Skedaddle

[Emora Deen]

Laya smiled at the cook. He seemed very amusing. She glanced around at all the men. They seemed happy, which made her paranoia lessen. She didn’t want to seem rude by looking them all in the eye. She didn’t want to see if they were leering at her, but she didn’t feel that they were.

She tried not to laugh when he smelled his breath. “I don’t think you smell like squid,” she replied in a chuckle.

“I am Laya,” she said after a long pause. “This is Telanis.” She nodded to the man sitting across from her.

[Soran Nightblade]

The man glanced at Telanis. "Interesting tattoo ya got there," he grinned, touching his own forehead. "Some kinda religious shenanigan?"

Telanis's hand let go of its vice grip on the counter to brush his fingers absently across the red 8-pointed star on his forehead. "Oh, that's just my h-...." he glanced at Laya. "H..ead."

Al just splintered into laughter. "This one's shyer than the lady!" he guffawed.

The kitchen door kicked open and Henry strafed out carrying a huge pot. He set it on the butcherblock bar counter next to the kitchen door, and a sweet, salty scent spread through the room. The men all started to get up. "NNNAH! A! A!" Henry scolded, keeping them at bay with a hot ladle, looking ready to kill with it. "Wait for the bowls, you animals!" he scolded, casting them all a warning glance before ducking back into the kitchen. A minute later, he emerged with a pile of bowls and spoons, tilting them expertly in time with the sway of the ship. As if the smell could reach every corner of the ship, new faces began walking in from the deck to join the breadline.

"Back, you ogres! You know the rules, passengers first!" snarled Henry. The men shrank back from his ladle like it was a sword. "You two first, dear guests," he said sweetly to Laya and the unicorn.

[Emora Deen]

Laya passed Telanis a bowl and while he held it she dipped food into it for him, and then some for herself. “It smells delicious, thank you,” she replied as she carried the bowl back to the table. She tasted it, and it was really as good as it smelled. “Mmm… good. Do you think I should get Adonis?”

More people filtered into the room, and soon the tables were filled and the space around the room. She didn’t see another woman, not yet at least. She guessed she was the only one. Not that it bothered her, but it wasn’t hard to notice such a thing.

[Soran Nightblade]

Telanis took the bowl she offered him gratefully, not sure he could keep his balance if he stood to get the food himself. Her question about Adonis cast a shadow over his thoughts. "I think he needs time...but he will also need food," he said quietly. "Eventually, he will-"

He stopped as the black unicorn appeared in the doorway and strolled calmly into the room. Adonis walked like his legs knew the ship; he'd spent enough time among humans to develop a sailor's balance, and he knew his humanoid body far better than Telanis knew his. His obsidian ponytail stretched behind him as he crossed to the line where food was being served. As soon as the others noticed him, the paused to survey him with the same curiosity they'd shown Laya and Telanis.

"Our other new passenger, I assume," Henry greeted, snatching the ladle from the crewman closest to the pot and bestowing a bowl of stew upon Adonis.

"Thanks," the unicorn smiled as he took the bowl and scanned the room for a place to sit. When the men realized somewhat confusedly that he wasn't planning to sit with his two friends, someone shifted over at another table and gestured to a chair.

Adonis nodded obligingly and joined them. Within minutes, he seemed to have completely won over the men he'd sat with, speaking with them in polite but friendly manner about their exploits at sea.

Telanis stared at his brother in awe. Adonis was shockingly social and seemingly at ease with humans. But the last time he'd been this social with a human community, it had been to win their trust and then poison them with a black illness to make Telanis learn their true nature.

"Yer friend's gregar-yuss," Al smirked, following Telanis's gaze. He couldn't see the white unicorn's worry, because Telanis didn't wear it on his face.

"Laya..." He looked at her, and his eyes said what he couldn't speak out loud. They needed to keep an eye on his brother.

[Emora Deen]

Laya was watching Adonis warily. Something didn’t seem right, and that bothered her. She only nodded to Telanis because she didn’t want to draw attention to what they were thinking and the threat that Adonis could possess. Especially since this was their only means of getting home.

“Soo…” Laya mumbled. “Are we going to have fair seas?”

[Soran Nightblade]

"These are fickle waters, megirl," Al smiled. "They'll be fair when they feel like it, and when they're in the mood, they'll play dirty as a swindler. But this vessel's be sailing fifteen years, so don't doubt. The sea's a treacherous bitch, but we know how to calm her when she's angry and survive her when we can't."

"Telanis listened to Al talk while he ate Henry's food. Al was a great conversationalist, in that he didn't need assistance to carry on the conversation all by himself. By the time they were done eating, they knew more than they'd ever have asked about the ship and its crew. Despite the good company and food, Telanis's stomach also began to warn him that his recent exploits at sea had done little to change his trouble with seasickness.

Al was more observative than his one-sided conversation made it appear, because he said "Green around the gills, mate?"

Telanis shook his head and tried not to look ill. He didn't want to end the pleasant meal over something so trivial, and he thought Laya was probably enjoying the change of mood. He hadn't missed the anxiety rolling off her in their cabin.

[Emora Deen]

Laya watched Telanis. “Do you want to go up on deck and get some fresh air?” she asked him, glancing back at Adonis. She wondered if it was such a good idea to leave him down here alone with the crew. What if… no. That was absurd. Adonis wouldn’t hurt the crew.

“Come on, I’m done eating, let’s get some air or go lay down. That might make you feel better,” she told him, reaching down for his hand.

[Soran Nightblade]

Telanis's fingers wove around hers as her hand brushed him. "That sounds like a good plan," he grinned, albeit somewhat pequishly. "It was good to meet you, Al," he said cheerfully as he stood up and nearly immediately fell over. He sprawled his legs out for balance and grinned sheepishly at Laya. Suddenly the deck didn't seem like a very...safe idea. "Maybe lying down," he muttered good-naturedly to Laya, casting an accusing look down at his forest-loving body. He really wasn't designed for this!

"I'll have someone send over a bucket," Al smirked.

[Emora Deen]

Laya smiled. "Thank you," she said as she helped Telanis up.

When they were back in there quarters Laya helped Telanis to the bed before closing the door behind them. She ducked down to sit next to him in the bunk, brushing her hand across his forehead, smoothing his hair. "I forgot you got sea sick. Though, the last time we were on a ship I was sick as well. Maybe you will get what they call sea legs?"

She feared that if Adonis did something terrible, like making the crew sick, she would get poisoned again.

Laya looked down at him, smiling. She leaned forward and kissed his forehead where the red star was. She leaned back, looking away. Her cheeks flushed rose.

[Soran Nightblade]

Telanis looked up at her her, feeling a different kind of lightness in his stomach at her light touch. She'd kissed him on his horn... Something about that warmed him from the inside out. It was like she'd somehow embraced not just the human form he now held, but his true self as well. He smiled at her.

"Perhaps if I walk the ship on my hands and knees," he joked, glancing at the porthole. He wanted to see the deck and the sea, but wasn't so sure he should try it.

[Emora Deen]

Laya smirked. "Maybe we can try when the food has settled in your stomach."

She watched him with storm gray eyes and her cheeks flushed a deeper color. She remembered many things about the past few months, but none more vividly than there time together on the pirate ship. She hadn't brought it up, because... well he hadn't mentioned it either. It was almost like a dream, the more time passed between the present and that time the more it became so.

It was a vivid dream, one that made her ache for more. Of course she knew she couldn't have it. She wasn't even so sure she should have done so to begin with. What if it had been a terrible mistake, the consequences of which had not yet come to fruit.

Still, it was the only enjoyable experience she had ever had with a man, and what an experience it had been. It made her think thoughts unbecoming of a lady. She knew that her thoughts weren’t evil, at least she hoped they weren’t evil. They stemmed from a strong emotion. It was something that spread through her, wrapped around her heart, and it had Telanis’s name written all over it.

“You’ll be home soon,” she told him, brushing a hand through his hair.

[Soran Nightblade]

The unicorn looked up at her with an inquisitive stare. Emotions brushed from her psyche to his like invisible velvet, alien yet familiar. He held cautiously onto the edge of the memory that feeling brought back to him, following it toward its center. A feeling, a bonding that hadn't been his, not on its own. It had been given to him, like a gift, something he'd barely understood what to do with. It was like listening to someone play an instrument; something he could never produce by himself, but that he'd been made part of, included in, like a kind of magic. He felt more aware of her fingertips against his forehead. Not just their caring, but also their warmth and their grace. The light brush of skin against his.

He held his breath subconsciously as he recognized the strange feeling. "Laya," he murmured. "You feel very different from other humans."

[Emora Deen]

Laya smirked. “What do you mean?” she asked him softly. “I am only human…” She brushed the hair that had fallen lose from the braid behind her ear.

The sound of waves grew louder as the ship picked up speed. A good gust of wind blew them towards their destination. Hopefully they would continue to have good wind.

[Soran Nightblade]

Telanis tilted his head slightly and followed her fingers with his eyes as she brushed back her hair. He felt strangely tempted to touch the place on his forehead where she'd kissed him. Instead, he lifted a large, slender hand and followed the path her fingers had just taken with his thumb, brushing along her cheek and tracing lightly behind her ear. "I do not know the right words," he said as the feeling that was her breathed through all of his senses. "Different." Incredible. Important.

[Emora Deen]

Laya paused at the touch of his hand. She swallowed, her heart leaping up in her chest. She touched his hand with hers, pressing her face into his palm. She closed her eyes.

After holding his hand there for a little while longer, her eyes fluttered open. She leaned forward and kissed the star, holding her soft lips there. Then she pulled away slowly, before pressing her lips to his. She kissed him gently before she realized what exactly she was doing.

Laya drew back, putting fingers to her lips. Her eyes were wide with shock. “I…” she began, unable to form the words. “I’m sorry.” She shook her head. “I don’t know if that was right.”