Kit is starting to consider that she may have underestimated sleeping on the forest ground. As hard as it was, and how used she was to sinking into big satin and linen sheets, she wouldn’t be the last to admit that she’d grown accustomed to it.
Maybe because this had been the first night she’d slept through uninterrupted, without waking up sporadically, and tossing and turning restlessly.
Maybe because their quest had been successful. Her brother had been saved from the Crone, She found out that she was the inhabitor of the Kymerian Cuirass, and the protector of Elora Danan, and they’d defeated the crone, and all survived, just barely.
And that Jade told her she was in love with her. Desperately, was the word she used. And Kit found the courage to tell her she loved her too. That she’d been in love with her, and that she’d go anywhere Jade wanted to go.
Because she didn’t want to be without her.
So yes, Kit considers it a miracle that she’s finally been granted the ability to have full nights rest on dirt and rocks.
Which is why she doesn’t understand what’s interrupting her peaceful slumber. She hears yelling, breaking her out of her state of tranquility, and she forces her eyes to open. The first thing she registers is the missing body that she reaches for mindlessly. Her arm meets the ground, instead of resting on Jade, which is what alerted her, not so much so the frantic yelling that filled the forest.
She shoots up wearily, searching for the other girl, but instead she finds everyone else, settling on a confusing picture that was way too hard to understand this early in the morning. But with urgency, she reaches for her sword and scrambles to her feet to see what all the commotion was about.
What she finds… is not what she expects, all the well that she realizes she can’t really expect anything that happened, or happens, during this quest.
Elora’s on the ground, anxiously holding on to Graydon, who grips her from behind in efforts to steady the girl who was kicking and screaming. It almost looked as if she were having a nightmare. But her eyes were wide open, and as Kit looked further, she noticed something wrapped around the girl's leg. It was pink, and slimy, like a tentacle of some sorts, and extended from somewhere deep in the forest. The tentacle stretched as it tried to drag Elora away, and she kicked at it frantically. The tentacle was stubborn, and every kick only made it tighten its grip on her.
“Help! Get it off! Please help” Elora screamed horrifically. Kit watched the magic trickle in between her fingers, as if she were charging up, so she couldn’t quite do anything at the moment. She looked around and found that Airk and Boorman were frantically searching for their weapons, having carelessly misplaced them the night before, Willow also searching for his staff, and Jade, still nowhere to be found.
Kit shakes her head at the others sudden irresponsibility. Assuming they thought it was safe to let their guards down considering they’d defeated the crone.
But they weren’t done. The wyrm was still brewing down below, plotting against them, waiting to strike. And they were still in the immemorial city, despite the change in terrain.
They’d been walking for 5 days, alongside the waterfall that led upwards to the shattered sea. When the crone died, it was like all life had returned to the city, Tree’s grew, more water flowed into rivers and lakes, and more wildlife began to uncover themselves. It was like the crone had imprisoned the land, and once it was let go, it flourished.
Which was good in retrospect, but the group was still lost, searching for a way out.
Though hope was not lost yet..
Kit slashes at the tentacle, breaking the tether it had with Elora’s leg. It was thick and sort of hard, and Kit shuttered at the feeling. The severed tentacle retreated back into the forest, with a loud ominous hissing noise. The tip of the tentacle that was still attached to Elora’s leg slipped off, leaving a gross clear gooey residue on the now quiet, and mortified Elora.
The tip began to wiggle on the ground, beginning to resemble the tail of a lizard. The others surrounded it, with a similar look of disgust and confusion as they peered down at it.
“What… is that?” Airk drawls out, he pokes at it with his now found sword. They all look to Willow for an answer. Willow’s mouth hangs open as he searches for an answer, but after a minute his shoulders drop in defeat, for he had no clue either.
“What… did… it… want… with… me?” Elora asks in between breaths. Graydon stands, and pulls the girl to her feet, and everybody seems to visibly relax when they see the color return back to her. Willow shrugs, still not being able to find any explanation to what just happened.
“Okay, Well then what’s this?” Airk continues. He’d wandered away from the others, and came to a halt at where Kit had been sleeping. He points at a wide print on the ground, that tracks distantly into an opening in the forest.
Kit tilts her head quizzically.
Because that wasn’t there last night.
Kit’s eyes then settled on an object that was skewed haphazardly next to the trail, and she felt that sudden rush of alarm begin to persist.
It was Jade’s sword, and Jade never leaves her sword behind. And when she investigates the area for the 3rd time, Kit realizes that Jade still wasn’t anywhere to be found, and she then finally found the time to actually worry about her.
“Jade?” She asks aloud.
Before she moved to begin a search, a loud shriek stopped her dead in her tracks.
It was Jade, she’d recognized that voice anywhere. She began to panic as the forest went dead silent before she could pinpoint where Jade’s dreadful scream was coming from.
“Jade?” She heard herself call out anxiously. And in response, Jade screamed again, making her stomach twist in uncomfortable knots.
And then all Kit could process was the fact that Jade was in danger.
She was ready to charge into the deep forest to search for her, but luckily Jade had made it easier for her, as she uncovered herself from the trees.
She was running fast along the trail, but she wasn’t paying attention, her eyes fixed on something behind her, that was possibly chasing her.
Jade crashes into Airk, knocking the two down to their knees. She was panting, out of breath, and she looked soaked. She was covered in a clear slimy substance, similar to the kind on Elora’s leg.
“Jade…” Kit breathed out in relief, she rushed to her side and sunk down on her knees to level with her. Jade was also covered with dirt and pebbles that stuck to the thick slime. Kit wipes at the muck sitting on Jade’s cheek with her thumb, as she holds her face. Jade looks mortified. Her pupils blown wide, and her face flushed a bright pink with adrenaline.
And Kit just watched her worriedly..
Jade begins to shake her head violently as she tries to catch her breath.
“We have to… go” she pants, “right now”
“Why? What is it?” Graydon questions.
Before Jade can reply, the sound of hissing interrupts her train of thought. The same hissing from before, but this time coming from the direction Jade had emerged from.
She watches as Jade visibly fills with horror. She turns around expectantly, and Kit follows her gaze, landing on the pink tentacle that was extending ominously from the shadows.
“No!” Jade gasps as she scrambles for her sword, and brings herself to her feet. The tentacle makes a beeline for Airk. They all watch in terror, none of them being able to completely make sense of anything that was happening. Jade moved fast, grunting as she chopped through the tentacle before it could reach Airk.
The tentacle falls limp on the floor and slowly retreats with a loud ear shattering shriek.
“Okay, I’m officially spooked, what.on.earth.is.that.thing?” Boorman queries,
“I don’t know,” Jade panted. She threw the sword down to her side and dropped down to her knees again, tiredly. “But it just tried to swallow me whole about 5 minutes ago so”
“What?” they gasped as a collective. Kit found herself at Jade’s side again, engulfing the girl in her arms. Jade rubbed at her chest reassuringly, as if she was trying to convince herself her heart was still beating.
“What- what happened?”
Jade shook her head unknowingly. “I think it got me when I was sleeping. One minute I was here and- and then the next, I was being swallowed by this big, green… thing?” Jade searched for the word.
“It- it wouldn’t let me go, and the tongue- the tongue thing was bone crushing and suffocating, I couldn’t breathe. I just- kicked at its insides, and it- it basically horked me up like I was vomit, and spit me out. I got away as fast as I could” she finished.
Kit here’s a faint “ew” in the background, which she couldn’t help but to agree with. Her face curled with disgust as she began to piece together Jade’s story. Jade was covered in that clear goo that now Kit understood as a monster's saliva. It was thick, and smelled quite foul, an unimaginable smell that Kit never thought she’d ever have to endure. Reluctantly, she withdrew from Jade as she began to finally catch her breath, which Kit was thankful for, because the smell, oh the smell was beginning to get unbearable.
“We have to go, it might be-”
Jade is cut off by the sound of a loud crack distantly in the forest, as if a tree had been knocked down. Followed by a couple more, and the sounds had only gotten louder as it got closer. Jade’s eyes widen as she immediately grabs for her sword. Sparing an unsure glance at Kit before she readies herself. The others come up next to them with their weapons drawn out.
Of all things Kit could imagine of this human swallowing monster, she didn’t expect to see an oversize frog creep from out of the bent trees it had disturbed on its path here.
“What. In. The. Hell” She hears Boorman speak aloud what they all were thinking.
The monster was enormous, nothing she had seen that size in her lifetime. And while it physically it resembled a frog, with its wide mouth, and long tongue hanging out, as well as its beady amphibian eyes, his webbed feet, that had brown claws spawning from them, the -frog thing- didn’t have bumpy skin, it was scaly, like that of a serpent. And Kit is able to conclude that it might be a hybrid of some sort, which would make sense of the hissing noise that it kept making.
Before Kit can fully assess her analysis of the large snake-frog hybrid monster that tried to swallow her lover, Willow doesn’t give it a chance to take a second step, before he mindlessly blasts it with a powerful surge of magic. It hit the beast square in its wide mouth, and it swallowed the magic. It’s quiet for a beat, and then there’s a large burst that comes from inside of it. It croaks loudly in a confused terror, and Kit almost feels sorry for it.
Almost.
The monster lets out its last harrowing scream, before it ultimately flips on its back dramatically. It heaves in and out, until its last breath, and its saliva begins to ooze from the side of its mouth that hangs ajar.
“Ew” Kit hears again, but she’s not too sure she knows who.
She looks to her side, trying to catch Jade’s eyes to make sure she was okay, but Jade had already moved on, busying herself with packing up the camp. “I can’t believe that just happened” She hears her murmur.
When she returns her gaze to the now dead monster, she watches as Graydon and Elora inspect it, Airk curiously poking at its empty eyes with his sword.
“Willow… you don’t think that the… the Wyrm sent these- these things, after us?” Elora asked wearily, asking a question that, to Kit’s disappointment, she barely even considered.
Willow shrugged with a nonchalant manner that Kit had never seen him with. He seemed to relax more after the battle, was less high strung, and Kit struggled to get used to it.
“Maybe, it also could just be a native species to the city,” He offers, “I never knew this was here, this land is unknown to me, maybe all animals are abnormally large mix breeds who swallow their prey whole”
Willow's last statement sent a shiver down Kit’s spine.
“Right…” Boorman chimes, “question. What are the chances that the large frog-snakes bodily fluids that our dearest beloved Jade is doused in, is… venomous?”
The group stilled simultaneously, as they turned over Boorman’s question in their head. Jade lifted her arm, eyeing the substance skeptically, and Kit just barely caught the flash of fear that ran through her face briefly.
“Well… does it itch?” Willow asked her.
“Um… no?’ She replied slowly.
“Tingle? Burn? Sting? Does it feel like your skin is going to disintegrate into smoke and ash and melt your bones to a curated crisp?”
Jade's eyes widened as she looked frantically at Kit for a moment, then hesitantly shook her head no.
“Then it’s probably not venomous” he concludes.
Jade visibly sighs with relief, and Kit does the same.
“Well what if it’s like some were-animal? and in the dark hours of the night, when we’re all asleep and unsuspecting, Jade will give in to an excruciating transformation under the moonlight, giving up her natural human form, turning into that beast, and uncontrollably swallows all of us whole?” Boorman maunders frenziedly, and Kit finds it hard to follow, and hard to understand how he had configured that in his head. Jade glares daggers at him, and he only shrugs as if his scenario was justifiable.
“Well, Jade, if you feel an urge to croak… or hiss, don’t hesitate to inform us” Willow tells her. And Kit can’t tell if he’s joking or not.
“Let’s just go,” Jade groans.
////////////////////////
It had been hours since their eventful morning, and even though what they’d witnessed could be considered traumatizing, nobody really dwelled on it eminently.
No one died, so was it really that serious?
They fell into their natural groove of things, walking for hours until they could find anything that remotely resembled an exit.
But all the flourishing city had to offer was trees, and more trees.
Jade and Kit lingered behind the group. Jade had basically been expelled from them, considering she was still drenched in the hybrid monster's spit, and the smell was just too unbearable for the group to endure. They had asked her kindly if she could take a few steps away from them, just until the smell wore away, and she complied, with a few grumbles and curses.
Kit didn’t let her alone though, she walked slowly with her, with a notable distance between them. She learns If she didn’t think about the smell too hard, then she wouldn’t gag.
Kit studies Jade though. It was obvious she was still more than slightly irritated about what had happened this morning. Embarrassed even, as her face seemed to be permanently tinted a light red since they had discovered her this morning.
And Kit feels bad of course. Jade was tired, they all were. They all put up a hell of fight, from start to finish, and Kit is forever going to be thankful that she had everyone by her side to save her brother. She wouldn’t want to go on a suicide mission with anyone other than this dysfunctional family that Kit had found, even though she won’t admit it. She has to thank them, she doesn’t know when but she promises, before they all go their separate ways, she’ll make sure they’re aware of her gratitude.
Especially Jade.
Kit also feels bad that she thinks Jade is adorable like this. She spares glances, making notes of Jade’s furrowed brows, the vein that swelled prominently at her temples, and the way her lips were pursed into a small frown that she wanted to kiss clean off her face.
“Don’t look at me that way” Jade commands, without looking at Kit.
Her face contorted into a confused expression, as she tilted her head trying to figure out how she’d known. But it’s not like she was trying to hide it or anything. Kit offers a “huh?” in response.
“You heard me,” she muttered.
“Sorry” Kit says apologetically, without a hint of remorse in her tone.
Jade just huffs aggravatedly, and Kit can’t help but to smile.
Kit doesn’t stop staring at her though, and she catches a faint blush crowding Jade’s face, as she rolls her eyes and tries to dismiss Kit eyes that linger on her for a bit too long, with a bit too much love.
Kit wants to betray her sense, and grab the red head, she wants to hold her hand and tell her how absolutely beautiful she is when she’s mad, and that even though she covered in the most revolting thing known to man, she wouldn’t stop looking at her with all the love that she had to offer in the world.
But before she could do that, she comes to a halt as she watches that pink shade turn to a pale green. Jade also pauses abruptly, and reaches for the nearby tree, to support her as she leaned behind it.
At the sound of Jade’s retching behind a tree, Kit quickly moves to offer her a hand to steady her, as she places it on the small of her back, and uses her other hand to hold her hair back.
The group also stops, watching with concern as Jade gags and hurls up whatever it is she ate, which Kit is also concerned about because she can’t seem to recall ever having breakfast this morning.
Jade finishes with a heavy cough, as she spits out what is left of her vomit, and wipes at her mouth. She stands up straight, her lips curled back into that disgusted frown as she still has the taste of her own vomit in her mouth.
“And so it begins…” Boorman whispers not so quietly as he takes a few steps backwards.
“I’m fine, Boorman” She groaned irritably, ”It’s just the feeling… and the smell of this stuff, absolutely putrid.” She dismissed the others' concern. She places a reassuring hand over Kit’s, letting her know she was okay now.
“Uh huh… sure” Boorman replied, obviously not convinced. But they continued on.
Kit decided to linger even closer to Jade this time, putting up with the rancid smell, just in case the girl was going to be sick again.
Jade didn’t seem to mind.
////////////////////////
Willow calls it a day a few hours later. The sun hadn’t set just yet, they still had about four hours till night falls, but conversation between the group had dwindled, everyone had slowed down, and it was tiring them out more having to stifle each and every one of their yawns.
They had found an open clearing in the forest, tall pine trees hiding them from the sun. The boys had scoped out the area, trying to make sure they were clear of any man eating hybrid species. The girls stayed and set up camp, starting a fire and helping Elora prepare to make dinner. They’d found an unsuspecting rodent family, and Elora made haste of skinning them to make an edible stew out of. Kit had to busy herself with sharpening her sword to keep from gagging at the poor little opossum family Elora had desecrated, with such ease at that.
“We come bearing good news!” She’d heard Boorman chime, making the boys return known to the girls. “There are no scary were-hybrid-animals prowling around, we are safe!” he informs them.
“Even better news” he clasps his hands together as he looks directly towards Jade. “There’s a river, just about a five minute walk from here. Straight shot. Jade, I figured you'd be the most excited to hear about that!” Boorman continues, not so subtly trying to hide his true intentions.
Jade grumbles something unintelligible under her breath. “I’ll be back” is the only thing she says before she disappears down the path Boorman had pointed out.
Elora shoots Boorman a knowing look. A “Could you be anymore obvious” look, and Boorman throws his hands up in defense
.
After a while, the group fully settles into their temporary nook in the forest. Elora continues to cook, Willow naps against a tree nearby like the old man he is, and Graydon and Airk sit around the fire listening to whatever false story Boorman had made up. And Kit sat against a tree, drawing a stone against her fathers sword, as her gaze kept returning back to the path Jade had taken a while ago.
To bathe, in the river.
The river, that was a five minutes walk from the campsite.
Where Jade was, almost bare, or completely.
Jade might be completely naked, and only five minutes away from Kit.
And Kit was doing nothing about it.
She could barely focus right now.
Because an image her filthy mind had configured kept replaying in her head.
Of Jade, alone in the river. Gliding gracefully through the water, her clothes discarded by the rivers edge.
Her hair drenched, slick back behind her ears.
She’s running her hands up and down her soft, supple, tan, freckled skin.
And she was convinced her mind and her body were working against her, because as she thought of Jade… like that, the pit of her stomach grew warm and tingly, and she felt fuzzy.
She felt something pulsing, where or what? She did not know, and she did not want to know.
But she wasn’t trying hard to suppress the thoughts, or the feelings either.
And Kit considers she may be no better than a man.
Jade had been gone for a while actually, and Kit was very close to being worried because she didn’t expect a wash off to take that long.
But then she realized that Jade hadn’t brought a change of clothes with her to the river, she’d just left.
Kit convinced herself that this wasn’t an excuse to see an exposed Jade in the river.
Never that.
She just didn’t want Jade to wear the same dirty clothes she had been wearing all day, that harbored that rancid smell.
She didn’t want Jade to be sick again.
It was the least Kit could do really.
Kit scrambles to her feet, and heads for their pile of discarded belongings. She digs through Jade’s crossbody, finding a balled up brown tunic that she’d recognize as the one Scorpia had offered her when they’d first met in the Wildwoods. She can’t find a pair of trousers for Jade, and so she settles for her own, thinking they’re relatively the same size, if anything they’d just accentuate the length of her legs and curve at her hips, much to Kit’s delight. (She really is no better than a man).
She doesn’t notice Elora leave her post, wandering over towards her and quietly watching as Kit searches through their things.
“What’re you doing?” Elora questions dubiously, startling the unaware Kit.
Kit goes red, as if she were caught in the act. She doesn’t know why she feels like she’s been exposed, she wasn’t doing anything wrong per say.
“N-nothing” she sputters, and clears her throat “Jade just forgot a change of clothes, so I figured I’d just bring her some” she explains.
Elora raises a suspicious eyebrow, and Kit feels her face deepen in color. “Mhmm,” Elora hums unconvinced.
“What? I’m not- I’m not doing anything wrong? Am I?” Kit defends. She brings her hands behind her back as she notices Elora catching sight of the loose breast band in her hand.
“No, of course not Kit, it’s actually quite nice of you” Elora disregards as she meanders around her. Kit sighs a bit too loudly in relief, hoping Elora wouldn’t find that suspicious.
“Here,” Elora holds out her hand, revealing an object wrapped in a brown cloth. Kit is hesitant before she accepts Elora’s offering. She looks up at Elora to find she’s sporting a smile that means she’s up to some mischief maybe, but Kit unwraps the object anyway, revealing a green tinted bar of what Kit could only assume was soap. Kit looks up at her questionably.
Elora rolls her eyes. “It's a soap Kit, a bar of soap!” she scoffs as if it was the most obvious thing to her.
“Why do you have soap?”
“I made it! I made a batch before I left Tir Asleen, because I refuse to marinate in my own filth for more than two days” she explains. “It’s honey lemon and green tea scented” she beamed.
“Let Jade use it”
Kit wants to spark an argument with the sneaky sorceress for holding out on them, because the others had nothing but river water to rinse away their must and odors that were beginning to loiter and bore into their clothes as if it were their natural scent.
Kit had been wondering why Elora seemed to always be able to maintain a smell of rosebud and tea tree, but she never considered that the girl had been smuggling homemade soap secretly.
But Kit can’t think about that right now. All Kit can think about is Jade rubbing a soap bar all over her body.
Better yet, Kit rubbing a soap bar all over Jade’s body.
With her own hands…
On Jade.
And suddenly Kit decides she really can’t be mad at Elora right now, she didn’t want to waste anymore time.
“Uh… thank you, Elora” she says hastily as she gathers the clothes she’d found for Jade, she hears a faint “No problem” in the background as she scurries away from Elora. She sneaks behind the boys, though they were barely paying attention, and she began to eagerly travel down the path to Jade.
As she got closer, she could hear the water running, as well as faint splashing… and humming. Jade’s humming of course, which makes Kit smile, because every noise Jade makes Kit finds beautiful.
Kit’s nervous though. Like second guessing, “Maybe I should turn around” nervous. The reason is unknown to her. She isn’t new to the prospect of a naked Jade, she’d seen her in a breast band and her thin, cotton, undergarments an unmentionable amount of times, for what? She does not know.
She’s also used to that warm bubbly feeling in her stomach that makes her all fuzzy inside.
She’d been trying to suppress it since she met Jade, but not hard enough.
So what was it that made her so nervous about seeing Jade in a form she’d always seen her in, but never got used to?
As she dwelled on the answer, she didn’t notice that she’d finally met the end of the path, and the beginning of an opening that revealed a long flowing river, and large stones all along the riverbed.
It was actually quite soothing for Kit.
Her eyes wandered to a few articles of clothing scattered haphazardly amongst the riverbed, and Kit swallowed animatedly as her eyes fixed on the sight of the used breast band and linen garment laid openly and obviously in front of the Kit, which confirmed that Jade was indeed, bare and naked.
Kit’s disappointed that her knees go weak under her.
Kit feels like she shouldn’t be here. She begins to consider that she may have overstepped, and if she doesn’t leave now she might actually go feral.
But she can’t move, at all, as her eyes are drawn to the red headed girl that emerges from the water in front of her.
And it was just how Kit had imagined it before, a soaking wet Jade with drenched red hair slicked back on her head, her usual tight curls hung low behind her ears, and water beads rolled down her soft and supple skin.
She was enchanting.
Kit was convinced Jade was an enchantress.
How else would Kit explain the way that she simply couldn’t move, or look away from her?
“Kit? Are you alright?” the enchantress dares to ask. She drags her hands across her face to clear the water from her eyes.
Kit swallows again.
”Um… yes?” she replies, her words coming out in more of a question than an actual answer. Jade just laughs sweetly, and Kit is using up all her might to keep her knees from caving in.
“I come bearing gifts” Kit continues, waving the clothes in the air.
“How kind of you” she smiles. She drifts away on her back slowly, until she reaches the bank of the river, rolling her head back against a low wet stone.
The way the tension of today seemed to melt away from her made Kit smile. She seemed more serene, as that frown from earlier was gone, and she relaxed her temples and brows.
Jade seemed vulnerable, which was rare, so very rare that all Kit wanted to do was watch the girl before her, so she wouldn’t ever forget the picture.
She doesn’t realize how long she’d been watching until Jade finally speaks up, snapping her out of her trance.
“Are you going to keep standing there pervertedly, Princess? Or are you going to join me?” Jade asks.
Kit snorts at that, “Pervert-“
Oh.
Kit registered Jade’s invitation to join her, and her heart skips a beat.
Bathing with Jade was enough to send Kit spiraling. Kit could die from heart combustion, and she’d still be happy.
Jade was going to be the death of her, and Kit wouldn’t mind, because that would be quite a way to go.
She was hesitant, yet desperate, as she placed the clothes down beside her, and began to strip. She couldn’t fight the blush as she felt Jade watch her through half lidded eyes.
And all of a sudden Kit has to manually breathe to keep from passing out.
She strips slowly and carefully under Jade’s gaze, and she hopes Jade doesn’t notice the tremble in her hands.
She’s so weak for her.
Jade submerges herself under the water as Kit continues, allowing her privacy to undress, and she decides to quicken her movements before Jade comes back up.
She isn’t ashamed, at least she shouldn’t be.
She doesn’t feel like she has to be self conscious of her body.
And being vulnerable to Jade, as much as she resented it, it still came easy to her.
So why was she so nervous to show a part of her to Jade, that she had already seen?
The breeze was brisk against her skin, as well as the water, as she dipped her toe in once she’d finished undressing.
She doesn’t think about how cold the water is when she slips in, or how much she misses hot baths back at Tir asleen.
Simply because she can’t though.
As her brain was otherwise occupied.
The river was fairly deep, Kit could reach the floor but the water rested at the bottom of her chin, and she didn’t want to go further than that.
She felt movement by her feet as she stepped carefully in the silt and mud of the river.
It was Jade again. Moving effortlessly through the water, as she emerged right in front of her with a lazy smile.
Kit could tell she was happy that she’d joined her, and she returned her smile.
“It’s cold” she murmurs, and Jade nods in agreement.
“Would you like me to warm you up?” She asked smoothly. Her words were honey spilling into her ears, and Kit wanted to believe that there was a hint of seduction in her voice.
“U-uh” Kit sputters. She can’t speak, or think, as she watches Jade slowly move in closer. Jade stares at her intently, with a mischievous glint in her eyes that Kit just barely registers, because Jade also looks down at her lips. She draws her tongue across her own pink lips, slowly, and Kit watches keenly.
She wondered if Jade was aware of the power she had over Kit.
The power that Kit had willingly given Jade, without even knowing.
Kit’s eye’s begin to fall below the other girl's lips, as she gazes at Jade’s long -delectable- neck, and her broad shoulders, that were littered with freckles and marks, some of which she’d recently obtained. She settled on the surface of the water, that sat just where her shoulders ended, and her beautiful chest began, much to Kit’s dismay.
The water was transparent, but the persistent flow of the river distorted any image of the happenings below the surface.
Kit could see the outline of Jade’s body, and she saw the differentiating hues of her skin, and she could definitely see the small space in between them, so much so that she could feel how close in proximity they were.
Kit didn’t understand how she was able to feel the heat radiating off of Jade’s body in the almost bone-chilling water.
When Kit forces herself to look back up, she finds Jade’s face much closer than earlier, the tips of their noses just barely touched.
Kit’s eyes flutter shut automatically, expecting to feel Jade’s lips against hers within this instant.
But what Kit gets instead, is a sudden splash of cold water to her face.
Her eyes startle open, and she watches as Jade makes a haste escape away from her, swimming upstream in a fit of laughs.
“Oh, you’re on Claymore!” Kit swears, as she quickly makes a dive to catch up with the devious girl trying to swim away from her.
Jade was a good swimmer. She was fast, and diligent, just as she runs too. Jade had always been faster than Kit in so many ways. But Kit could definitely admit to being a little bit slow when it came to swimming.
Jade was the one who taught her to swim actually, when they were only twelve years old. On a rather sultry summer afternoon, where the sun was blistering, and the morale was low to do anything slightly productive, like training, Kit and Jade had snuck away to a hidden watering hole that sat at the bottom of the hillside. Sorsha found little importance in teaching her daughter how to swim, as the princess was never to go beyond the kingdom’s perimeters, let alone the barrier, and to Sorsha’s knowledge there wasn’t anywhere to swim at anyway.
They spent hours and hours down at the watering hole. Kit struggled a lot, and tried to hide the fact that she was near drowning multiple times. She’d panic every time her feet couldn’t touch the bottom, and her arms would flail frantically when she felt like she was sinking, but Jade would always reach out immediately, steadying her feverish movement, and reminding her that she wasn’t going to drown. That she wouldn’t let her drown.
Kit remembers being mesmerized by the way Jade had moved so carelessly and freely through the water, much like now, as she catches up to the girl.
But Jade is swimming slower this time, taking her sweet time with each kick and stride. If Jade was actually trying, she’d be miles and miles upstream by now, out of sight. But she’d stayed within arms reach of Kit, and with one large lunge towards her, Kit wrapped her arms around Jade’s bare torso and drawed her back against her.
She doesn’t fight to break free from Kit’s embrace.
Jade wanted Kit to chase her, and she wanted Kit to catch her as well.
Kit directs her to the bank of the river, and presses her gently against a stone. As if they had a mind of their own, her hands drop slowly from Jade’s shoulders, and fall to her waist to keep her from escaping again. She stares in Jade’s eye to spot any sign of discomfort that signified she was overstepping, but all she could find was this playful, relaxed look that made her feel all tingly inside.
All of sudden she wasn’t cold anymore.
Because seeing Jade like this, content, blithe, all grin and glow in Kit’s arms is enough to fill Kit with that instant gratification that she never knew she needed.
If Kit’s sole purpose in this world was to make Jade happy, she’d do so dedicatedly.
She leans into Jade, her lips brushing the lobe of her ear softly.
“I got you”.
“So it seems, your highness” Jade laughs lowly, the sound vibrating throughout Kit’s chest.
Jade’s heavy breathing was like music to Kit’s ears. Music of a siren Kit would think, because the sound of her breath had made Kit lose all the self control she had, if she had any. She pressed her lips lightly against the spot below her ear. It was quick, only supposed to be a chaste moment between the two, but the hitch in Jade’s breath was enough to make her lose sight of her original intention, and immediately attack the girl's neck with more kisses.
It’s not long before her tongue and teeth meet Jade’s skin. She sucks at her soft spots at the bottom of her neck, chasing after the whimpers Jade had let out that made something lurch in the swells of Kit’s stomach. Jade was salty with river water, yet savory, and Kit couldn’t get enough.
Kit would be embarrassed by how desperate she felt, if she weren’t otherwise occupied.
Kit catches sight of the dip in Jade’s collarbones, and she wonders how they would feel under her lips.
What sound would Jade make if she were to kiss at them lightly?
Eager to find out, her head descends down Jade’s neck.
“Kit, Wait!” Jade stops her with a hand she softly placed on her chest, the sound of urgency in her voice making Kit stagger away.
“What- What’s wrong? Did I take it too far? Jade, I’m sorry I-”
“No, no Kit you’re fine” Jade interrupts her frantic rambling. “You’re perfect actually” she grins. She grips at Kit’s biceps to keep her from backing away. “It’s just… I still smell” she tells her, ducking her head abashedly.
Kit feels immediate relief when Jade calls her perfect. She was scared she’d overstepped and violated Jade.
She wouldn’t forgive herself if she made Jade feel uncomfortable.
Kit didn’t necessarily notice the smell of frog saliva until Jade had mentioned it. It was faint now, the river doing a decent job at attacking the aroma, but Kit could not deny it was still there.
“Oh, well fear not!” Kit chimes as she remembers the relic Elora had given her earlier. Kit lets go of Jade, and swims back to the stone she’d dropped the clothes at.
Jade followed behind her curiously.
“My lady” she mocks as she offers the green bar to her. Jade lights up when she realizes what it is, she brings the bar to her nose and inhales sharply, visibly melting as if she hadn’t smelled anything as great as the soap bar.
“Where’d you get this?”.
“Elora, she was kind enough to let you use it”.
“Well, Thank the gods for Elora” she expresses thankfully. Kit agrees.
Jade wasted no time, as she began to lather herself with the bar, creating suds that stuck to her skin, and also floated down the river. She drags her hands amongst her chest slowly, and Kit watches every movement.
It was like Jade’s hands were casting spells on Kit.
And then Kit locks eyes with Jade, who in turn had also been watching her.
And Kit’s brain short circuits.
Kit considered herself confident, and brash or arrogant to others.
The point was their was not a lot that left Kit speechless, nervous, or of weak will.
That is until she is under the unreadable gaze of Jade’s bewitching eyes.
Jade might actually be a witch. A temptress, intending to enslave Kit, and bend her at her evil will.
Kit would comply happily though.
She clears her throat, louder than she should have, and forces herself to look away, which took an embarrassing amount of strength from her, if she should say so herself.
She swims backwards, her back meeting the surface of the cold stone, and she rolls her head amongst it. She swallows harshly, and lets her eyelids drift close as she tries to relax her racing mind.
For some reason she still couldn’t grasp the fact that she was swimming in a river Jade was bathing in.
Jade was bathing in front of her. Naked.
And she was also naked. And Jade was also watching her.
Except in this scenario, Jade had a lot more confidence than Kit.
Which might have been what was scaring her. Because Jade always seemed passive, always going along with what Kit wanted, always letting Kit take the lead.
But at the sight of Jade's bareness, Kit relinquishes her title, and surrenders to Jade.
And Jade immediately takes advantage of the opportunity, as she swims up to Kit.
She feels her presence almost immediately, and looks down at her, as Jade’s eyes were the only thing visible at the moment, because her mouth and everything below had been submerged under the water.
“Could you do my back?” She asked after she’d slowly emerged from the water.
She hands Kit the soap before she can reply.
Kit sputters and trips over whatever words her brain had to offer, as Jade turned around. She settled in between Kit’s legs, placing her hands on either side of Kit, and Kit’s heart all but stops at the feeling of her fingers gripping her inner thigh.
Her hands are already moving before her brain catches up, and she pushes Jade’s hair to the side to expose her neck to her. Her eyes fall on Jade’s mark of Kael engraved in her neck, and her fingers move to trace it lightly, making Jade flinch a bit.
Her fingers fall down her spine, and she feels Jade shiver under her light touch.
Kit finds herself occupied with connecting the freckles that decided to loiter around her back instead of joining the rest on her face.
Her hands dipped below the water, falling to the thumb sized dimples that resided in Jade’s lower back, and Kit didn’t hesitate to dig her thumbs in, and wrap the rest of her fingers around Jade’s waist, pulling her further in between her legs.
With the soap in hand, Kit drags her hands up the sides of Jade’s body, and lets them rest on her shoulders.
She begins to work at her neck, rubbing in the suds slowly, and smoothly. Then she moves down to her shoulders, working her hands deep, and moving in circular motions.
Jade responded with quiet moans that she had worked out of her throat, and Kit was reveling in it.
Kit moved on to the girl's arm, as she ran her hands down the lengths of each limb back and forth. Eventually interlocking their fingers together as she brought Jade’s arms up above her head.
And then her hands fell again, traveling back down her sides like before.
Jade’s arms fall too, but they land on top of Kit’s head, resting in her wet hair, and she rolls her head back onto Kit’s shoulder, the side of her neck now pressed into Kit’s nose.
She rakes her fingertips across her back, and sharply inhales Jade’s new scent.
It was fresh, and citrusy, and suited Jade very well if Kit could say so herself.
But she couldn’t, because if she opened her mouth she wouldn’t be able to prevent herself from absolutely ravaging Jade heinously.
She’s not aware of the path her hands had deviously taken without her jurisdiction, as they round Jade’s curves, and cross over her stomach.
Jade’s own hands fall into place over Kit’s, and she then takes the lead, beginning to draw Kit’s hands sensually, all over her front.
Kit’s eyes flicker upward to catch Jade’s own, but her expression was unreadable.
She was enjoying it, of course, but her eyelids hung low, and her bottom lip was caught between her teeth in a way that Kit wanted to tug it out with her own lips.
She wasn’t aware of what Jade was thinking, but she desperately wanted to know.
Jade worked Kit’s hands upward, and Kit was aware of how dangerously close she was to Jade’s breast.
That’s when Jade had finally locked eyes with her. They were full of lust, and certainty, with what she wanted but also uncertainty, as she was unsure of what Kit had wanted.
And Kit knew that at this moment, all she wanted was Jade.
To get her message across, she pressed her lips against her neck, her eyes not breaking contact. Jade watches intently at the way Kit delicately kisses up and down. She sucks lightly at her soft spots, finding herself addicted to the honey residue the soap had left on her skin.
That seemed to clear up Jade’s uncertainty, as she moved to bring Kit’s hands over her breast. They fit perfectly in Kit’s palms, and Kit realizes her hands have served no greater purpose than this.
She spurs her chest forward with a hitched breath as she chases after the feeling of Kit’s fingers grazing her nipples soft and with intention.
She pulls and tugs at her breast, massaging whimpers and moans out of the red head, as she lets her lips and tongue progress down her neck and shoulders.
‘Princess, I…” Jade gasps, and Kit offers a preoccupied “hmm” in response.
Jade doesn’t finish her sentence, for all she can deliver is labored breaths, as she turns around briskly to face Kit, who’s hands dropped down to her waist again. She kept a steady gaze at Kit's lip as she trapped Kit's thigh in between her legs, and Kit could most definitely feel a certain heat.
And oh, that did things to her.
Things that Kit had never thought of, or knew could happen.
Because she never knew she had that kind of effect on a person.
That kind of effect on Jade.
Jade had always had an unspeakable power that made Kit want to submit to her in every way.
Bend and bow at her will, because Kit wouldn’t be able to trust her legs if Jade looked at her like how she did now.
With lust, and desperation.
Like Kit was the only thing in the world that she had wanted.
The warmth that resides in her stomach expanded throughout her body, and harbored in between her legs, where Jade’s own thigh was locked just half an inch away from where Kit wanted it to be. And to Sedate that warmth, she pressed her lips against Jade’s, and she responded instantly.
Hungrily.
She felt Jade palm her breast, and her cold touch made Kit’s leg jerk upward into Jade, dislodging a heavenly sound from the girl in front of her.
Jade pauses, and Kit is sure Jade’s face would flush red with embarrassment, but Kit doesn’t give her time as she attacks her throat viciously, and brings her knee up to push it against her center, willing more of Jade’s sweet noises.
One hand holds the small of Jade’s back, keeping her steady upon her thigh as she slowly grinds down on it, and her other hand holds Jade's neck, angling her head to the side that allows Kit access to her bare neck.
Her mouth hovered by Kit’s ear, so every small breath, every whimper, every moan, every plea Kit heard directly.
Jade was begging. Begging for more. Begging for Kit.
Kit also wanted more of Jade, as she pulled the girl closer, Jade’s leg applying pressure to Kit’s center, which drawed low unfettered moans out of Kit.
And immediately, Jade understands, as she repeats the same action over and over again, watching attentively at how flustered and unruly Kit was becoming.
Kit had experienced this similar feeling before.
Accept she was by herself, and Jade was merely a figure of her imagination.
And in the late hours of the night, she felt overwhelmed with a warm pulsing feeling throughout her that she could only satisfy if she closed her eyes, squeezed her legs tight to apply pleasure to her center, and thought about Jade.
Jade’s eyes. Jade’s skin. Jade’s voice.
Jade’s hands touching her softly, sensually.
That Then Kit would not even be able to process the idea of what was happening now, and how different it felt.
The feeling was sweet, and hot. It felt of physical desperation and frustration, as it was like she was begging for a release that would feel better than the stimulation against her.
Now would be the perfect time for an enemy to attack if Kit should say so herself.
She’s completely unaware of her environment as she’s engulfed with only pure bliss.
All she can see is Jade, all she can hear is Jade, all she can smell, taste, and feel is Jade.
She'd completely clouded her senses, and Kit thinks she should be scared, but she can’t find it in her to feel anything but pleasure.
Kit feels that hot sensation build up and spread throughout her as she gets closer and closer to her release. She figures that Jade is as well as the girl only grinds down faster and grows louder
“Kit, I…” she breathes, digging her nail into Kit’s shoulder blades as she writhes up and down, matching Kit’s ragged breaths.
“Jade please…” and her name tastes viscid and syrupy on her tongue.
She wraps her arms further around the girl's torso as she tries to maintain some of the control she’s about to lose.
Jade gets louder, and she goes faster, and her vision gets foggier, and her grip gets tighter, and their body’s tremble against each other.
And then a dam breaks.
And Kit doesn’t know what feels better, the build up or the release.
The contraction of their muscles at the climax, the last major clench of their holds on each other and the last hearty moan that brewed in their chest.
Followed by ragged breaths, and their bodies relaxing within each other.
And Kit feels like a mound of gratified Jelly. She feels limp as she tries to support Jade, who’s must’ve lost all feeling in her body as well as she was so close to slipping below the surface under the water.
She tries her best to hold the girl up, her arms wrapped firmly around her waist, and her thigh still lodged in between her legs. She tries to steady herself as they were both still sensitive from any stimulation.
They relaxed lazily against each other, trying to catch their breath, but it was increasingly difficult to focus on breathing when her brain couldn’t quite shake the sound of Jade, and the way her face looked. The scene of Jade grinding on and grasping at Kit kept replaying in her head, evidently stopping her breathing every time.
And they sat there for a while, bound to each other as if separating them would tear two halves from a whole.
Kit was almost convinced Jade had fallen asleep, by the way her chest rose and fell slowly, and how low her eyelids hung.
She’d almost taken pride in the fact that she’d warn her out.
But then she feels gentle kisses on her chest, the spot Jade’s head had been resting at. It was like she was drawing a feather up from her chest, to her neck, and then finally to her lips.
The last kiss managed to draw out all the air kit had just now managed to get circulating through her body.
She felt feverish. Addicted. Weak.
And when Jade pulled away she couldn’t help but to chase after her.
“Mmm” she hums, “it probably within our best interest that we get out”
Kit whines, and Jade just rolls her eyes at her.
“You’re all pruny your highness” she points out with a laugh, she holds up Kit’s shriveled fingers as evidence, and Kit decides to ignore them.
“Besides, we’ve been gone far too long. The suns setting and Elora is probably finished with dinner by now”
But Kit doesn’t want to go. She can tell.
Kit doesn’t reply, she just jutts her bottom lip out in a pout. Jade kisses it off her face, then brings Kit’s pruny cold fingers to her lips.
Then she brings her fingers to her neck, pressing them against a bruise Kit had left for her, and stares intently into her eyes.
There’s nothing to be said. They were both painfully aware of what they’d just done, of how they’d just revealed a very large part of themselves to each other, in such a fervid way that left them both exposed to each other, physically and mentally.
And Kit really does expect to be scared, or worried that maybe they’d just ruined the only thing they had with each other, and that they may never be able to go back to the ‘best friends’ that they used to be.
But like many things on this quest, Kit doesn’t expect anything to go back to the way things were before they’d left.
Everything’s changed. Everyone’s older, wiser even.
And Kit had accessed a part of Jade in a way that she knows she wouldn’t have been able to do in the past. She’s seen her, all of her in more ways than one.
Moons ago Kit could only imagine what being beyond the barrier, with Jade, would entail her.
Some mornings she wakes up and gets that sudden rush of life that she’d never felt in Tir Asleen.
As if Tir Asleen was holding her back from the things she needed to know and feel in order to recognize herself.
She didn’t want to let go of Jade, she didn’t want to leave.
She didn’t want their adventure to end, and she did not want to return to Tir Asleen.
As blasphemous as it sounded.
This is where she wanted to be.
And maybe Jade using Kit’s fingers to outline the prominent bruises on her collarbones was her way of wordlessly saying that she understood. And that no matter what happens, or what changes, they’ll still have this moment.
All of their moments.
And each other, of course.
And even though nothing is said, Kit still nods, grateful for her reassurance.
////////////////////////
Kit doesn’t stop whining though.
She whines at the loss of contact between her and Jade, when Jade finally decides that they’re finished in the river, and hauls herself out of the water.
She whines at the biting cold that surrounded her when she reluctantly crawled out of the river, eager to reconnect with Jade. Jade hurls curses at her as she shakes her wet hair out and splashes Jade in the process.
She ends up chasing after her, and this time Jade makes sure she isn’t caught, and Kit whines because all she wants is a kiss.
Maybe more.
She still whines even when Jade surrenders, and one hand is intertwined in another, and they’re all dry and clothed and walking back towards the others.
They walk very slow, and every so often Jade whispers something in Kit’s ears to make her stomach twist and her face flame.
When they reunite with the rest of the group, they separate.
And Kit whines, internally.
Kit just concludes she won’t be able to bear Jade not being within arms reach of her from here on out.
Everyone is suspiciously quiet, Graydon and Airk absolutely refuse to look at them, unlike Boorman, who actually won’t stop staring and jerking his eyebrows suggestively everytime he catches her staring at Jade. And she fights to keep herself from whacking him across the head.
Kit whines again when her eyes fall on the pot that slowly broiled the skinned and chopped family of rodents from earlier, and Kit almost thinks she’s lost her appetite.
But she gains it back at the heavenly smell of the stew, so she tries not to think about it as much when she eats it.
And then later, when everyone’s full and cozy, and the fire is dwindling, Kit reaches out needily towards the redhead, who sits up only a few feet away. It is dark now, and the sky is brimmed with stars that Kit knows Jade is busying herself with counting to help her fall asleep, but she still beckons for her, and Jade still complies.
And even though there is barely any light, she can still see her tired eyes and smile, and her freckles that litter her face.
Kit rests her hands on Jade’s cheek, and caresses her thumb against her, willing a low and soft hum out of the sleepy girl, who folds herself into Kit’s arms, resting her hand on Kit’s waist as she slowly succumbs to her exhaustion.
“You don’t have to worry your highness” She barely hears Jade whisper “I’ll be here in the morning, I promise” is the last thing she says until she’s completely out.
But Kit doesn’t let go of her. She’d held her tight in her arms, that way Kit would feel the slightest of movements from her.
And she presses a small kiss to the tip of her nose.
Kit watches her for a while, even though she doesn’t know how long for, or when she had finally fallen asleep. All she knew was the last thing she’d seen was Jade, and the last thing she touched was Jade, and the last thing she’d smelt was Jade and their shared scent of Elora’s honeyed soap.
And the last thing she thinks is maybe, if she held on tight enough, nothing in the world would take Jade away from her.
Nothing could tear them apart if all Kit needed to do was hold her.
Maybe nothing would come to an end, if she tried hard enough.