It wasn't long before the two adopted a comfortable routine. They'd spend the majority of their waking hours gathering food, they'd then prepare it, tend the fire, eat, and rest.
Raven took it upon himself to teach her about food foraging and preparation, how to maintain a camp and keep it hidden, how to move across the wood without being detected.
Occasionally, Caeli would find it pertinent to inquire about the safety of her leaving with her friends.
Raven insisted that she must wait a bit longer, always avoiding specifics, but never threatening or angry.
After having witnessed Raven's capabilities and strength, she rationalized that he surely knew what he was talking about. There was also no denial that she was more than happy to avoid interacting with whatever Raven found dangerous. The idea of something being even remotely worrisome to him gave her a chill down her spine.
After a particularly grueling day of practice, in which Raven had taught her the basics of fighting, such as foot work, balance, and arm positioning, she had collapsed happily into the large bed. She was so exhausted, it was easy to forget her embarrassment as she had struggled with the lesson. Besides a harmless deep-throated chuckle from her instructor when she had lost her balance and fallen on her derriere, he had been kind and nonjudgmental as he walked her through what to do and why.
He mercifully either did not notice, or did not note, the shaking in her limbs as she worked them. She was accustomed to work, yes, but nothing like this. She used muscles she never knew she possessed.
Moments later and she was lost to consciousness.
Caeli woke later to find Raven sleeping beside her on the floor next to the bed. It was the first night she had seen him sleep soundly. On most nights he slept outside of the tent by the fire and more often than not, he rolled restlessly. She had only ever seen him sleep a handful of times, one moment she would be awake and see him sleeping and the next time she awoke, seemingly only an hour or two later, he was busying himself or just gone, nowhere to be seen.
She used the term "sleeping" very loosely as he never laid down in these moments. He often propped his head on one giant clawed palm and closed his eyes. His torso up and off of the ground.
She had invited him in, to rest on the fine carpet of the floor, wondering if it would be more comfortable for him and allow him better rest.
Hesitantly he did as she bid.
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Raven found every reason to spend time with Caeli.
Admittedly it was because he enjoyed her company but his motives were two-fold. He meant to have her well trained before they parted company, as he was sure they would.
No matter how things ended between them he understood Caeli's goals. She had mentioned on more than once occasion that what had brought her here in the first place had been her attempt to travel, to find some where to settle. A place where she could "belong", and if not that, a place to be alone.
She hadn't gone into detail about what had prompted her leaving her home, and he didn't want to push, but he could guess easily enough.
Caeli was not like any human he had met before. And that was without acknowledging the incredible power that lay dormant and hidden deep inside her.
He was sure her leaving had to do something with how different she was. He could see it in her eyes, a shadow that he recognized in his own eyes for eons.
She was lonely.
He hoped that she would not hate him for what he's done. He couldn't stand the thought of hurting her, not especially after the pain he was sure she had endured already.
Time passed and he found that each moment they spent together he cherished more, and more.
But the night she invited him to stay in the tent was one he'd never forget.
Raven had just bid her a goodnight when she had poked her head out of the tent and cleared her throat to get his attention.
He turned to find her eyes wide and her cheeks flushed.
"You could sleep on the carpet in here if you would like. If it would make sleep come easier for you.", she had said sheepishly before looking away.
"I just mean to say that I've noticed that you seem restless at night.", she said haltingly before her brows drew close together. "Not to say I've been watching you, just that I can hear you when I wake, still busying yourself.", her brows pulled together more tightly.
To see her so disgruntled brought forth a warm laugh from deep inside him. That had been another thing to cherish, he could hardly remember when he had laughed so often. Or really even the last time he had laughed.
"I suppose what I'm trying to say is that if you find it difficult to sleep out here, you're more than welcome to the space in here on the floor. It is quite a nice carpet you've brought, it seems a shame for you to be out here on the bare ground.", she finished nervously.
Raven turned to watch the flames for a moment, considering.
"I would like that, so long as it doesn't cause you any discomfort.", he said, turning back to catch her eye.
Caeli smiled tentatively and shook her head.
That first night he slept in the tent, the next night he assumed it had to be a fluke. Something that had happened in a waking dream.
But once Caeli realized he had not come back in at night to rest she had insisted that he make himself comfortable.
Eventually he slept there every night. On one particular night, he woke for a moment in response to a sensation of movement and pressure on his chest. His eyes wrenched wide to evaluate what it had been, what could sneak up on his senses.
He saw that Caeli, in her sleep had rested her hand across his chest. Since he was so large, his chest was almost as high as the edge of the feather down mattress. Despite this he noticed that she was hanging over the side. He slowly sat up, afraid to wake her. He slid out from underneath her hand and gently placed it off of him in order to keep it from swinging.
He sat up and gently grabbed her beneath her armpits like a child and moved her to the center of the bed to keep her from falling off.
As he pulled his hand away, Caeli's shot out and grasped it. She moaned softly and pulled on his arm towards herself.
Before Raven could intervene, she had placed his large claw, palm up, under her chin and fallen back asleep. His claws barely missing her soft skin.
His heart raced, his body coiled, he felt a growing tension in his stomach that was likely to drive him mad.
He stared at her for a long while, allowing her to sleep on his hand. Eventually he laid his head on the pillow next to Caeli's and continued to watch her sleep. Her fragility was frightening at times, to see her small body upon the large mattress, to see that her head barely covered a quarter of the feathered pillow while his head almost engulfed it.
To see her sleeping soundly, safe, to be surrounded by the creatures of the night and their summer song, to hear her soft breathing, it brought a sense of peace and comfort he had never experienced before. For the first time his mind did not wander to the horrors of his past.
The lives he had ended, the places he had gone, the atrocities he had committed in his attempt to keep his people safe. The origins of his birth and the implications that came with it.
Sleep met him like a lover. Arms wide and warm, enveloping him wholly.
For the first time in a long time, he slept soundly. No nightmares to chase him into consciousness. Caeli's scent wrapped around him as he drifted into oblivion.
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Caeli woke the next day to Raven sleeping in an upright sitting position on the floor of the tent, his head resting on the pillow beside her, his breathing slow and deep.
She had the opportunity to examine him without restraint and he took her breath away.
His skull a beautiful ivory, smooth as river stone, his skin as dark as night. This close and she could actually see the lids of his eyes, no longer was he a phantom creature, energy in an organized form. No, now he was solid, real, terrestrial.
She could see the column of his throat, the pulse under his skin. It was strange to see him this way after meeting him in such an ethereal form.
She wanted badly to reach out and stroke her fingers across the smooth surfaces of his body, to see if it felt different than when she had ridden on his back through the sky. When his skin had felt like living shadow, writhing tendrils with a mind of their own bunched together in a slap-dash form meant to mimic a large animal.
She leaned forward, wondering if the sharp teeth that curved from his maxilla were as sharp as they seemed. Even so, she couldn't imagine Raven ever using them in such a way. He was kind, he was caring.
Her face flushed and her body broke into a nervous sweat as he shifted slightly in his sleep, the movement brining his snout only inches from her lips.
She sat back quickly but softly, hoping not to wake him. She knew she would die of mortification if he woke to find her staring at him so strangely.
And how close she had been to feeling those ivory surfaces against her lips.
She blew out a relieved sigh when Raven continued to sleep peacefully.
It took her a moment to realize that with him still sleeping, she had no real reason to get out of bed yet. She laid back carefully so as not to disturb him and pulled the silk sheet up to her chin.
She stretched her legs, making her legs ache in a way that some how felt good.
Closing her eyes, she went back to sleep with a smile on her face.
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She had no inkling of how long it had been, this happy routine of eating and sleeping together, laughing and learning in unison, surely a few days, if not weeks, before she started to feel the need to confront Raven about their current situation.
Raven was kind and courteous. He taught her how to cook some of the things they found in nature, how to remove poisons from some items to make them edible, how to track animals for food.
He'd taught her how to make cord that could be used as netting, and therefor used as snares for hunting or for adversaries.
They practiced fishing in the pond without tools to aid in their capture.
He attempted to teach her how to clean a hunted catch, when Caeli began to wretch. When she waved him away and shook her head in refusal wildly, he decided they'd focus on foraging from there on out.
And of course hand-to-hand combat. Perhaps her favorite of the lessons despite how painful it always seemed to be.
For all of the physical training he insisted upon, he did not neglect the mind. They always committed a portion of the day to learning control of emotions, to seeing and feeling them, and learning what to do with that knowledge.
All of Caeli's life she had been a fairly calm person, often taking strange or hurtful things in stride. Recently, with her visit with Ventus, and now being in eternal night for an indefinite amount of time with a strange and powerful Folk creature, she realized she had a lot to process and sort through. Raven taught her how to calm her mind when it began to race and how to feel emotions but also to be able to observe those emotions with a cool and calculated perspective, helping her to evaluate things more efficiently and quickly. She knew that these skills could save her life in the future.
Raven had said, "Fear is like poison to the mind. It saturates a single thought and suddenly its in and on everything and you quickly feel like you're drowning it it. Fear can be a logic-killer, do not let it consume you. It can be a helpful tool in small amounts, anymore than that and it will take control quicker than you will realize."
For all her adoration for Raven, something still bothered her about the whole scenario. He would say things on occasion that didn't make any sense and then he'd be quiet for long stretches of time.
More than once he had felt the need to apologize, for what, Caeli did not know. When she questioned him or asked him to elaborate he would insist that she would know soon enough.
She hesitated to push too hard. Having just regained his conscious form and having changed as much as he had in such a small period of time, it all had to be disorienting. She was sure he had his own things to sort through.
She would give it a few more cycles of rest (this was the way she began thinking of time as it continued to be night and she had no way to tell how many hours or days had passed) before pushing harder. She would give him a little more time.
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Caeli had fallen asleep next to the fire one occasion and woken in the feather down bed.
Raven must have moved her here.
She got up from bed and noticed that she was filthy.
She couldn't be sure how long it had been since her first arrival here, or her dream about Ventus, but she knew that she had been trapsing through the woods, never getting wet above the knees, since arriving.
Her clothes were stained from crawling in the grass to examine specimens Raven called out, torn from being caught in a bush when attempting to pluck the ripest of the berries.
Her hair full of leaves and dirt from accidentally tripping over her own set snare.
Her hands and elbows scrapped and scabbed from her failed attempts at some of the strange balancing exercises Raven would make her do.
She desperately needed to bathe and wash her clothes.
Caeli peeked her head out of the tents opening and looked around.
The fire looked like it had recently been tended and burned cheerfully.
She did not see Raven anywhere nearby.
*It looks like he just bolstered the fire. He likely left to gather more wood and some food. That gives me plenty of time.*, she thought to herself.
Caeli walked to the waters edge and crouched down to test the temperature with her hand. The water was cool but not cold, it would be comfortable enough to take a quick bath and give her clothes a good scrubbing.
She quickly removed her clothes and then carried them into the water with her. She felt a shiver run up her spine as the cold collided with the warm, sensitive skin of her lower stomach and back.
Crossing her arms over her chest, holding the clothes tightly against herself, she jumped and dove, head first into the water. She kicked downwards before allowing herself to float head first back to the surface. She kicked her feet to come into contact with the more shallow portion of the pond and walked until the water came just to her waist. She laid her wet clothes on a cluster of cat tail grass and pulled her blouse from the wet wad.
She scrubbed each article of clothing in the water and wrung out as much water as possible before tossing them onto the bank.
After all of her clothes had been scrubbed she dove once more into the black watery depths of the pond, holding herself under water for a few moments before coming up.
She burst to the surface and took a deep breath. The water was comfortable now that she had been in it for a time and she felt instantly refreshed.
She kicked her feet and laid back to float and stare at the sky.
The moon was still full, as it had been since the night that Raven had brought her here. The stars were familiar but different than the ones she recalled when she had been traveling with Aurum and Brego.
It made her wonder where Raven had brought her. Or more accurately, when.
She had discerned in the earlier days of her arrival that this place seemed either much older or much younger than the valley she had arrived to with her companions on that fateful day.
The trees were larger, older. She could see no sign of the small cottage that once stood only a handful of yards away from the ponds edge.
She closed her eyes and allowed the water to block the noise of the night and muffle it to a dull ambience.
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Raven had sensed that the small girl had left the enclosure he had made for her.
*She's awake.*, he thought to himself. He took a few rapid steps forward before he stopped himself.
He couldn't help but feel like every moment she was awake was a moment to spend with her before he would have to let her go. Every second he could snatch was precious.
*But perhaps she doesn't want you near. Perhaps she needs a little space.*, a rational voice echoed in his head. His base nature writhed against the thought. He WANTED her, and because of this want, his lineage argued that he NEEDED her.
For dragons were selfish and greedy creatures.
For all of the tales written about dragons since the beginning of time, many things that were implied or assumed about dragons was woefully incorrect. But one thing that was true, and always had been, is that dragons have a deep and primal instinct to possess things they desire.
It was as natural and inevitable as the tides on the shores of the ocean or the rising of the moon as the sun began to fall. And just as impossible to stop.
There had never been an explanation, an understanding of why this was, although Raven had his own theories.
He had always known that he struggled the least with this attribute, perhaps because he was the first created, the first to be born into existence, the product of his creator's darkness she had nurtured for so long, born from her loneliness and pain. It was difficult to desire things when your very existence had been nothing more than a way for your mother to rid herself of things she could not begin to understand. He was sure that, as the first, she had not even realized what her actions would result in.
He was unwanted, it was the entire reason he existed. So that she could be free. He was an experiment created by the Goddess for her own selfish reasons, a goddess who likely did not understand the consequences of her actions. A goddess who used and trifled with him for her own satisfaction, and when he drew the line in the sand, turned from him as easily as one breathes without even realizing it.
What right did he have to desire anything? Particularly, and more importantly, where would he get the idea that a creature such as Caeli would ever want anything to do with a discarded piece of goddess, not even worth enough to be accepted and loved?
His creator had told him she loved him, loved him best actually, yet her love was cruel. She had been unkind and manipulative and in the end Raven had turned away from her, hid from her, and disappeared from her view so as to never allow her the satisfaction of her misdeeds ever again.
If a goddess had loved him thusly, than surely it was the best he deserved.
But he could not help the burning desire to have Caeli, however he could. To be near her, to seize her presence, to possess her glance, to own her laughter.
It made him feel shame.
And even more so because he knew how free spirited this human woman was.
And even more than that because he knew that he had already proven his unworthiness the day he had stolen her away from her companions and trapped her in this eternal night.
He was truly unworthy, he was melancholy brought to life by a goddess who could not bare the weight of her own loneliness.
He was the Beloved One, and because of this, he was also the Cursed One, and Caeli deserved more than that.
More than a damned soul, ill-fated to bring loneliness and darkness to those around them.