Private Tales Graceless and Divine

[Vittoria Larrainth]

Vittoria tore her gaze from their path, the edge of the woodland in sight, but there was a shift to Kilien's overall demeanour. How he truly entranced her with curiosities, and this... was waters uncharted by her but the boy before her as she turned to face him seemed like any experienced captain of the sea.

"You do not have my magic, but you may feel a difference." Her own hand reached behind to move his to press against the linen of her shirt. Applying pressure, she would show Kilien he could feel something that was not regular able the muscle there. "You can feel the pocket of magic at least. Now, have another guess."

 

[Kilien Basmarc]

Now that she'd directed him to the exact spot he did think he felt something. Sensing magic in others or objects wasn't exactly a skill of his, but so far as he understood magic theory - any mage worth their salt had at the bare minimum some ability to sense the presence of magic where it happened naturally. It was more prominent where it happened unnaturally, but in this case the nature of the magic itself gave it some semblance of secrecy.

A bit like feeling a spiderweb on ones skin but not being able to brush it away.

His innate curiosity wanted to pursue this phenomenon of hers, but there were all sorts of proprietary things that stood in the way. Namely, it would be rude to yank up her shirt and get handsy with her magic pockets.

Maybe someday. A boy could dream.

For now, he'd settle for pawing gestures of potentially misplaced affection. His hand stayed at the place on her back, thumb now slowly drawing ovals over what felt like the hem of the magic. She wanted another guess and far be it from he to keep her waiting too long for one.

Another thoughtful rumble sounded, brows furrowing as he looked at her again, "Hmmmm..." his eyes glanced passed the gleam of her dark hair to a speckling of color among the trees, "...orange."

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

There were feelings roiling within her, but only to dissipate the moment he guessed orange.

Her brows furrowed deeply into a frown. Her bottom lip jutted out into a pout. "I beg your pardon?"

 

[Kilien Basmarc]

"Yeah," his eyes focused in on what he thought he was seeing, expression brightening with no small amount of excitement, "fruit."

His other hand lifted to point, "We were going to grab some for the ride home, remember?"

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

Vittoria turned, seeing that the orchard was just within reach if they kept walking.

Over her shoulder, she struck him with an icy glance, allowing him to prolong their guessing game this time.

"Fruit." She repeated, continuing their walk. "Of course."

Vittoria did not know how to begin to deciphering why she felt a sense of disappointment. Had he held up a treat, dangling before her, up until he made it disappear. She never liked a game unfinished...

She made it to the edge, striding into the open silvery luminance that came from the moons. "Do not lag behind, Kilien!" Vittoria called out, not bothering to look back to see where he was.

 

[Kilien Basmarc]

Ouch. Girl, those glares stung.

Kilien bit into a wary smile that let the glint of his teeth show, and watched her as she walked away. Well, stalked away was more like. Wryness stole the wary from his lips, recognizing the gait for what it was. A woman irked by the loss of her fun.

Clearly she just didn't know that having all of one's fun in one sitting made for a boring and predictable game. Kilien only liked to be predictable some of the time.

"Do not lag behind, Kilien!"

Oop. Brows arched, he shoved his hands in his jacket pockets and trotted lazily to catch up. But instead of slowing to a stop as he neared, he plodded right on by her. Hands free once more, Kilien looped up the path ahead of them and upon finding an open space of fencing that lined the route between torches, deftly planted a hand on the top rail and foisted himself over with a laugh.

It was a leisurely sort of thing - not quick and calculated like a cat, but dogged and sure-footed like a hound who was confidently on the trail of its target. No need to rush, after all, the target wasn't exactly moving.

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

She was about to protest as he ran past her, but she watched as he vaulted over the fence and landed with not as much grace as she would expect an weapon made. Yet, Kilien had always spoken about the difference in character that he was to the rest of him, and perhaps he was a rock waiting to shine as the diamond he was beneath the layers.

Vittoria quickened her steps, completing her own vault with precision, perfection, and feline grace and ease as she rewarded Kilien with a smug curling of her lips.

"So, oranges first? How about peaches?"

 

[Kilien Basmarc]

He was already under a tree, head craned back to take in the scent of fresh fruit on the branch. It all filled his nose, poignant and stark as any citrus should be, but many of the ripest ones were higher up. Seemed the lower branches of most trees had been picked clean in anticipation of the festival.

Shrugging out of his jacket he dropped the garment off to the side and lifted his hands to quickly run them through his hair. He waffled a bit at the base of the tree, eyeing the branches above, then stooped and launched himself upwards into the middling are of the trunk.

"Peaches?" the Initiate echoed from above, leaves shivering under the weight of him, "Yes."

He hadn't had a fresh peach in years.

"How many oranges you want, Miss Larrainth?"

An orange arched through the air and landed with a bounce near her feet. Two moony eyes gleamed in the branches above, keen over a grin.

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

Vittoria stooped to pick up the orange, lifting it to her nose and inhaling.

Citruses always brought a calmness to her, and she smiled, softly, almost a ghost of one as she neared the base of the tree in which Kilien peered down at her with that grin that pulled infectious. She laughed, soft and... she did not know this new feeling. For Vittoria stared up at him as if struck by his very visage. Towering above her, free amongst the boughts and branched, the leaves and fruits, the way he looked down at her made Vittoria's laugh fade as the smile stayed.

"Five. I shall have them for breakfast the next few days."

She dropped the first orange into the bag, glad she had wrapped the books in cloth to keep them from damage or citrus oils.

Then, her hands were free, and she began to circled about the base. "How did you climb up there? I see no... true footing to..." But then she saw an opportunity. She jumped, pulling herself on the strongest branch that she could reach, but once she got herself straddling it, peering up, she was nowhere near anything that could be within reach to climb some more. She pouted, not at all happy that this was a challenge she had not anticipated. "How?"

 

[Kilien Basmarc]

He could quite contently pick fruit for her all night if it meant he got to hear that little laugh and see that little smile of hers the whole time. Felt like he was witnessing the emergence of a unicorn from a dark forest - and Kilien Basmarc had seen and been summarily gored through the middle by an actual unicorn before. He had the scars to show for it.

But this? Felt even more rare. Seriously, who on Arethil got to say they saw a vicious, dark unicorn attempt to climb a tree? No one, that's who.

He chuckled at her effort, reaching to grab two more oranges on a branch just near his head before shifting across to another branch and leaning back. Kilien then swung down to hang from his branch by his knees, dangling just overhead of Vittoria where she sat pouting and fixed her with his lopsided grin.

Gods she was cute when she pouted.

He offered her another orange, and then two more from his other hand, brown locks swaying above her and tunic falling down (up) to expose his midsection.

"I dunno," he gave her a hanging shrug, "I've always been able to climb trees. Must be a Rovani thing. I just see the route and up I go."

It helped that he had superhuman strength and agility that he could put to use when he wanted. Made climbing a lot easier when one could leap halfway up the tree from a standstill.

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

Her eyes peered up at him, watched as he languidly made his way down to her, offering new oranges for her to take. Carefully, she adjusted so that one knee was braced against the branch, giving herself balance to reach up those extra inches to take the oranges from him. Her fingers brushed with his, but her eyes now looked to her pack and securing the three oranges now in her bag.

Vittoria looked up, admiring how odd but different in a new light he looked suspended like that.

She was aware she was now staring, but she did not care to bother averting her gaze. Lowering so that her hands kept some balance, eyes not breaking from his, she smiled again. "Will you..."

But her eyes did stray. His shirt had fall almost into his face, but her eyes looked at the toned physique he had worked on. She had never cared what others looked like, but to see there was some definition on him meant he was not a true slacker.

 

[Kilien Basmarc]

Man, what a setup.

Will you...

Marry you? Well it was a bit soon but who the hell was he to refuse such an offer? Kilien felt the grin of the punchline letting into his expression and stopped it, noting the way she stared and the smile on her face. Had he caught her eye or was she simply taking the measure of him so she knew where best to plant the next dagger?

He found he wouldn't be disappointed by either option.

"Pick you one more?" he finished for her, waxing thoughtful as he curled himself back up with a grunt, "You did want five oranges, right?"

A little shuffling of his rear along the branch, a bit more shivering of leaves as he plied one last orange free and then swung himself back down above her one last time. Hanging upsidedown yet again, he offered the last orange, the veritable golden retriever with the ball.

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

Him moving about broke her from her reverie, now staring at the last orange being handed to her. Vittoria safely stowed it, before looking up at him once again. "Peaches next."

At least the drop was not a concern, and Vittoria landed on her feet without trouble. She turned to look up at Kilien, giving him another once over as his shirt fell from his frame again.

She turned, forcing herself to venture to where the peach trees gently bristled in the light breeze. This time, she pulled the bag over her head and set it on the grass. She was good at climbing buildings and such, but a tree did not follow the same building and make of a structure. Vittoria realised she had no instincts to climb a tree, her foot struggling to reach a foothold and she was barely a foot off the ground.

 

[Kilien Basmarc]

She was such a curious creature.

Kilien watched from his monkey-hang as she dropped to the ground with nary a rustled leaf, finding some humor in her ability to fall better than she could climb. With a muted hup he reached up to grab his branch and then unhooked his legs, letting them swing over top until he, too, dropped to he ground with a heavy thud. Stealth was not his forte.

Leaning to pick up his jacket and hook it over his shoulder with his pointer finger, Kilien strolled after her as she waded through the orchard to find a peach tree. Boots came to a pause as he watched her attempts to climb the first one and gave the tree a look-over. While she struggled to find purchase, he moved off, slowly circling the tree until he came to a stop on the opposite side.

"This side is better," he said, noting the lower branches and a healed-over knob closer to the ground. With a wave to her he deposited his jacket in the grass and moved to take a knee by the trunk, "c'mere, I'll give you a boost up."

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

Vittoria lowered herself back to the ground and followed Kilien. Her eyes assessed the tree, not seeing what he could, but then he offered to help her up. She took it, gratefully. One hand held his shoulder, giving her a hold as her placed one boot on his thigh. With Kilien's help, Vittoria was able to reach the first branch to held haul herself upwards, but her feet could not find appropriate footholds to continue her climb.

"You made it sound so easy." She did not complain, nor protest, but Vittoria sounded determined and eager to defeat this challenge.

With a great display of her own strength, Vittoria pulled herself up to half perch on the branch, looking out where to climb next in order to reach the nicer peaches up top, yet the moons light now hid behind a stray cloud. Darkness gave her no guide, and the girl was not about to let that stop her.

She stood up, holding tightly to the trunk as she reached around and felt blindly for a secure spot to lift herself upwards on. Her hand slipped, giving her a fright and a gasp of surprise.

 

[Kilien Basmarc]

"I've climbed a few trees..." Kilien offered with a lopsided smile, taking the brunt of her curiously negligible weight on his thigh as she hoisted herself up. Of course plenty could be said about Vittoria making things look easy, not that he was an envious type. He'd seen her magic abilities in classes and on the sparring grounds - her wealth of power was not anything to sneeze at.

Lingering down below her and not simply for the view, he kept an eye on her footing and was ready to catch a falling Larrainth should the worst happen. When her hand slipped and she gasped he felt his body go rigid, reacting instinctively with a very strong desire to climb up after her. He resisted.

It wasn't a big tree and he didn't think the limbs would hold them both.

"Woah-" he called up after her, "falling for me so fast, eh?" He grinned, canine glinting, "Look up, there's a branch directly above you in your reach."

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

Vittoria let out a laugh. "I have not fallen yet."

But his direction gave her a renewed sense of determination, fixing her balance and reaching out. Vittoria enjoyed puzzling things together, especially when the challenge is not made easy with either her magical talents being used. Kilien's help then opened her eyes to a climbable path, and slowly but surely, Vittoria wedged herself between boughs to reach for one nice peach.

"Please don't catch this with your mouth. I would hate to hurt your face, Kilien." She smiled down at him, letting the fruit hang in her hand before releasing it once he told her he was prepared to catch their harvest.