moon gleamed with a pale light. A great unblinking eye that watched everything, I bowed my head to her.

“Hail fair lady, ruler of the night. Guide me and mine until the light.” The near silent payer slipped from my lips. I smiled, remembering my aunt teaching me the prayers for guidance and protection long, long ago.

Ahead, a hand rose up from Mansematiel. Stilling, I centered my thoughts and consciousness until there the world consisted of nothing more than my companions and my heart beat. Despite emptying my mind of all thoughts, a faint nagging sensation began at the back of my mind. The crunch of dead and dying leaves reached my ears. Four dainty, hoofed legs bore out a lovely creature. In a small puddle of moonlight it paused. Beneath liquid brown eyes the velvet muzzle turn satin and back as if sniffed the air. Scenting for predators, for us.

A sharp crack of wood tore the air, startling me as much as it did the doe. Something unseen in the shadows moved closer. Gleaming orange, pair of eyes appeared and looked on from the far left. For a split second, an endless moment, we were frozen. The moment ended as nature’s embodiment of grace turned and leapt. Conniving, whispering, the bushes rustled in the bounding wake. A muffled curse from Serraphiel as the only warning I had before she threw herself head long into the undergrowth of the forest. Still frozen in place, I watched the quicksilver shine from their wings as they disappeared after the doe into the forest.

The sensation swelled to worry, crashing into my nerves. Something felt wrong. Kazimir, something is wrong with Kazimir. I just know it.

Spinning, I pushed my body back towards the Moontae City. Every step I was a battle waged against the forest that now fought to keep me within it. Bushes tore at the leather of my body armor, roots and vines wrapped around my feet. Branches slapped at my face and tangled in my hair, their hands clawing and pulling before I broke free.

In the cool rush of air, a warm trickle down the smooth curve of my cheek and the fierce sting just below the eyes let me know that the forest had taken it blood price for my hasty passage. The soft give of earth below my booted feet changed to a hard unyielding surface. The thuds of my boots echoed for a moment of the gates as I passed between. A tendril of heat curled with in my breast, mingling with the sure knowledge that there was need to rush. No Moontae lurked the streets. No beauty, young or old blocked my path as I raced down the streets for home.

The familiar tree, home to Avery and myself came up ahead. I slapped the bark where the entrance would open. The rough grooves in the smooth bark bit at my skin. Oddly enough the small pain helped clear my mind as the bark move to open. Slowly, too slowly, the opening appeared. Squeezing, I forced my self through the opening as soon as it was wide enough

Inside, Avery held a candle, one I had made, over the cradle that held Kazimir. Furious, I dove for him before he could drop it on to the flammable silk cocoon.

“What in the hell do you think you are doing?” The words came out as a bellow, not the quieter words I had been aiming for. I snarled at Avery, barring the fangs that filled my mouth. I was more than a little tempted to bang his head against the floor for good measure.

[Skie and Avery]

As he found his center of equilibrium completely destroyed and his body tossed to the side, Avery couldn't help but laugh silently in his own head. He forgot how strong Elena could be when her anger overrode her normally cool actions. The candle had flown from his hand, extinguishing as it hit the floor and rolled into a corner of the room. He stared down at the floor for a few moments before slowly sitting back and watching Elena's reactions.

What could he tell her? That he had desperately wanted this thing dead before it carried her away on it's back? He had known, from the very moment that she'd brought it home and placed it within a blanket to keep warm, that that was what would happen. That, however, was when they still had Netimrael, and the thoughts of the spider hatching weren't strong in his mind. The death of their baby had changed everything, put it in a new perspective for him. She had clung to him as they had wept over his stone, but now she clung to this still-unborn animal. If he had been able to ensure that it never would have been born, would she again come back to him?

"I was looking at the candle you made, that's all." he said quietly, the lie before them now. "What's this now? I can't look at things that are in my own house?"

He got to his feet, crossing his arms as he scowled at her with an expression that he hoped wouldn't give away his guilt.

[Moonlit Raven]

I watched Avery as if he would lunge for the cocoon. I could feel the snarl still frozen on my face. The soft light of the candles was almost overwhelming with my heighten vision. I hissed at Avery as he shifted, crossing his arms over his chest. Distantly, under the anger blanketing my mind, I thought he looked petulant.

“Just looking, you lying bastard. If you come near Kazimir again I’ll make sure you’ll never bear another child ever again. You let your sister kill our son. Kazimir is unborn, innocent. He has no one to look after him and I will not let another young life be destroyed.” Darting forward, I kicked, lashing out as hard as I could. Through the leather of my soft I could feel soft flesh shift in ways it was not meant to.

Carefully gathering the blankets and the cocoon that held Kazimir I hurried out. Outside, shielding the cocoon from the cool air I hesitated. I didn’t know where to go, to be away from Avery so I could think clearly. The hard packed earth of the lane stretched out before me, bleached pale by the clear blue white light of the moon. The first leaves of fall drifted lazily across the lane only to be caught on the browning grasses along each side. Tucking the blankets closer to the egg I quickly headed down the road with no particular destination in mind.

The skin of my hands and face were chilled by the time I eventually figured out where my feet were taking me. I was more than a little surprised that they remembered the route to Natamrael's tomb. The entrance of the mausoleum loomed before me, forbidding in the moonlight.

It suddenly seemed wrong to go to the grave of Avery’s mother. Not to mention I had no wish to hear her spirit if it still lurked around. My son’s soul had finally vanished, taking his unending wails with him. A little cold I huddled beneath a tree, thinking of where I wanted to go. Of where Avery would be the least likely to find me once he got mobile again. The fields. That would probably the last place he looks for me With a firm destination in mind my feet carried my swiftly across the city to where I wanted to go.

The bleak looking fields greeted me. The pale shoots of razed crops stood out in stark contrast against the dark earth. In the distance the forest stood, looking like nothing more than a dark wall. Its only purpose, to keep me locked within the Moontae City. Looking around I finally noticed a small mound of cotton that had been blown into a small pile. It rested in front of a low growing bush still heavily covered in summer’s growth. Walking towards the cotton, the only sounds were the occasional soft murmur of the wind, the light thud of my bots on the dry earth. The thoughts the swirled around my mind nearly drowned out the sounds from the world.

For a moment I considered the cotton pile. Lying down on the pile, I wriggled until my back lay on the ground, the cotton covering most of my body. I cradled the egg to me to keep it warm. As the cold ground slowly leeched the warmth from my body, my mind turned to Avery and our problems. I sought a solution that would work. One that we could both live with.

[Skie and Avery]

On his knees, his eyes closed so tightly that he was sure he'd never be opening them again, Avery was quite honestly in blinding pain. A strange trill was ringing through his ears, his heart's pounding like a weird full body throb that seemed to be absorbing the shooting pain from his groin area. It was an area that should never be in that kind of pain. It was a familiar sensation. This had happened before, when Avery had first plucked Elena from her Concordian campfire and forced her to be his companion. The years with her had made him relax his guard on his most precious possession, and now he was paying dearly for it.

Beyond the physical pain her kick had delivered, there was a different kind of hurt he was feeling. Pulsing with his blood, a slow bitter poison of regret was winding it's way through his system. He'd lost her. He could feel the bonds broken now, the strong chains that had tied them together laying in shards at his feet. Her words, more than the kick, had acted as the hammer against their bond. He had let Skie kill Netimrael.

She'd shoved the accusation in his face. Was that her true feelings? That he should have died instead of just fallen into the strange sleep? That it should be him in the mausoleum instead of their child? That it should be her acting as Queen until the babe was old enough to take over his proper duties. Didn't she realize that he'd been a child king himself, taking this throne after his mother's death? So much had been taken from him in life, and yet he was again cast as the villain when he was hurting as much as she was.

Avery's fist wrapped around one of the thick cords that held their bed aloft. His claws slid out from underneath the soft human-like nails atop his fingertips, and his baritone raised in rage as he turned his anger against their matrimonial nest. It was pulled savagely from the ceiling, and then the bookcase joined it on the floor. He didn't touch any more of the burning candles, or the wicker crib that Elena had made with her own hands. That altar he would not disturb again. He spat at it, though, and went through the open door. One wing opened to take flight, and he ascended into the thick canopies of the trees. He damn well wasn't going to be there when she came back, and it hurt for him to know that it would probably cause her only relief to be alone with the precious silken egg.

Avery wasn't without hope, however. As the night drew to a close and the sky began to lighten with grey at the edges of the horizon, he was already formulating a plan to take back that which he had claimed so very long ago.

[Moonlit Raven]

For a time I lay among the leaves, cotton and cold earth. My body was numb yet my mind had finally found its answer.

“I guess there is nothing more to do.” I whispered to Kazimir. Stiffly sitting up, I shook most of the cotton out of my hair before standing. Holding Kazimir in one arm, I held a bit of cottony fluffy between my fingers and looked at it. The next gust of wind that blew I released the cotton and watched it float away, disappearing into gray light of pre-dawn.

It took me little time to reach the place I had called home with Avery for the last few years. The state in which I found it shocked me. The cradle bed lay against the wall, torn from the ceiling. On closer inspection I could make out the claws mark on the fabric that covered the chains. A shudder went through me at the act of violence it had taken to rip the bed from the ceiling. That wasn’t my Avery.

Scrambling, I grabbed my pack and shoved as many personal items into it as I dared. My armor was strapped on, a doubled up length of cloth was used to protect the egg and as a sling for it. The last item, carefully placed in the pack. Was a jar that fit easily into my hand, it held pollen from the soema flower.

Tying my hair off at the nape of my neck with a cord I braided the rest and tied off the end. I had to fight a sudden rising of tears as I took up my dagger. The sound of my hair snapping as the blade sliced through it reminded me of crystal breaking. The tiny high pitched pops were clearly audible.

When the last strand broke I looked down at the foot long coil of hair the hung from my hand. Laying the dagger aside I ran a hand through my newly shorn hair. The short strands tickled the back of my neck and chin. The sensation was odd, nearly unpleasant.

I wanted to take the cradle I had made with me though I knew it would be too bulky to travel with. Taking up the dagger, my gaze traveled from the sharp edge of the blade to the cradle and back. Steeling myself I slashed at my left palm. Sharp pain and warmth immediately flooded my palm. Cleaning the blade on my thigh I put it away before taking the few steps needed to the cradle. Holding my hand over the cradle, I watched my blood trickle down to stain the bedding that still lay within. I waited until the bleeding slowed to grab the rim. Bowing my head I said a silent prayer, as much for myself as for any young thing that would ever lay in a crib.

Shouldering the pack I grabbed the coiled length of hair in my left hand. At the door I paused and looked back. Anger warred with sadness as I said a silent goodbye to the place that had held so many good memories.

The walk to the gates was one of the longest of my life. I knew the route my heart, yet I struggle to take each step. What my mind knew I needed to do, my heart did not want. The Shields were coming in from their hunt. Each was laden with a deer or a brace of rabbits. Cheerfully, they had been talking quietly amongst them selves until they spotted me.

“Elena?” Mansematiel said, his voice neutral yet his eyes shifted from my armor to the pack I carried. He laid the deer on the ground and stepped towards me. I shook my head, refusing to back up.

“Things are not right Mansematiel. I have to leave. I don’t know when I’ll be back but… he tore the bed from the ceiling Mansematiel. He tried to kill Kazimir, to burn him. I know Kazimir is not my baby but he’s still an innocent. He’s still in the egg, unable to protect himself.” Elena shifted. Finally remembering the coil of hair, now bearing a few blood stains she held it out to Mansematiel.

“I’m afraid of Avery, Mansematiel. Give this to Avery and tell him if its blood he wants. Blood has been shed at the alter of life and youth.” I tried to smile at the Shields; they had become my friends in the time after my son’s death.

“Take care and smack Avery once in a while for me. I’ll be back soon enough I imagine.” I skirted around them and headed for the gates.

[Skie and Avery]

Mansematiel stood for a moment, holding the lock of hair in his hand. The other two Shields were looking at him with interested expressions on their faces, but he gave them both a warning glance. The girls were too nosy for their own good, and Serraphiel was too forceful.

"Take the food to the cook pot. I'll handle the King's business." The mention of Avery now seemed to worry the women, who looked at each other and passed the unspoken understanding of sisters between them. It took Mansematiel's bass snarl before they hurried off. The news of Avery destroying his home, his mother's home, was the real worry. Elena could handle herself, he knew, and the Shields had all felt pain when they'd drug her back against her will once before. The King, however, wasn't a man prone to violence like his wife. A streak like this could see him taking down himself rather than anything else. If anything, Avery's kindness had always been seen a bit as a fault among those closest to see just how gentle the man was.

It didn't take long for Mansematiel to find him, concealed within the long strands of the willow branches. Avery's eyes were rimmed in red, their green iris' dark. His chest was heaving with rage that had yet to subside, his lips thin with his jaw set in a thoughtfully tense line. The moment the blond man came to stand at the base of the tree, the King's eyes were upon the braid of onyx and garnet that hung limply from his hand.

"Center Shield, why do you have my wife's hair?" he asked quietly. His voice was full of death, as solid as the slate headstone he perched above.

"She left it, sire," Mansematiel said, speaking formally as Avery did. In his foul mood, there was no room for their friendship to lend itself for Avery's comfort, and Mansematiel was a man smart enough to know not to push. "She told me to tell you she shed the blood you wanted, at the altar of life and death." He tossed the braid up, and Avery caught it quickly, bringing it to his lips. Indeed he could smell her blood from where her cut hand had been gripping it, and he had a small idea of the altar she'd given her offering to. There was no time to go and check, not if he was going to keep her with him.

"Where did she say she was going?" he demanded, dropping from the tree, his heavy landing stirring the leaves beneath him.

"She did not say. She said she imagines she'll be returning soon, though. Sire, with all due respect, I think it's best if..."

"I won't let her run." Avery said, stopping the older man's opinion before it could be stated. They glared at each other for a moment, and just as Avery was sure Mansematiel would back down, the Shield took another step forward and laid his hand on Avery's shoulder.

"She needs to run, for a little bit. If you hold her down and cage her, you'll lose her for far longer." Mansematiel took another step, closer. Avery, though so many years younger, was like a brother to him. He couldn't stand to see the pain. He wanted to hold the man and let him cry on his shoulder, to make sure that the soul that had always been so strong wouldn't break, when it happened. In the blink of an eye, Avery had turned to fully face him, and drug his claws across Mansematiel's face. Blood welled, and began to fall, pattering against the pale headstone that served as a ghostly reminder of the laughter and cries that no longer rung out in this place. When the man clutched at his wounded face, falling to his knees, Avery leaned down, ripping the red flowers that had been blossoming and curling around his son's grave marker right out of the ground.

He took flight, and began to truly search. It didn't take long. Impeded by her belongings, Elena hadn't gotten as far as she might have if it had just been her, running for her life. Travel too fast, though, might have hurt her precious Kazimir. For once, Avery's feral grin was brought by a feeling of thankfulness for the beast. Had it perished with fire as he originally intended, Elena might be too far into the cover of the wild for him to have found her. He lowered his flight, so that she wouldn't see him, and flitted from treetop to treetop, growing ever closer. One thing he knew, though, was that he had not married a stupid woman. Going wide, he moved around her, up the path, and waited in the cover of a few branches that were still well laden with the golden autumn leaves. In his hand, he readied the flowers, opening the blossoms and bunching the pollen-thick stems together.

When the darting figure appeared on the path below, her quick steps nearly silent even in the thick leaves, Avery jumped. He landed fast just in front of her, grabbing a shoulder with one strong hand, careful to watch his claws. He didn't want to hurt her, didn't want to be the one to draw her blood. With a determined look on his face he brought the Soema pollen right into her nose, grabbing at her face to hold it there. His mission was clear, ringing in his head.

He would make her see that she was his, and her rightful Throne as his queen was waiting for her in his lap.

[Moonlit Raven]

The sudden appearance of Avery surprised me. The firm grasp he took on my arm was just this side of too tight and painful. Frowning, I looked at him. At the grip on my chin and the flowers thrust at my face I opened my mouth to protest. The soft red petals of the flower lightly tickled my face.

“What are you…”

Sucking in a breath to yell at Avery, the spicy sweet scent filled my nose. I knew the scent all too well. Failing, I shoved at Avery’s shoulder’s forcing him away from me even though I knew the damage had been done. I snarled as I felt the first stirrings of heat race through my body.

“Damn it all to the nine levels! You sick bastard, this won’t make me stay. Forcing this won’t fix anything.” My body began to tingle. Before my senses fled the near mind less need the soema pollen created. I carefully laid the egg aside. Dropping the pack near the egg I turned to Avery.

“You finally show what has been buried beneath the surface this whole time. You talk of love yet all you care for is sex. Whore King.” I stalked towards Avery, every step fanned the flames licking the inside of my body higher. Pieces of armor tumbled carelessly to the ground. My hands shook with un-filtered carnal need as I tore at the leather binding my body. The smooth inside of the leather too rough against my sensitive, aching skin.

At long last the leather armor crumpled to the ground, I threw my head back as the cool air caressed my skin, cooling my flushed skin. The distant thought of wanting Avery to want me as much as I need to be touched made me draw a hand down my body. My slightly calloused finger tips created delicious sensations, as they slowly trailed their way down my body. I fought to keep my eyes open, fought to hold Avery’s gaze. Of their own accord my hands slid down to cup my breasts, the normally modest sized globes still engorged and heavy with unused milk.

The last two steps of ground between me and the only person that could cool the fire eating me alive seemed enormous. One step, the tips of my fingers brushed the bronzed skin of his chest. The gentle touch drew an electric thrill through my body. I was dying, drowning in the seas of my own body. Smiling a bit, the lethal points that filled my mouth were bared. The smile, I knew, did not fit the lust the shimmered in my eyes.

I slid my body against Avery’s as I took the last step. The sharp nails that adorned every finger dug into firm flesh. A small breathy moan escaped me at the feel of his skin against mine, his warm blood seeping out to stain my finger tips.

“Stop playing Avery. You have a point,” I paused and ground my hips against his. “to make. So make it.” Rising up on tiptoe I kissed him. A hand tangled in his long hair as I fed at his mouth, turning the kiss into a mockery of love. The sting of pain and the sweet taste of blood let me know I had scored our lips with my teeth.

[Skie and Avery]

Whore King. The title bit deep. She knew how he felt about the name, new how he felt about her opinion of what the Beauty really were. These were just the way they hurt each other, the little things they did to feel strong. She attacked the fiber of his being, he attacked her self control. He replied only with a snarl, and then her body was against his, erasing everything but the need to possess her. Her skin had always been as smooth as the petals of the Soema, with the lone exception of her hands, hands that had seen more hard work and the vibrating crash of metal, flesh and bone against her sword blade than he had wanted of her.

Her nails and teeth were tearing at him, but he could ignore those little pains. It was more than she normally did when they were burning in their passions, but he couldn't blame her. As the flowers fell from his fingers, he knew that he had done things that couldn't be undone, just as she'd said those words that could never be pulled back into her lips. Lips that were kissing him now with more malice than anything soft, and he returned them with passion untainted with hate.

When he finally pulled his lips from hers, he held her firmly by the shoulders, pushing her back only to look at her. She was so perfect to him, how could he possibly let her walk away today? Lowering himself to his knees, he gazed upwards at her face, telling himself that it wasn't really hate and disgust he saw within the normally warm, earthy depths of her eyes. Her belly was now before his eyes, the indention from her birth cord small and adorable. It was his favorite place on her body, where the skin bore the lightest white stretch marks from where their son had grown in the womb. She was the mother of his child, no matter that they had lost him. She was the bringer of light, the singer of songs. As he nibbled lightly at her belly button, he moaned more with worry than pleasure.

"I will not lose you." he whispered before beginning to kiss and lick one particular jagged mark, following it down to the place where her legs met and the moist heat was like a searing brand that only served to further inflame him. She tasted bitter and sweet at the same time, his wonderful little paradox, and she deserved even more than what his probing tongue had to offer. His fingers began to explore, searching to penetrate her, searching for the place where her flesh was hard and pulsing, hot and waiting for him to strum his fingertips across. He brushed against it once, and grinned.

"Say you're mine," he demanded, his normally smooth baritone littered with the hoarse connotations of lust. Then he spoke no more as he set his tongue to lavish and dance along the small pearl he found within the folds of flesh he feasted on.

[Moonlit Raven]

Shuddering, I watched Avery lower himself down to his knees before me. The first searing touch of his fingers, made me throw my head back. Hands clenched in Avery’s hair. My attention was drawn to the tender flesh being toyed with. My whole world jerked and moved with the light touches. The answer to his rough command was lost in the scream that tore itself lose from me. My hands released the grip they had on Avery’s hair, instead the clawed uselessly in the air and at my skin.

Tears chilled my face as they trickled down from the corners of my eyes. Words caught in my throat, choking me.

“More… yours… no… gentle…yes.” The voice that cried incoherent, sobbing words, I vaguely recognized as my own. Enough was suddenly too much, my legs collapsed from under me.

The faint haze of anger in the back of my mind was giving away to an aching darkness that tasted of sadness and my darker side. Sitting on my knees I reached out for Avery, the burning of my body still pushing me. Partly pushing, partly leaning into Avery I forced him to the ground. Eyeing the smooth sun kissed skin spread out before me, I bent down and laid a sucking kiss to the center of his chest. Clawed fingers lightly scraped down until they reach their destination. Faint red trails, left by my fingertips marred the lovely skin.

Lapping lightly, I followed each trail until only clean, glistening skin remained. The flesh that rose up, inches from my nose, was firm and rosy from the blood pulsing beneath the silky skin. In my time among the Moontae, and with Avery, I had begun to see the body as the beautiful thing it truly was. Against my lips that flesh reminded me of a plum, firm yet giving, tender, tasty.

With lips, tongue and occasionally, gently, oh so gently, teeth I worshiped his body.

[Skie and Avery]

Even now, at their fall, they had their passion. The forested path against his back was melting away, the cold grass blades that tickled his skin at first was inconsequential. The few pebbles that lay half buried in the soil under his back were no longer an annoyance when Elena's lips closed over him. His fingers knotted and flexed in the silken waves of her too dark hair, grasping at her skull, trying to pull her closer to him. Now it came, the beautiful crescendo to the trap he was laying for her here today.

As pleasure came with every movement of lip and tongue against him, he let the pheromones seep into the morning air. There was no game to it today. He had seduced her before, when first she began to share his bed. She'd been a reluctant lover, who needed the subtle hint of aphrodisiacs littering the air. Today, however, he wanted nothing of those simple helps. Today he wanted her to know that she was his, that there was no escape, and that her hunger for him was something that could never be merely pushed aside. Moontae had broken people in the past by doing this, by giving humans the full caress of those sweet chemicals. Elena was no mere human, however.

Nothing merely human could give him this much pleasure.

It was without hesitation that he grabbed her firmly by the hair at the nape of her neck and pulled her onto his laying body. The feel of her mouth being pulled from her favorite plaything on his body was disappointing, but he knew that very soon it would be more than made up for. As he leaned to her lips, kissing her hard enough to feel her jaw pushing against his, he breathed into her. The full force of his pheromones was released in the kiss, and he could feel his manhood quivering in anticipation for what was soon to come.

His hands skimmed down her body, pausing for a moment at her breasts. As his fingers strummed against the tight, rosy peaks, pinching softly and kneading hear breasts affectionately, he moved his lips to her neck, lavishing the skin with kisses and nibbles. His hands slipped farther down, pulling her hips into his lap so that his straining member could rub almost pleadingly at the edge of her hottest, wettest place. He could feel the head flick and nudge at the small hard pearl found within, and with his lips moving until they were buried between her breasts, he grinned. His hands were greedy for the action and while he held her hips close to him with one hand, he allowed the other to slip over the perfect curve of her rump, slipping between her legs to find the place his penis so desperately sought.

"Don't leave." he demanded as his fingers began to work their magic, his thumb rubbing against the sensitive little nub he knew drove her wild.

"Say it. Say you'll never leave me."

[Moonlit Raven]

The air grew heavy with the scent of the Moontae, oppressive yet caressing. I could almost feel the weightless motes settle on my too warm, sensitive skin and sink in. Avery’s firm flesh left my mouth with a wet pop as he drug me up his body.

I screamed, a wordless cry of anger and need. Shaking I pressed closer, his touch and the press of skin against not enough. I needed Avery like the flower needs the sun, with out him I would die. I wanted to press closer to him, to merge with him until the limits of where one body ended and the other began no longer existed. Choking on the pheromones, breathing them in and saturating my body and soul with them my body seemed to disappear yet all of my focus was on those gentle, sure touches.

Drowning and dying in the fires the weapon and gift the Moontae bore something in the back of my mind fought. Writhing and shrieking, fighting against the silken chains that bound my mind in a haze of pleasure. A growl echoed in my chest, rumbling up into my throat before spilling out. I swallowed in reflex as my mouth was suddenly flooded with a rich, sickly sweet taste. I clung to Avery, my mouth fastened to the inner curve of his shoulder. A wave of pleasure swept over me moments later, I tore myself away, shuddering.

The thick fluid coated my mouth and throat. Oddly enough, the voice screaming in the back of my mind gained a little ground. Enough for me to push at Avery’s shoulder, unmindful of my nails that sank easily into soft skin.

“No!” I found myself chanting the word over and over as it spilled out of me. The horror of what I had just done chased the effects of Avery’s pheromones away just enough for me to fight with my body and with Avery. I struggled to free myself from his grasp before he pulled me under once more.

[Skie and Avery]

She had bitten him. It was beyond the sweet nibblings their playful jaunts nearly always contained. It was vampiric, the way his blood was seeping into her kisses, and he almost felt drained for those first few moments. Then, it was nothing but anger. Had she learned nothing in her time there? Surely she knew what she was doing by initiating this. The only rift that had ever threatened to tear them apart was the one that existed in the lore of the Moontae.

The line between good and evil was one that had always been decided by who was on the light side of the night. The Moontae reveled in the night for it brought the moon and stars. Vampires loved it for the blood and the darkness. And now there they were, dark and light, and both somehow slipping into a moonless love. He did all he could to hold onto her.

He forced it.

As she bucked and struggled against him, he sat up, slamming her down to the dirty forest floor. Seeing her black and red hair, shorn short by her own hand, spilling across the discarded leaves of autumn and clumps of grass that had managed to stay green beyond the first small frosts was almost too much. He let the pheremones continue to pour out as he grabbed her inner thigh. The claws under his nails slid out, piercing her skin and he forced her legs apart, his manhood pressing against the hottest part of her, tight in her strain to keep this from happening.

"You're mine, Elena!" He rarely used TradeSpeak curses, preferring to throw his angry words about in Moontae, but today was the exception. Today he needed every word to show her just how furious he was that she was leaving, to show her just how impossible it would be for her not to turn around and go back to their home. "You're mine and don't you try and fucking deny it!"

No matter how her body fought it, it only took one thrust, and he buried his face, his teeth, into her shoulder and penetrated all the boundaries their love had rested safe and secure in.

[Moonlit Raven]

I screamed when his touches turned rough, when he threw me to the ground. I could feel angry tears trickling down the sides of my face. My mind raged at what was happening, at the horror of it.

Pain spiked through my body, tensed muscles screamed at the invasion. Writhing against the tooth and nail grip Avery had on me I shook my head. I could feel my nails scoring his back and sides, digging in as far as I thrust them. A broken sob forced its way out of me and I gave up. I forced my body to remain limp, unresponsive. Turning my head away I looked at my blood stain hand, resting on the ground nearby.

Minutes passed as Avery rode my body. Each one seemed like an eternity. I could feel the threads that had bound me to Avery in love snapping one at a time. Each thrust came with the crystalline sound of a thread breaking in my heart. I closed my eyes. In my mind’s eye I saw the image of a happier time shattering.

“I hate you!” I screamed as I danced a fine line between rage, lust and despair. The three seemed indistinguishable from one another. Beneath me the cold ground eagerly drank the blood Avery spilled carelessly through his bite. I could feel a sticky trickle of blood between my thighs; something had been bruised, torn. The pain from it all seemed distant, as if I were not fully connected to my body any longer. I couldn’t feel the rough thrusts that I knew jostled my body, nor could I feel the coldness that lurked in the ground and air.

Pulling away from it all I turned my mind away, using my anger and sadness as a veil. Clouding my senses until I fell into darkness and felt no more.

[Skie and Avery]

The thought of hurting her made him sick inside, but still he pressed onwards. Somehow he knew that if he could claim her, plant his seed within her, it would awaken words within her mind. She would not leave him this night. As he came, shuddering as he pressed his face against her breast, a thought came to him that repulsed him. She would not leave him this night, alive.

Could he possibly have thought that? Avery's heart skipped, and he was off of her body, staring at what he had done. Blood and bruises, the scrates and bites that he had put there and were undoubtedly reflected on his own form twisted his stomach. He fought hard to keep from losing himself, to curling up and wretching until he fell asleep. Instead, he sat, panting, staring at her.

Would she leave him still?

He had done what he felt he needed to keep her. He had claimed her as he hadn't when he first caught her here in this forest. In fact, the camp that he had first observed her sleeping could not be far. They were moving in circles, coming round to where they had begun, and as a circle, they would continue. They had to, for without her, Avery knew he would die.

Now he was crying, tears spilling down his cheeks hot and angry against the skin that had been cooled by the autumn night. His whimpers and sobs were just another song, a dirge to go with so many other funeral songs that had been sung so recently.

[Moonlit Raven]

The first thing to return was sensation or the lack of it rather. The lack of movement over and within my body drew me closer to waking fully. The raw ache from my abused thighs and core made itself known, as did the stinging of numerous small scratches and cuts. My body still ached and tingled from the pheromones still poisoning my body. Next came the scent of blood, both mine and Avery’s, he faintest trance of pheromones that lingered in the air along with the sickly sweet scent of semen.

The quiet sounds of Avery’s sobs reached my ears. Opening my eyes, I looked at him, truly looked at him. Man that didn’t know his own worth that did a horrible thing to his own wife in the name of love. As heartbroken as myself, perhaps more. At that moment I loved him more than I hated him. I felt sorry for him.

The moment ended and I sat up, turning away from Avery and his soft sobbing. My heart ached for Avery, begging that I go back to him and stay. I couldn’t nor would I. Avery needed to learn to stand on his own two feet, without anyone at his side, as did I.

Suppressing a winch of pain I slowly climbed to my feet and walked over to where my things had been cast aside. The struggle to pull the leather of my body armor on was almost too much. I wished I had time to sit down and wait for my body to stop screaming at me to rest. I didn’t want to stay; resting would be taken as a sign that I was going to stay. With my pack pulling heavily on my back and Kazimir securely held in my arms, I looked down at Avery.

“I don’t hate you, Avery, not much anyways.’ Words flowed, from some unknown source deep within me. They tasted bittersweet and sour, much like what I thought hope and despair would taste like.

“I’m still leaving for a time. Funny word isn’t it, time? Such an illusive thing yet everything flows because of it. I’ll return eventually but it’s up to you if you still want me then. We both need time to heal and grow. For me to forget what you did to me this day, and, to let the past be the past.” Pushing past the reluctance of my body I bent a kissed Avery on the top of his head.

At the edge of the clearing I looked back at the blood marred form of Avery.

“I love you. I hate you.” I said softly before I turned and continued down the path into the forest. Absently my hand touched the deep bite mark in my shoulder; I knew that despite my unusual healing abilities I would always bear the imprint of his teeth in my flesh.

[Skie and Avery]

His childish crying, much like the warmth of her kiss on his scalp, soon faded. It faded away until all that was left were the stains of tears down his cheeks, the red of his nose and eyes. He was broken within, his heart his soul gone as he watched her walk away, through the trees. After all was said and done, he had still lost her. The end was nigh, his kingdom already crumbling. He didn't quite know how, but somehow Avery managed to drag himself back to the gates, laying across a grey stone, with a cryptic message.

Thousands More Will Weep

His brow furrowed, his eyes sweeping around the forest. Here and there, a web caught the light. This was all a web, woven by a wicked hand. He would find the source of this unhappiness, and wipe it out. He had wept tonight, and thousands more would cry out in pain and heartache as he had his revenge. His breath caught in his throat and as his hatred increased, his hunger burning for blood in restoration, something went cold within him.

Something wicked rose up, vying for control over the mind that had for so long been bent on peace. Sparkling green eyes went icy, darkening into jade as the beast stood. There was need to go rest if he was going to bring Hell onto the world to get her back, and he would. He would.

With the next rising sun, everything would change.

[Witchblade]

Story

Continuity: - 7 This was a major quest for both of the characters involved, but I never got a real feel for what happened before hand. I understand that for some reason Skie murdered their baby child Netrimael, but how and what exactly happened are things never mentioned. I don’t mind being kept in the dark about some things throughout threads, but when the end is reached and I still don’t know the full story it’s irritating. The reader shouldn’t have to go back and read anything in order to enjoy this thread and understand what’s going on in it. Also, I still don’t know what a Moontae is. I’m guessing it’s some form of demon thing and it could be a type of succubi/incubi but I’m really not too sure.

Setting: - 8 The setting was beautifully described for the most part, though there was the occasional time when it disappeared from both of your writing, though mostly Moonlight’s. You don’t need to keep reminding the reader in detail of what’s around the character, but small things here and there are a big help, though for the most part I really enjoyed the descriptions of the setting.

Pacing: - 7 Great pacing in the beginning. I loved the way the story was brought to the reader with the two characters standing over a stone that marked nothing but dirt but symbolized so much to them. It was so sombre and beautiful all at the same time. I didn’t even want the quest to move away from that scene. Afterwards the pacing was slow and when it suddenly starting kicking up with Avery’s anger, I thought it seemed a little sudden and there wasn’t enough explanation. The ending was bittersweet though and was definitely a type of ‘climax’.

Character

Dialogue: - 9 What to say…what to say? Good dialogue? Hmm, no wait, that just doesn’t seem right. How about, awesome dialogue? Yeah, I have nothing bad to say about your dialogue.

Persona: - 9 Both characters have very strong personalities that were somewhat muddled by their grief, but that wasn’t a bad thing. In fact it made them seem all the more real and set to their personalities. The way that each of them wanted to comfort the other but didn’t know if they should was very real and sad and depressing. I wanted to hug them and hold them and squish them. Avery’s transition from grief to anger could have used a little more of an explanation though.

Action: - 8 Rape? I just never thought Avery could do such a thing when I first began reading this quest. I knew it was coming because there was a warning about it in the judging request, but I honestly thought it would be from an NPC. It still doesn’t sit well with me. I understand the emotions at the time and how he had lost control of himself, but he raped his wife, the woman he loves. That’s not an easy thing for someone to do and he seems to be going all evil and crazy. I think I liked him better before.

Writing Style

Mechanics: - 7 Let’s see, Moonlight you frequently leave out necessary words from your sentences and then at times add in unnecessary words that just confused the reader and force them to re-read the paragraph. You need to watch your tenses, because you have a habit of slipping out of past tense and into present tense. The flow of your sentences is constantly broken by the first problem I mentioned and also by fragments. They’re rather jarring when not used appropriately.

Technique: - 7 Both of you have set writing techniques for your characters that come across really well in this story. In small posts you are able to fit in great amounts of detail without the need of being so longwinded like others of us on Althanas are want to do. Moonlight, you still need some work to make the flow a little better though.

Clarity: - 7 There were a few times when I had to re-read Moonlight’s posts because of missing words or the wrong order or even extra words thrown in. It threw the reader off and also killed the flow of the sentence. Other than that, the clarity was fine, but that did tend to happen more often than I would have liked.

Wild Card: - 7 This was a great quest. I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I read Skie’s judging request, but it was a lot better than I thought it would be. It wasn’t that I expected crap from the two of you, but when I see graphic rape in the judging request, I get worried. But it wasn’t that bad. This truly was a great quest by two great writers.

Total: 76

Rewards:

Moonlight Raven receives 2,200 experience and 200 GP!
Skie and Avery receives 2,700 experience and 200 GP!

[Letho]

EXP/GP added.