Disclaimer: Years ago, before the enigmatic Xylir Tsa appeared in the lands of Arangoth and Myst he lived as an apprentice to a great and powerful Master Sage on the other side of the world. In this tropical island kingdom he enjoyed a freedom and higher education under his Master than the station of life he had been born into. He also enjoyed some of the comforts of the Royal Palace where his Master was the King's Advisor. Here he grew up learning to master the mundane and arcane Arts of their land and became so proficient in the areas of Numbers, Stars, Navigation, Politics, and other Sciences that he was set as tutor to the Princess Abrianna. ~*~*~*~*~ Kuwa-atta was the runt godling of Great Lord Kuwa-kirkiri, the protector and ruler of the capital city, Daqi-Kuwa, which lies in his shadow. His mountainous form rose from the sea millennia ago to give birth to his surrounding island-children and a home to the fauna and flora and Man that sprang from his mind. Kuwa-atta was his smallest child of fire and stone and too young yet, it is said, to be left off in the sea alone. Since their Mother, the Moon above, could not care for their child, the Great Lord took him to his own bosom. So now Mount Kuwa-atta, not really a mountain at all but a side lava vent, grows off of the bayside of his Father and looks out towards the sea to which he might one day go. Daqi-Kuwa rested on the bottom-most slopes of both great volcanoes, sleeping and content to let Man do as he will so long as the sacrifices are regular and bountiful, and extended to the very shores of the bay. As such the trip to the peak of Mount Kuwa-atta was only a few hours by walking or for Xylir, and the many forms he could assume, a little over a single hour. Thankfully it only took so long for him because Rezios had punished him with scribing duties which he could not leave until they had been completed. The Apprentice had not left his table until the Moon had risen half way to her crescent zenith. The only time better to stare at the sparkling Celestials above was when the Goddess took her monthly rest from her exhaustive duties, still the night was unusually clear and Her crescent sliver shed only enough light to scribble by without the need of a disturbing lamp. Xylir was there, a few yards down from the broken rim of Kuwa-atta, scribbling notes in the moonlight between gazing up with the naked eye or with the aid of a <telescope> or <astrolabe>. As difficult as it would be for Xylir to finish his scribing punishment, it was doubly so for the princess who needed to leave the castle grounds in order to meet him. It was something that was done very rarely and just often enough that she knew how to slip past the castle's gates. Afterall, on such a sleepy and peaceful island, the guards had gone lax, and some of them overweight. It would never cross their minds to keep someone inside the castle; they were there to keep people out. So it was that nearly an hour after Xylir had gotten there; she was treading up the path. She needed to speak to him. Her mind had been on anything but her studies since this afternoon. She had even avoided Terri after the evening meal, and felt absolutely horrid about it. "There you are," she spoke in friendly greeting as she spotted him just off the well tread path. Her hair was how he had left it this afternoon, twisted up upon her head, and spilling in gleaming, copper ringlets. But her dress was different. It was a soft, silvery blue. More formal for the evening meal, it seemed to glow against her tan skin in the pale glow of the stars. Her arms were left bare, and the cool linumi fabric clung gently to her form and down to her hips where she wore loose belt of woven gold dotted with pearls, and spilled to her toes in looser waves of sheer, soft blue. The flowers were still neat in her hair, and a string of pearls hung around her neck. Xylir nearly broke the tip of his inked stylus in his startlement; as it was, he only smeared a wasting streak across the page, a page he would later have to recopy. He had forgotten he had invited the Princess up here with him tonight, more than likely assuming that after this afternoon she would not want to come. "P-princess," he showed his surprise and laxness in his Tsa lessons with the stutter. He quickly set down his tablet and stylus and stood to greet her properly with a sincerely deep bow. Xylir was dressed differently as well. The winds atop the peaks tended to be cooler and brisker, a lesson he had learned on more than one occasion. But tonight he had no reason to learn it over for he had garbed himself flowingly loose breeches of thicker linumi the darkness of palm tree bark. The stiff breezes did still tug and snap at his breeches, tied to his waist by a wide sash of bright and verdant green silk, but the folds trimmed the air away from knifing through and chilling his flesh. As he stood straight from his hand-over-heart bow the moonlight illuminated, or lack there of, the open-fronted shirt of deepest night black. The garment blended so well into the sky behind the young man that only the arms bared by the rolled up sleeves and his chest, when the breeze fluttered the shirt open, shone in the silver moonlight. >From the hike that was required to reach the top of the small mountain, she was not yet chilled by the wind, yet on the same note, she was not flushed or red from exertion. "Xylir," she replied, inclining her head and nodding to his polite bow. "How are you?" a moment of silence had passed as she could not think of what to say� and now that she speaks, she smiles a touch uncertainly with her words. The wind pulled at her skirt, molding the fabric to one hip and thigh, and it lifted and played with her copper curls. Xylir too had been avoiding Terri since the interludes of his afternoon, though thankfully he'd had an excuse even when she came knocking on his door with a tray of food. He had thanked her politely, but had refused the meal and begged her leave that he had much work to do because of an error he had made. The stricken, fallen look upon her face and pouted lips sliced at the strings of his heart as he forced the door closed upon her. And Abri - NO! Princess Abrianna! Oh, the thoughts of holding her again turned to daydreams as he slaved at the meaningless task set before him. His memory playing tricks upon his senses such that even the push of the pen in his hand filled him with the sensation of holding the Princess in his hands again. "I� am well, Princess, thank you for asking. You seem well? Is-is there anyone escorting you up here?" The apprentice brushed a few wind errant strands of silken ravenswing from his face and vision to look back down the steep path from whence she'd come. "No�" she replied, glancing as he did towards the path she had just climbed. "I found my own way..." She looked back towards him, her blue gray eyes intent upon his features... trying to pull out anything she could from what he was thinking. "We're alone... You can call me Abrianna," she offered, lightening her voice and flashing a smile to try and break this seriousness. It wasn't enough, though, even for her, the smile withered and faded from her full lips as she stepped forwards, "I was hoping to talk to you, if I could?" She stepped from the trail and down to the ledge that he was working on, instead of moving farther though� she neatly pulled her glowing skirts about her and sat carefully down upon a patch of grass. Xylir had thankfully schooled his thoughts during the rush of blood from bowing to her, letting the hot liquid be flooded through his mind and wash away the impure thoughts he had suddenly reacquired of the girl before him. As she studied him, he thanked Rezios for teaching him these control tricks so long ago. "Of course, Prih�-Abrianna," he started, his head tilting curiously to the side in wonder why she did not simply take the extra steps forward to sit on the softer blanket he had brought up. "Please, ask." Though she looked lovelier then she ever had due to his wonderful spell, she was frazzled, and perhaps it could be seen if only in the way her eyes would glance towards him, and then stare absently at a spot of ground, bothered. Some few minutes would pass before she would speak again, and then her voice broke the silence in a quiet, and shameful mutter, "I wanted to apologize, Xylir... for this afternoon," she added, darting another glance towards him. Xylir had seated himself carefully back down on the far side of the blanket from her, where his clipped tablet and the inkpot and stylus were. The fabric was soft and warm beneath him, woven from the wool of sala birds. It was comforting for him to run his palms along it at his sides as he waited for her. And then her words came and he felt the daydreams of this afternoon and before, as mad as they were, shatter as a pane of glass left exposed by the Sea's terrible wrath of storms. He waited with baited breath, hoping his silence would be enough notice that she had his full attention. "It� it was wrong of me..." she went on after a moment, feeling her heart swell into her throat for the look he returned her. Her own eyes darted to her lap, where her hands fidgeted nervously. "I should never have put you into such a position... Please forgive me... " She didn't stammer, but the short, unfinished sentences showed well how upset she really was. "You've been such a good friend... and Terri... and I don't want to ruin that. ...I... I should respect what the two of you have." Xylir was extremely confused, though it only showed by the wideness of his pitch eyes. Could she really mean that she was jealous of Terri? Could she really mean that she wanted him? The very ideas of it shocked him to the core though it was exactly what he had been dreaming about for months� since that second time he had met her on the picnic with Terri. "Abri," his deepening voice spoke across the space, soft and tender even cutting through the wind. When she looked up from her lap she would find him crawling towards her, a supplicant jungle cat all fluid and unassuming grace. "And really... think of the trouble we could be in�" she went on, rambling, her bare shoulders lifting in shrug to words that were partly for herself as well as him. She shivered against the wind that pulled and tugged at her hair� lifting the copper ringlets in a chaotic dance that swung to the right side of her head. The sound of her name though silenced her, short and common sounding as it was, it meant more to her to hear it. 'Abri'... not 'Princess'... only the closest people to her would use that name. She looked up from her lap as her fingers twined tightly, and nervously together, and glistening blue gray eyes focused upon the young man crawling towards her. Xylir drew to a stop at the edge of the blanket, a tiger with dark and curious eyes halted by the confines of his cage. He would not press beyond it, there were boundaries here that he felt could only be breached by them together. His same instincts that had force him to move, that told him to stay put now, suggested that he keep quiet. This was good at any rate for his heart was such a jumble and his mind a fleeting thing right now that he would likely say the terribly wrong thing, if he could think of what to say at all. Perhaps the silvery yearning, not only for her but to tell her how he truly felt, upon the rippling crests of his obsidian eyes would more than make up for his lack of words. Abrianna did see it, that look in his eyes. She couldn't watch him for very long, for she turned her head away and into the force of the wind. Perhaps she just wouldn't let herself see it. "Will you forgive me?" she wished he would say something. He always had a way of soothing her, and making her feel better, and she wished he could now. Her arms lifted and wrapped tight about her torso as the chill of the wind was beginning to prickle her skin ...or was it maybe from knowing what she was giving up? Xylir wanted so much to tell her that he did not love Terri, not as a lover should at any rate. He wanted to draw the Princess in to his arms and feel her against him like he had this afternoon in the heat of the day, he wanted his own heat to sooth and comfort her on this chill volcano peak far above the city. Up here, where no one else was, and their only witnesses the mountain gods and the Goddess above, he wanted to tell her that he was falling in love with her! But he knew that she was not ready to hear such things. He knew in a glance that her heart was not strong enough to risk a friendship for a love. "There� is� there is nothing to forgive, Abrianna," was all he could muster though it was as heartfelt and sincere and truthful as any word he had ever spoken to her. The apprentice sat slowly back from her, the tiger in him melting away to the logically collected Tsa that was budding within. Abrianna remembered well the way he had returned her awkward and clumsy kiss. It was her first kiss, and she could still feel the way his lips pressed against her's... and the press of his hand against her back, holding her firmly against him. It made her blush to know how much she wanted to feel that again, and her heart ache that she couldn�t tell him what she really wanted. She needed to do the right thing, and hoped that this was it. Her lips curled and she nodded to his words. "Thank you..." she murmured softly, staring at the ground, her hands briskly rubbing at her upper arms. "You are cold," Xylir pointed out while noticing the rubbing of her arms. How could he not when the stars above that should have been filling his eyes were ignored for the beauty of her on earth before him? "Come over here and share the blanket with me," his offer was the firm advice he would one day give her on matters of state and he expected her to see the sense of it as he was already moving backwards to make room for her on the large spread. "You... you don't think that I should just leave you to your studies?" she stood slowly from her perch, her arms kept wrapped snuggly about her. As she stood, the wind caught hold of her pale blue skirts and they rippled and blew to her right. She hadn't left just yet though... and in fact, she took a step closer to him. She wanted things to be back as they were, and wondered how she could accomplish that. ...Maybe she never could. Xylir knew that neither of them were really ready for what they feared in their hearts and at the same time he was not ready for her to leave just yet. "No. Actually, you had promised me time in lieu of the afternoon to study the Celestials tonight. Come, sit with me, and when you can tell me by the turn of the stars that your hour of study with me is done, then I will walk you back to the Palace. Is that fair enough?" As if coming up here to plead forgiveness was bad enough. She'd forgotten that she still owed him a good hour of studying. Nonetheless, she did laugh at her predicament, and walked closer. "I didn't tell you about the bruise I got from running away this afternoon," apparently though it put her in good enough spirits to try and avoid studying. She gathered her skirt about her as she lowered herself onto the blanket beside him. "I got caught on a vine, and bruised my knee well," she chuckled, shifting with one leg folded beneath her, and the other one bent straight in front of her. "See?" she bent over her leg to reach the hem of her dress to pull it up far enough to reveal the black and blue knee. "You didn't get in trouble, did you?" Xylir frowned as he sat closer to her then, leaning over slightly for a better look at the wound she had received. By now she might even know better that his sharp vision, even at night, did not require that. "Nothing too serious," he admitted absently, still intent on the dark bruising then added "punished only with boring scribing duties for a week." He reached across her lap with his long, lean arm and caught up the blanket, which he tugged across her. "Would you like me to soothe that away for you?" "You can do that, too?" she was tucking a copper curl behind her ear as she looked back towards him. Of course he could. She was beginning to fall under the assumption that he could do anything. Or close to it. She knew Rezios could do anything, and Xylir was learning to. "For a whole week? Oh... I'm sorry..." "I will be fine," he murmured as already his hands had slipped beneath the cover of blanket and skirt to hover over her bare knee, taking her surprised exclamation as permission enough to continue. The heat of the afternoon suddenly burned upon her skin and the dull red of glowing embers shown even through the thick blanket. Only once did he lay hands upon her soft, sheer leg and that was only a professional touch as he pressed the power at his fingertips deep into her flesh and bone with a grip just above her knee on her thigh and just below on her shin and calf. As his hands relaxed, so too did her bruise-tightened muscles and what ache there had been was now completely eased away. "I could not have the Princess hobbling about," he whispered tiredly, so unlike the energy he had displayed after the cantrip of cleaning her up this afternoon. Abrianna leaned back, pressing her hands against the blanket behind her for support as he reached for her knee. She trusted him completely... even with stumbling upon what she had this afternoon. She watched quietly, and with awe at the glow that came from beneath the blanket... and moaned softly for the touch he caused beneath. "I... would have been fine," she murmured, though really she marveled at what he could do. Almost as much as she had so many months ago when he repaired the dome. "Are you alright?" she noticed the change in his voice, and she pushed herself forwards, her hand moving from behind her to lay lightly upon Xylir's back. Xylir slowly looked up from bulge of his hands and her knee beneath the blanket and into her eyes, weariness reflected deeply within. "Yes, I am fine. It has simply been a long day, that is all." His fingers were slow and dragging to leave her flesh, though they held only the tiniest bit of lustful attention in their affectionate caress. He really did care whether she was happy, healthy, and comfortable. He blinked his eyes lazily, sleepily before turning his head lethargically toward the sky. Abrianna watched him quietly, her soft blue eyes glittering in the pale like from the moon and stars. They matched well to the dress she wore, and accented their color. "I am so sorry..." she really hadn't meant to stir up so much trouble, and though part of her wished she could take back what had happened� another part just wouldn't let her. He gave her her first kiss. And as much as she wished she wouldn't admit it, for Terri's sake, she really enjoyed it. "But thank you..." she went on to murmur. Her hand moved from where it was on his back, and slipped beneath his arm and back around him once more as she leaned to one side� her other arm curling warmly about his front. "For being such a wonderful friend." Xylir casually lifted his arm up and protectively curled it about her shoulders, holding her as close to him as she wished to lean in. "Please," he hushed her gently, "let us say no more of what happened. We are friends and young. Our youth sometimes gets the better of us, Abrianna. And as friends we must accept and move on. Let us not speak of it again and especially not to Terri. I fear it would hurt her to know." ~*~*~*~*~*~ Sar & Jer _________________________________________________________________ Join the world�s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com -- To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives & Other DMI Lists: http://islesofmyst.com/lists.php3
