LORE: Training a Hell Hound (MATURE)

[Emora Deen]

Tenele opened her eyes. The canvas sides were glowing from the morning light outside. It was pale and soft in color. She looked around and everyone was sleeping. It was quiet outside, and she felt the need to stretch her legs. So she stood up from the pallet, and Stalker didn’t stir. She stepped around Vlad, and over Atul, to push through the tent flap and out into the morning sun. There was a low fog around the body of water the camp surrounded, but that wasn’t what she was paying attention too.

There were spikes in the ground all around, and bodies impaled hole on these spikes. They were mutilated, horrific sculptures to the damned. She couldn’t scream, she was too shocked. Tenele would have gone into the tent to wake everyone, but for some reason she was drawn to the water. She made her way through the forest of dangling bodies to the foggy shore. The water was a deep crimson, and yet clear. She was easing to see what was in the water, for she could just make it out…

And then she felt it. A presence behind her. Tenele whirled around and there were too masked figures there. They reached up to the hoods and pulled. Tenele took an involuntary step back, for what she saw was impossible. Her worst nightmare was standing before her. Bodies hanging, dripping blood onto the white quartz sand, and the two people she feared most in the world. This was impossible. This had to be a dream. A nightmare. Both of them were very much dead. She needed to wake up. She could hear someone laughing, and it was not the men in front of her. It was familiar laughter, the kind she’d heard in that maze. She put her hands to her head as they stepped closer and the laughing grew obnoxiously loud. She clenched her eyes shut when they reached for her, her heart pounding in her chest.

Her eyes fluttered open when nothing touched her, and she was staring up at the canvas ceiling to the tent. The morning light was cool and soft. She laid very still, as if moving would make whatever horrors that sought her come to life. Her heart beat slowed to a normal pace, and she slowly sat up, the covers slipping to her lap. She ran a hand through her hair, sighing and stretching her arms out above her head. Sleeping on the floor always made her have strange dreams.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad had started off sleeping on the seat cushion he'd stolen from Atul and leaning against the side of the tent, but in the course of the night, he'd rolled and was now mostly on the floor in a fairly ridiculous position. When Tenele's heart rate sprang up, however, both the vampire's and the hellhound's crimson eyes cracked open. Instinct was a powerful thing.

Stalker was lying beside her and raised his huge head slightly to study her in her strangely excited state, apparently making no sense of it, before resting his muzzle back on his paws. Vlad's eyes lingered on her as she sat up, following her movements as she stretched beautifully in the dim light of the tent. He could smell and hear her heartrate receding, but it was obvious that something had startled her awake. "I didn't do it," he declared drowsily.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele glanced over at him, strands of silver in her face. She smiled at him and the position he was lying in. "Didn't do what?" she asked, leaving her legs under the covers, she stretched off the padded bedding and across the tent flooring. She folded her arms across the flooring, resting her chin there as she stared at him. Her eyes fluttered open and closed slowly, and it was clear she could fall back a sleep. She glanced to the side, where she thought Atul would be, but he was no where to be found. "I missed waking up to seeing your handsome face," she told him, stretching out a hand and poked his cheek with he finger.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad was smiling at her. The expression held fast as he thought briefly of the things he'd recently become accustomed to 'waking up' to. She looked like an angel. "It is good to see you as well," he said, reaching over to touch her cheek lightly with cool fingertips.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele leaned into his touch, closing her eyes for a moment at the feelt of his fingers on her flushed skin. She left the blanket behind as she crawled just a little closer, bring her face close to his. She wanted more of his touch, want his arms around her. She'd missed him far more than she'd let herself realize, and now she wanted to do nothing but enjoy his presence all day. She smiled as her face hovered just a bit above his, and she kissed his cheek, and then cool lips softly. Eventually the kiss turned needful and urgent, as if Vlad would suddenly be snatched away from her. She pulled back for a breath, her eyes searching his face. "I love you," she whispered to him.

[Soran Nightblade]

Her kiss fully awakened the vampire, and he returned it cautiously but equally, reveling in the contact of her lips. Vlad's senses became alert against her touch, and her voice was like music. The words 'I love you' literally but a chill through his body. He obviously had missed her; these reactions of his were ridiculous in any other context. He reached up and drew her to his chest, pulling his arms around her slender back as if she were an oversized stuffed animal. He consciously avoided holding her too tightly, but his embrace was firm. "I love you," he whispered, still sounding like he was somewhere between asleep and awake. "You feel amazing." His breath slowed to a crawl, and by all accounts he appeared to have fallen back asleep, though he was smirking.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele laughed softly as she tried to adjust her position to where she was sitting up a little more, but that was to no avail. He had her pretty snug against him. Though, she didn't mind at all. Her face was bright and beautiful, her eyes sparkling. She kissed his forehead as she moved her legs into a more comfortable position, drawing them closer to her. Long and elegant, they curled along his side. "Don't even think about falling a sleep," she warned with a sweet laugh. She struggled playfully against his firm hug.

She glanced at Stalker, a bit surprised that he hadn't bitten Vlad's head off by now. Then again, Vlad was his master and he probably thought he had nothing to worry about.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad gave no reaction, apparently going with the sleeping act. He gave a poor imitation of a yawn and wrapped his leg up over her, trapping her even more. Stalker just watched the situation with one ear up and one cocked sideways, apparently making little sense of his master's behavior.

[Emora Deen]

"Hey!" Tenele called to him, unable to stop the laughter. She pushed against him, but knew it was pretty much futile. Even if he was playing his strength was stil three times hers. "Don't make me bite you. Oh, what am I saying, you'd like that." She looked down at him with narrowed eyes. She thought for a moment, the wheels easily seen turning in her eyes as she searched his "sleeping" face. Then, she arched her neck and bit the tip of his nose rather firmly.

[Soran Nightblade]

Despite his efforts at composure, a smile tugged at the corner of Vlad's mouth. He restrained himself and opened one eye and looked at her. "Some of us are trying to sleep," he said, glancing down at their entwined bodies. "My god, were you taking advantage of me in my sleep?" he scolded.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele arched an eyebrow at him as she grinned. She was trying to find a good comeback, searching her mind for just the right words, and still couldn't seem to find them. She leaned in close to his face. "As if you would mind if I was," she told him breathlessly, and it seemed she was going to be very serious. Snaking her hand up the inside of his shirt and every so lightly over the skin of his side, and there she pinched him rather hard.

[Soran Nightblade]

Just as he was becoming shocked (but not displeased) that she'd be intimate with him already, he felt her fingers pinch him. Vlad twitched and made a lazy groan as he rolled away from her in mock dismay. His hair stood in messy tufts on his head as he turned a lecturing look on her that didn't do much other than make him look comical. "Fine, I'm up," he announced grudgingly before smiling at her. His eyes wandered in a slow circle around the room. "Where is prince charming?" he asked idly.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele didn't want to leave Vlad's touch. It felt like it had been forever since she'd been in his arms... And she almost had the urge to shew Stalker from the bedding and have her way with Vlad then and there, but that wouldn't be appropriate given their audience outside. And, maybe after what had happened it was too soon. Rolling onto her back Tenele stretched again, trying her best not to yawn. "I don't know. He wasn't here when I woke up," she told him as she sat up again. "Ugh... I have to get my clothes..." They were all the way to that secluded part of the oasis she'd walked to the night before. She'd have to trek across the camp in Atul's tunic shirt, which didn't bother her so much at night since it was dark.

She stood up. "I'm going to run and get them," she told him. When she stepped outside she recieved a number of puzzled stares. At first she couldn't figure out why they were looking at her funny, and she thought it might be of her indecent dress. She often forgot that in the outerlands the clothing style and level of indecency between Ighten and the outerlands were very different.

She saw Atul, he was sitting around a fire with several people. They were drawing in the sand and talking. he must have been going over important things, so she'd wait until she was dressed to join them. She found her things as she had left them and grabbing them up she hurried back into the tent. They were dry, and she was thankful for that. They were a bit cold, since the night had nearly frozen them. But, she'd have to endure it.

Tenele's eyes found Vlad as she stood there before her clothes. He'd seen her naked many times... many, many times. So why was she suddenly a bit emberassed that she was going to undress in front of him? Maybe because it had been so long. How long had it been? It felt like years...

Tenele's cheeks flushed a bit as she reached down and pulled the tunic shirt over her head, dropping it to the ground behind her. She began pulling on her clothes, making a soft gasp as the cold fabric brushed against her skin.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad looked at her curiously as she re-entered the tent with her clothing. She seemed self conscious, and when she started undressing he was able to guess why. As much as he wanted to watch her, he turned his eyes toward the opposite side of the tent and thought about finding his own clothing. Since the things he'd worn last night were torn up and bloody, he walked over to Atul's things and began browsing through them. Many of them were in silks and bright colors only meant for royalty, but he managed to find a black pair of pants and a deep red tunic among them. He helped himself to the silk shorts though. No reason to be modest under there, he thought with a smirk. "Do you mind if I change?" he asked innocently, holding Atul's manly lingeree over his head without turning to peep on her.

[Emora Deen]

"Of course not, go right a head." Tenele glanced over her shoulder as she pulled the shirt on over her head. She slipped her pants on and grabbed the the calf-length brown coat. She was still so sleepy, so when she was dressed she slipped back to the bed, lying on her stomach and resting her head on the pillows as her hand idly brushed through Stalker's fur. Her silver hair fanned out across her cheek as her green eyes watched the wolf, and the shadows pass by the side of the canvas tent.