Dusk was coming later and later. It fell over the landscape with a careful whisper and the world held its breath. Elyna had been trying to remain calm and not fuss but she’d managed to make sure that all the laundry for herself and Malcolm was cleaned dried and ready to be packed. Another day had passed in relative peace between the two. The additional horses they’d gained from the bandits had been exercised and she’d changed into her usual clothes but added the corset from her green dress, leaving it looser than she would have usually liked, but still accenting the curves and slopes of her waist. She’d braided her hair and pinned half up and away from her face as she stood, hands on hips and surveyed the bed.
The young woman had pulled out her large bag and set it on the covers. It was empty and her clothes were stacked neatly beside it. She held her teeth gently over the tip of her tongue, brows furrowed deep in thought. There was still time to change her mind, the clothes would fit in the bag along with any gear and equipment she might need for the journey. She’d promised herself, when Malcolm had left the arena that she would follow the man across the world. Now he was and she was going to stay?
The woman shifted her stance, lifting her shoulders and arching her back. It ached a little, and there was a strange sharp pain beneath her left ribs. It had been a good day and she’d managed to eat well for the past few trials. Still though, the edge of dizziness remained present. Especially with the gentle throb of the wound on her back…and that was the point. The baby was currently nothing more than a slight swell to her abdomen but it would grow, and the aches would get worse. The idea of spending at least sixty trials on a ship didn’t appeal, and nor did the thought of sleepless nights on a hard floor or desert. Malcolm would do his best but he didn’t know where his journey would take him. Neither of them knew if they could find enough coin abroad to support them…and it was a risk. Without the baby Elyna would have accompanied him without thinking. She would have been able to help him, but fate had rendered her powerless and more hindrance then help.
Frustrated the woman pulled the bag from the bed and stuffed into the corner of the room. It was then that she moved through the house and collected up both bridals, looping Embers over her arm and setting out in search of her Husband. A smaller satchel held diagonally across her body.
“Mal?” She had a plan.
Last edited by Elyna on Thu Sep 01, 2016 10:08 am, edited 1 time in total. word count: 477
Dark, rich soil was guided into the space around the roots of the lemon tree by large, bare hands. Malcolm compacted the earth and sat back on the heels of his boots to admire the small tree. It wouldn't produce any lemons for half a year at least, but for the mortalborn, time was no issue. The lemon tree had been planted along the fence line, far enough from the actual fence to keep the horses from doing any damage. It would serve as a symbol, a silent promise that he would return home to care for it and what it grow, just as he hoped his new life with Elyna and the child they were expecting would flourish grow.
From the garden, Malcolm heard Elyna call out to him. He rinsed his hands in a bucket of water and poured it out around the base of the tree before getting to his feet and heading back to the house. At the front door he brushed the dirt from the soles of his boots and stepped out of them to venture further into the house. The knees of his trousers were dirty and he had wiped his hands on the material over his thighs a couple of times. A light gleam of sweat painted his brow and chest in the V of his shirt where two of the buttons had been left undone, making him appear rather scruffy.
Elyna was discovered heading through the living space, making a beeline for the door. Malcolm held his hands up against the frame and stepped backwards, realising that she intended to go outside. He struggled into his boots again and watched as Elyna went by him, ducking under his arm to exit the house. Malcolm smiled, it looked like she was up to something. "Need any help?" He knew he had to pack, but stuffing clothes into a bag could wait.
The woman turned around to grin at him. Easing her feet back one after the other as she retreated towards the paddock and held the bridle for Red aloft as a lure. Beckoning her husband to follow her, “please” she smiled and waved the leather contraption again, “you’re going to need your horse…but shut the door behind you?” With that she threw the bridle back at him, hefting it gently through the air so it was easy to catch. Then she turned and jogged down to the paddock, glancing over her shoulder to make sure she was being followed.
It turned into a race, who could catch their horse first. Elyna had an easy time a she’d already saddled Embry and attached a small pack to the animals back. Once Red was secured she led her mare out of the paddock and mounted up. Without giving Malcolm time to question, the Skyrider nudged the tall mare forward into a walk and almost instantly into a canter. Risen up in the stirrups she found it easier to balance as the horse raced along the side of the road. Turf thrown up beneath wide hooves as Embry flattened out. The paddock really was too small for so many horses and the mare was grateful for the chance to really stretch her legs.
The rhythmic rise and hooves pounding soft earth, the smell of summer in the sea-breeze made the woman smile. She glanced back over her shoulder at the man who hopefully followed close behind and felt the butterflies dancing in her stomach. She guided Embry away from the main road down to the docks and slowed her. Horse and rider picked a careful path between rocks and then sand dunes before the horse walked along the beach. Over the sea the suns were starting to set, but there were still a few breaks left of light. Embry snorted, shaking her head impatient and the woman let her go once more. Without warning the horse sped off over the sands, racing over the warmed surface with the Skyrider clinging gleefully on, her own hair whipped back and pulled free of its pins it tangled in the wind.
Finally, Elyna turned the horse in a wide circle and had her walk through the retreating tide. Water splashing warm legs as they trotted. Brown eyes were fixed on the Mortalborn and she led their party back down the beach to her original destination. A sheltered cove amongst rocks. It was here that she dismounted and tethered the horse to the side so that she could nibble some of the pale green grass. She’d already stacked wood for a fire and laid a pit out, but now Elyna pulled a blanket from one of the packs and spread it over the warm sand before sinking down. Embry turned back and sniffed her hair. Laughing, Elyna waved the horse away and drew her knees up, wrapping her arms loose around them.
She cleared her throat, cheeks flush and eyes bright with excitement of a mini adventure, “I thought…we could have dinner here,” she explained. The young woman pulled flint and tinder from her pockets and lent forward, striking them together to set a gentle fire.
The noblewoman wasn't waiting around for her reply, instead she caught her mare and hit the road as soon as the chestnut gelding was cornered and within reach. Malcolm threw his rope around the animal's neck and held it tethered firmly, pulling the gelding's head down with one hand as he lifted the bridle with the other, fixing it over the disgruntled horse's ears before he could escape or protest too much. Red was led out of the paddock and Malcolm closed the gate behind him before climbing up onto the animal's back.
Following after Elyna was easy. Red didn't like to lose which meant as soon as the woman's horse was on the move, Red was following close behind. The gelding would grunt and call out if the gap between them grew too great, and though rare, he was still prone to lashing out with an unexpected kick. Malcolm had decided to sell both of his horses and gotten a fair price for them, leaving Elyna with four horses to watch and care for while he was away. When the road opened out onto the beach, the horses were truly tested, free to race across the sand, veering closer to the water out of habit where the ground was a lot more compact and easier to move across.
Elyna led them to a clearing tucked away behind some rocks, with enough grass to keep the horses content for a while. Malcolm undid one of the reins and tied the end to the tether his wife had set up before circling the area she had picked to settle down in, on a blanket he then helped her unfold and put down neatly. The knight took his boots and socks off to feel the sand between his toes and sat down on the blanket while Elyna took care of lighting the fire she had already dug out a pit for.
"What would you have done if I hadn't followed you?" He smirked, looking about to try and guess what she had planned for dinner. "Do you need me to do anything?"
She giggled, pleased with herself as the fire caught and flames started to lick over the dry wood. Some of the drift wood was so old that it caught like paper, “well, if you hadn’t followed then you would have been hungry,” she shrugged and sank back, “I figured you’d follow your stomach, even if you didn’t want to follow me,” she teased. The Skyrider took the time to kick her own boots off and bury her feet in the sand before it cooled down. Content to watch the waves for a while she settled as they crashed and rolled along the shore. Whispering in their retreat before they returned. Slowly inching away over the sands as the tide withdrew.
It was then that she titled her head to the side and turned to watch Malcolm and the warm glow of firelight on his features. The sharp angles of his face and sea-green eyes that seemed to carry all the depth of the ocean. Before she could become too distracted the woman pulled large potatoes from her pack. She carved out a hollow in the sand beneath the flames with careful scrapes of her hand and slid the vegetables into the dip, hoping that they would cook without being consumed by the flame. Next she pulled out a pan and set it atop the constructed pyre to let it heat.
Preparations temporarily complete she edged closer to the man so that her hip bumped against his and she could feel the heat emanating from his body. In the fading light the stars had started to appear early in another cloudless sky.
“Mal?” She lent in and pressed a kiss to the lobe of his ear, “what’s Ne’Haer like? Does it have forests and paddocks like Rymere? You said it’s warmer there?”
"You need hot rocks," he pointed out as Elyna buried the potatoes. "You heat the rocks up in the fire, put them in the bottom of the pit, cover it with flax and then add the food. You have the fire going over the top of it all to heat the food from both sides." Elyna's method would probably work, the man convinced himself quietly, but it might take a while, not that either of them were in a hurry.
There was nothing like the roar of the rolling waves, and for all the noise, Malcolm found himself to be most at peace when he was near the seaside. The low cracking sound of the fire burning through dry wood had a calming effect, and Malcolm felt as if he could have sat there all night, taking in the sky and the moment. Elyna had gone to a good deal of effort and was rewarded with a smile. "I would have followed you anywhere," he grinned, turning to look at her after she pressed a kiss to the lobe of his ear.
"Take the heat of the south with the dense forests of Krome, and you might be able to imagine what Ne'haer is like. I think it snows further north, but they don't have as much bare land to farm as we do in Rynmere. I'll take you," he took her hand and squeezed gently, "when baby is old enough to travel."
It was strange to think that after what felt like a lifetime of raising two sons and watching them grow into men, that he was about to start all over again. Malcolm looked at Elyna and tried to decide what it was about the woman that made him so content to return to that, but it was difficult to pinpoint anything. In all honestly they were still strangers, but she made him happy, perhaps happier than he had been in a very long time. "Thank you," he kissed the back of her hand, "for this little escape."
Elyna grinned and nodded towards the fire, "there's a reason no one will eat my trail food," she reminded him, "perhaps you could take over the preparation? There is some steak for the pan. I can cook that well enough though..." The woman curled her fingers in his and lay back on the blanket to watch the stars slowly moving overhead in the final rays of dusk. She ran her thumb over the rough digits of his hand in silent exploration.
"I always wanted to go to Ne'Haer," she admitted and tried to imagine what he'd pictured. "When I was a little girl I dreamt that I'd be a skyrider. Me and my Jacadon would travel the world." Elyna lifted a hand and picked out stars in a rough map of the world, "Viden, Etzos, Ne'Haer..." She nodded to herself, "that was the plan."
But plans changed. The baby had not been her intention and she doubted it was how Malcolm had expected the next parcel of his life to be. It was her new dream though. Travel would be harder and she was no longer a free spirit left to roam the world at will. She would be forever tied to a sense of home and providing a hopeful stability. Her free hand she rested on the smooth skin of her stomach.
"What about a girl?" She looked up at him, "did you have any names?"
"I'll eat whatever you cook for me, as long as you try it too," Malcolm smiled, he knew Elyna hadn't been eating any red meat lately and was worried about that. Conning her into eating probably wasn't the best method of convincing her that she should, but he didn't want to baby his wife, she was an adult after all. He settled on his side and planted an open hand against her belly gently, leaning in to press a kiss to her nose and cheek. "We will travel, all of us," the knight promised. "You will see all the things you hoped to, and more."
The thought of their child being a girl had crossed the man's mind once or twice, but the likelihood seemed slim. "I don't have girls," Malcolm smirked. "Only troublesome little boys who talk out of turn and think everything is an adventure." He recalled the way Marcus and Vaughn had made tents from their bedsheets in the garden to camp outside in the summer, and been so adamant that they could survive on fish from the river and berries from the garden, it didn't matter that they were pre-teens with no experience in fishing or camping for that matter. Malcolm wondered how different it might be to raise a girl, but then, any girl with the two of them for parents was sure to be a little wayward, if not adventurous.
"Names," the man hummed, it was true that people drew from their own experiences first, and though Malcolm had known a few woman in his time, there weren't many names that had stuck with him all these years. He wondered if his answers might flag concern in Elyna's books, followed by a load of questioning as to how he had come by these names. "Um... Cora, Julia, Estelle?" Malcolm offered, they seemed like popular names amongst nobles.
The skyrider rolled her eyes at Malcolm's attempt at subtlety, it wasn't. She was intending to try the steak though because she knew he was worried and she shared his concern. In the brief moment of quiet she set the meat in the pan and listened to it sizzle in the heat. Not for long though. It was the smell more than anything that seemed to trigger her reaction to gag so the woman stood and peeled her breeches down her legs and dropped them onto the blanket. It was with a grin that she then sprinted across the dark sand to the sea. She shreiked as the cold water rushed bare legs but forged ahead into the water with a laugh.
"Anywhere!" She called back, "you said you'd follow me anywhere!" And here she couldn't smell the beef.
The woman had a point. Malcolm watched his lover race towards the tide and smiled, days like these would form the kinds of memories that would keep him sane in the seasons to follow. It was difficult to picture a time where she wouldn't be by his side and as the realisation that he was actually going to leave her behind dawned, Malcolm felt as if the air had been squeezed from his lungs. He took the pan away from the flames and set it aside before getting to his feet to head for the waves.
On the way down the beach Malcolm peeled the shirt off his back, stepped out of his boots, and ran to the water's edge, pausing momentarily to test how cold the water was. Deciding to brave it, the knight ran through the shallows and threw his arms around Elyna to swing her about playfully before drawing her near. He pressed a kiss to her neck and his arms tightened about her form as a wave crashed against their hips and caused him to shudder. "Are you crazy? It's freezing!" He protested and stayed near as if to steal warmth from her body.
The shock of cold water had caused the temperature of his skin to drop noticeably and after managing to step away from the woman and put some space between them, Malcolm waded backwards into the tide and held his arms out. His lips were turned up in a cheeky grin. "But will you follow me?" He teased before falling backwards into an oncoming wave that saw his whole body submerged.