LORE: Training a Hell Hound (MATURE)

[Emora Deen]

Tenele laughed softly, closing her eyes as she laid attop him. "Nope, no one to bother us here," she mumbled in a nearly half a sleep voice. For a moment her thoughts shifted to Verin, and how he had said he'd come for her answer, and never really gave her a date... But, she pushed it from her mind, not wanting to worry about that at the moment. She didn't want to move from where she laid comfortably on top of him, her hair spilling over her shoulder. "Can I sleep here?" she asked him fainlty, not sure if sleeping in that postion would be comfortable for long, but she didn't want to move. Finally after a moment she shifted her legs and slid lazily off to his side, her arm draped across his chest, her body hugging his side, lying half across his chest. She sighed contently, going very quiet as sleep tried to drag her away.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad was thinking the words "Here is fine" and intended to say them, but he wasn't through the thought, let alone the task of conveying it, when sleep sucked him under. Being human tired was something he was sorely out of practice in, and his body gave in almost gleefully to the abnormal need to sleep. His hand softened its grip on her back as his breath fell into a slow, peaceful rhythm. Like it or not, he'd definitely lost his bet.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele blinked her eyes open after a minute where he said nothing to reply, and his thoughts had gone quiet too. She raised he head slowly, looking at him through half-closed eyes. She smiled faintly at his handsome sleeping face, and then she rested on his chest again. Surrounded in the feeling of warmth from both Vlad's body and the fire next to them, she felt comfortable and whole. She could feel how content he was in his sleep, and it was comforting to her. She snuggled a bit closer to him and let sleep take her.

When dawn came the sun was spreading out across the floor, filling the room with warm light through every windw surrounding the circular chamber. The fireplace had gone cold in the night, and Tenele had pulled the pile of warm blankets over them for mostly her benifit. Vlad wouldn't be bothered by the temperature change too much. Her eyes fluttered open and she glanced from the pale smooth skin of Vlad's chest tothe window and the warm sun. She had no desire to move from where she lay, but it suddenly occured to her that she hadn't the slightest idea about the time.

She sat up quickly, leaning overy Vlad's body and reaching for her dress, while trying to stay at least partially under the covers. She had to get to her room and get ready for court. She would be meeting with Sinead's advisers to give the her debriefing and then be briefed on the next mission, and she couldn't go to court in what she'd worn in the Outrlands... it was considered scandalus by Ighten standards. "I'm probably late..."

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad rolled over in the light filtering through the windows. He looked up at Tenele, passively observing as he watched her rummage for her clothes. "You're not late, there's plenty of time," he mumbled dishonestly, stretching luxuriously under the blankets. Her hair looked like liquid silver glinting in the light, her skin glowing a warm orange in the growing light of the sunrise. He found himself staring at her and smiling.

[Emora Deen]

She grabbed her dress and pulled it to her chest as she twisted around to look at him. "I am late," she told him, leaning in to gie him a kiss on the lips. "I have to run downstairs to my room and bathe, then dig out something warm to wear from my chest of winter clothing. Not to mention come up with a way to hide this," she grinned, moving her hair off her neck to reveal the mark his teeth and lips had made the night before.

"And if that was our engagement night," she breathed lustfully to him, finger tips running circles over his skin. "I shudder to think of our honeymoon." Then, she was on her feet, slipping the dress on over her head and letting it fall around her body. She tied the strings in the front, and stole a blanket from next to him so she could keep warm until she got to her room.

It suddenly occured to her that they would need to discuss living arrangements and that sort of thing, because they very well couldn't live in seperate rooms. That would just be strange and wasteful. "I'm not quite sure if the advisers just want to speak with me or the both of us... But, we'll find out." She was backing up towards the door. "Okay, I need to run or I'll really be late."

[Soran Nightblade]

"I suppose I have to let you go then," Vlad grinned. "I'll meet you there."

[Emora Deen]

She almost asked him for a lift, for him to teleport her there, but she figured he probably wouldn't be so inclined to step out from under the blanket to do so. She turned with a smile, giving him a wave of her hand, and opened the door to step out into the hall.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad smirked deviously as he watched her go to leave the room, as if he knew something she didn't. No sooner had Tenele opened the door than a huge mass of midnight bounded up at her from the other side. Stalker knocked her flat and immediately pressed his cold muzzle vindictively into her face, sniffing a deep breath and blowing it out across her nose. His eyes burned down into hers brightly, silently scolding.

[Emora Deen]

For a moment she was terrified, not quite knowing what was attacking her. She was just about to scream for Vlad when she saw the familiar eyes of Stalker, and she breathed a heavy sigh of relief. For a moment, she had thought it was one of Verin's minions come to drag her away. She thought she could still sightly feel the connection from the night before as she could have sworn she could have felt a great deal of amusement from her husband to be.

"I'm sorry," she protestedd with a soft laugh as she pushed futiley against the heavy weight of his form. "Its not my fault. He kidnapped me from you and hogged me all to himself. Silly, get off. I'm going to be very late and no doubt recieve a scolding. If it makes it up to you, you can come with me to get ready."

[Soran Nightblade]

Stalker backed off enough to let her get back to her feet. He still seemed undecided on forgiving her, but his attentive pose showed he wanted to follow her. "Don't get too clingy, Stalker," Vlad said for Tenele's benefit as he rose gracefully to his feet out of the blankets and stretched an arm over his head. He knew his grogginess was partly a result of their wildness the night before and partly something his body was empathically picking up from Tenele. He walked over to the door and touched his forehead to hers, his hands running lightly over her arms. "I'll meet you there," he said, kissing her lips.

[Emora Deen]

She smiled after his lips withdrew from hers. “Alright, please don’t be late. I don’t want to face the hounds alone.”

She snuggled herself in the blanket and took off at a fast paced walk down the hall, Stalker at her heel.

Tenele soaked in the hot bath, though she knew she had to hurry. It felt so good against her slightly chilled skin. Her feet had felt on fire when she first entered the steaming water just because they were that cold. She knew she needed to hurry, but she still couldn’t seem to bring herself from the comfort of the bubbles and steam and hot water.

Finally after a few minutes longer than she could really spare she drug herself from the water, wrapping a long thick cotton towel around her form and drying her skin slowly as she stepped out. She pulled the chain hooked into the floor of the tub and let the water drain as she tied the towel around her chest, leaving her arms free to address the matter of make-up and hair.

She had to be courtly and presentable, even if she must be fashionably late because of it. It wouldn’t be the first time she was late to court, anyway.

She didn’t wear a lot of make-up. Just added a bit of color to her lips, and black liquid for her eyes. It made the vibrant jade green stand out more, almost fiercely. She lifted her hair, twining it and pushing gold pins in to hold it up. Several strands fell down around her face, refusing to stay up in the messy, yet beautiful design she’d made in a hurry.

She glanced back at Stalker, smiling at him through the mirror before turning and stepping into her room. She dug through her chest in front of the bed for her winter dresses, finding a deep green dress trimmed in gold embroidery. She pulled the undergarments on quickly, managed to tie the corset herself, noting that it needed to be tugged closer together more than it had been when she wore it last winter, which meant she had lost weight. That made a lot of sense considering that she always forgot when on her missions, and since she was doing those non-stop now…

The dress fit her well, pulled tight in the back with green cord, gold embroidery trailing from the train of the dress, and up her back. The dress had long sleeves with gold around the arms and a v neck down the front, with a short collar that stood up around her neck. Still, it wasn’t enough to cover the mark Vlad had left on her neck, and she knew it wouldn’t go over well if they were able to see it.

So she found a choker that she rarely… if ever wore. It was small circular hoops woven together and clasped behind her neck. She looked in the mirror, noting that it covered the mark to some extent, but if someone decided to look at her neck closely, or saw it at the right angle and the right light, or even if the choker loosened and slipped, that it would be seen. She could wear her hair down… But, even then it would do no good.

And deep down, maybe she didn’t care if they saw it.

“Alright come on…” she went to the door, knowing that Stalker would keep up with her, or get a head. She was a little unsure about whether or not to take Stalker with her, but she figured that in some way she didn’t have a choice, she just hoped he could keep his calm if the advisers became terribly brutal.

When she entered the advising room she expected to see the Queen seated on her throne, and the advisers seated. Well, the advisers were seated, but she didn’t see the Queen right off the bat… and she didn’t see Vlad. She swallowed at the sudden silence, and the eyes of nearly thirteen people dressed in fine robes and trinkets.

She held her head high and entered the room. Maybe she wasn’t late? Her eyes flashed to the windows to check the status of the sun, wondering if she’d misread the light. It was winter… and she was used to the dessert sun. It very well was possible.

[Soran Nightblade]

"It's nice of you to grace us with your presence, Lady Raider," Sinead's chief advisor, Arond, said to Tenele as she entered the room. The other advisors, who had apparently broken into smaller groups to talk among themselves, paused in their conversations to eye the maiden rather skeptically as she entered the room. Stalker surveyed them without much interest as he stuck close to her heel.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele smiled at him, bowing her head respectfully. "It is good to be home," she replied, her eyes sweaping over the room. Searching.

She came to stand a bit closer to them, noting the extra chair or two that had been added for her sake she supposed. "I do hope I'm not late. I'm used to the desert sun, and apparently it has throne my ability to tell the time out of focus. Please, forgive me."

[Soran Nightblade]

Arond smiled then, a fatherly expression. "And it couldn't be your engagement night and not the desert sun that has made you late this morning?" he teased, stroking his grey beard.

"For god's sakes, don't encourage her," snapped one of the other advisors, looking far less supportive than Arond. The other expressions in the room didn't look much better.

"Where is that pet demon of Sinead's anyway?" demanded another advisor.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele looked surprised, and maybe paled a little at the mention of it. The knew? How could they know? She wondered who had been ease dropping only to go run and tell the whole castle. Because... well... she knew she hadn't been -that- loud. If they knew... Dear Gods, Talon was going to murder her if he found out any other way but her telling him face to face.

She glanced to the other advisers and then to Arond. Her cheeks flushed a rose, and she averted her eyes. "He should be arriving shortly," was her only reply.