Jawn kept a steady pace ahead of Narim as they travelled to the next village. Neither of them had eaten since before Jawn found him bleeding to death in the ice and the strain of hunger showed on their faces. Neither of them had spoken since they began their trek to Abdarian. For Narim, it was embarassment that kept him silent. Something about this strange person, this ... androgenous beauty, pulled at him in ways he couldn't quite understand. He tried hard to forget the embrace they shared only two days ago, the way those red amber eyes held onto his with such intensity that he felt his very soul pierced. He tried valiantly to reach into this person's thoughts during these times but most times all he could catch was dark and silence. Other times he could hear faint whispers in different dialects all speaking at once. On rare occasion he could feel a strange chill that was not his own race through him, warming his cheeks. It was almost like affection, but distant and mellow. He was pretty sure this was some feeling from someone at least 5 lengths away, perhaps a farmer tending to his crops or a shepherd working the sheep. Jawn remained a silent, unreachable enigma, one that confounded everything Narim knew about people. Without feeling Jawn's emotions, or hearing their thoughts, how could he possibly learn enough about him... her... to understand?
Jawn strode ahead of Narim. The androgen was troubled, not necessarily feeling troubled, but a series of logical thought processes considering the possibility that even the great Jawn was born a flawed, feeling Androgen tumbled through its mind. As the hours turned to days, it began working harder and harder to suppress certain sensations within itself. Each time it looked into those crystal green eyes set amongst a meadow of fading freckles, it's body trembled, the urge to point the corners of it's mouth up a little higher than the lower lip welled up inside. It had channeled this feeling before from others on numerous occasions, knowing this as a feeling of affection, but never had this come about entirely on it's own.
Jawn knew the best course of action. Narim would be left behind in Abdarian so it would no longer be afflicted with all these unbearable urges to feel something on it's own.
It had enabled this boy to live by spreading through the collective the announcement of Narim's death. No lie here, the boy really had died, if only for a brief moment before Jawn summoned an incredible amount of energy from himself to keep him alive. No one would be hunting this boy now, and at the rate he was growing, with a haircut and new clothes he would be unrecognizable in just a few short months.
Jawn also knew that if the boy carried a decent sum of money around with him we would be less likely to run into trouble in the future. Despite the adverse affects the boy had on it, it did consider his welfare on his journey. Jawn knew the real reason why it was in their best interests to part soon.
Silence. The snow was beginning to melt again around them. The snow turned to slush, that froze into uneven sheets of ice during the night. As the sun went down, Jawn began to search out some kind of shelter from the cold for the night. The night before they attempted to sleep on the ground, but found the ground hardened and icy, freezing their cloaks beneath them.
Their luck was much improved as they came upon an abandoned hayloft built into the side of a steep hill. Jawn stopped just long enough to nod briefly. The hayloft was set at the lee of the hill, blocking any breeze that would come through the rotting boards onto them. Silently they entered the structure, piling hay in opposite corners into pallets.
Narim desperately wanted to ask Jawn so many questions, if for no other reason just to hear the Androgen say something. perhaps, Narim considered, Jawn did not care for his company, or even worse grew to despise him just as so many others had for the things he'd done. An odd panic welled up in his chest as he considered this. He could not explain exactly why he felt it so important to be liked by this person, it just... was.
He closed his eyes as he settled to sleep, taking count of every living creature larger than a fieldmouse that he could reach with his mind. At 3 lengths, he could feel 2 adults and an infant already asleep for the night. Outside a cur dog barked incessantly at the tulraks rummaging through a grain silo. There were many more of the quickfingered marsupials there than he could count, many with young snuggled away in the pouches of their mothers. A host of hawks, crows, harbirds, lojaws, merlack-oos and other birds roosted in the sparse trees, some packed together so tightly to share warmth that he couldn't feel where one stopped and the other began.
At 17 lengths, he felt hosts of people, many asleep, others still working hard in their shops, and even a few drunkenly roaring at eachother in a tavern as a large woman bundled in Nal-fur sang a tawdry ballad of sex with older men. Finally getting a bearing on how far they were from the village.
"We're about 20 lengths from Abdarian." Narim said, startled by the sound of his own voice after spending so long silent. Apparently it had startled Jawn as well. The dark corner became a source of brief fright, a sensation that came and went like a star streaking across the sky.
"Have you been this way before?" Jawn asked, it's voice had a lyrical quality to it in the dark.
"I can feel people as closer but only a few, there are many people together in an area as close as 15 and as far away as 21." Another jolt shot through him.
"You felt people as far away as 21 lengths?" Jawn could not make sense of it. Aside from other Tariks, it was impossible to reach out farther than a few lengths even for an Orere Magus like Axial or Zchi. It knew that if it attempted to scry Narim for signs of embellishment, it would be leaving itself open for the same but it had to try. Something inside it MADE it want the truth about this boy. For a brief instant Jawn shot into the boy's mind verifying that he could indeed feel that far... even a bit further than that. It was just long enough for Narim to feel Jawn's mind opened.
Narim, without even realizing it, slid through the break in Jawn's mental barrier and gathered a snapshot of the Androgen's thoughts. Jawn was considering the possibility that it ( the Androgen referred to other androgens as "it" instead of a gender pronoun) was flawed because of the self generated emotional responses it was struggling with. Narim also gathered a glimpse of Jawn's intentions, which in turn evoked a strong fury from the boy.
"You were going to LEAVE ME!" Narim said through clenched teeth as he rose to his feet. Already it had grown so dark he could barely make out the outline of his own hands stretched in front of him. A stab of sadness shot through their chests simultaneously, gone as soon as it came, belonging to both and neither of them at the same time.
"I am having difficulty maintaining... myself... in your presence." Jawn rose as well in the darkness. Narim flew to the sound of Jawn's voice, hands outstretched in an attempt to act out the fury that motivated his movements. His fist made contact with a pair of long fingered hands that held him back with amazing strength. Narim suddenly felt the hands encircle his shoulders and pull him into an embrace.
"Why did you even bother to bring me back from Auraach where I could have slept peacefully if you were just going to leave me at the nearest town?" Narim asked in a sigh mixed with affection and frustration. Jawn matched his sigh, knowing there was no logical reason to lie.
"Once upon a time I saw through the mind of a tarik a very young man running through a haze of smoke with fear in his eyes, and passion in his heart and I ... felt something for the very first time."
"What did you feel?" Narim asked innocently as he felt the Androgen's heart thudding against his own in the embrace. In the next instant lips crashed down upon his own.
Jawn strode ahead of Narim. The androgen was troubled, not necessarily feeling troubled, but a series of logical thought processes considering the possibility that even the great Jawn was born a flawed, feeling Androgen tumbled through its mind. As the hours turned to days, it began working harder and harder to suppress certain sensations within itself. Each time it looked into those crystal green eyes set amongst a meadow of fading freckles, it's body trembled, the urge to point the corners of it's mouth up a little higher than the lower lip welled up inside. It had channeled this feeling before from others on numerous occasions, knowing this as a feeling of affection, but never had this come about entirely on it's own.
Jawn knew the best course of action. Narim would be left behind in Abdarian so it would no longer be afflicted with all these unbearable urges to feel something on it's own.
It had enabled this boy to live by spreading through the collective the announcement of Narim's death. No lie here, the boy really had died, if only for a brief moment before Jawn summoned an incredible amount of energy from himself to keep him alive. No one would be hunting this boy now, and at the rate he was growing, with a haircut and new clothes he would be unrecognizable in just a few short months.
Jawn also knew that if the boy carried a decent sum of money around with him we would be less likely to run into trouble in the future. Despite the adverse affects the boy had on it, it did consider his welfare on his journey. Jawn knew the real reason why it was in their best interests to part soon.
Silence. The snow was beginning to melt again around them. The snow turned to slush, that froze into uneven sheets of ice during the night. As the sun went down, Jawn began to search out some kind of shelter from the cold for the night. The night before they attempted to sleep on the ground, but found the ground hardened and icy, freezing their cloaks beneath them.
Their luck was much improved as they came upon an abandoned hayloft built into the side of a steep hill. Jawn stopped just long enough to nod briefly. The hayloft was set at the lee of the hill, blocking any breeze that would come through the rotting boards onto them. Silently they entered the structure, piling hay in opposite corners into pallets.
Narim desperately wanted to ask Jawn so many questions, if for no other reason just to hear the Androgen say something. perhaps, Narim considered, Jawn did not care for his company, or even worse grew to despise him just as so many others had for the things he'd done. An odd panic welled up in his chest as he considered this. He could not explain exactly why he felt it so important to be liked by this person, it just... was.
He closed his eyes as he settled to sleep, taking count of every living creature larger than a fieldmouse that he could reach with his mind. At 3 lengths, he could feel 2 adults and an infant already asleep for the night. Outside a cur dog barked incessantly at the tulraks rummaging through a grain silo. There were many more of the quickfingered marsupials there than he could count, many with young snuggled away in the pouches of their mothers. A host of hawks, crows, harbirds, lojaws, merlack-oos and other birds roosted in the sparse trees, some packed together so tightly to share warmth that he couldn't feel where one stopped and the other began.
At 17 lengths, he felt hosts of people, many asleep, others still working hard in their shops, and even a few drunkenly roaring at eachother in a tavern as a large woman bundled in Nal-fur sang a tawdry ballad of sex with older men. Finally getting a bearing on how far they were from the village.
"We're about 20 lengths from Abdarian." Narim said, startled by the sound of his own voice after spending so long silent. Apparently it had startled Jawn as well. The dark corner became a source of brief fright, a sensation that came and went like a star streaking across the sky.
"Have you been this way before?" Jawn asked, it's voice had a lyrical quality to it in the dark.
"I can feel people as closer but only a few, there are many people together in an area as close as 15 and as far away as 21." Another jolt shot through him.
"You felt people as far away as 21 lengths?" Jawn could not make sense of it. Aside from other Tariks, it was impossible to reach out farther than a few lengths even for an Orere Magus like Axial or Zchi. It knew that if it attempted to scry Narim for signs of embellishment, it would be leaving itself open for the same but it had to try. Something inside it MADE it want the truth about this boy. For a brief instant Jawn shot into the boy's mind verifying that he could indeed feel that far... even a bit further than that. It was just long enough for Narim to feel Jawn's mind opened.
Narim, without even realizing it, slid through the break in Jawn's mental barrier and gathered a snapshot of the Androgen's thoughts. Jawn was considering the possibility that it ( the Androgen referred to other androgens as "it" instead of a gender pronoun) was flawed because of the self generated emotional responses it was struggling with. Narim also gathered a glimpse of Jawn's intentions, which in turn evoked a strong fury from the boy.
"You were going to LEAVE ME!" Narim said through clenched teeth as he rose to his feet. Already it had grown so dark he could barely make out the outline of his own hands stretched in front of him. A stab of sadness shot through their chests simultaneously, gone as soon as it came, belonging to both and neither of them at the same time.
"I am having difficulty maintaining... myself... in your presence." Jawn rose as well in the darkness. Narim flew to the sound of Jawn's voice, hands outstretched in an attempt to act out the fury that motivated his movements. His fist made contact with a pair of long fingered hands that held him back with amazing strength. Narim suddenly felt the hands encircle his shoulders and pull him into an embrace.
"Why did you even bother to bring me back from Auraach where I could have slept peacefully if you were just going to leave me at the nearest town?" Narim asked in a sigh mixed with affection and frustration. Jawn matched his sigh, knowing there was no logical reason to lie.
"Once upon a time I saw through the mind of a tarik a very young man running through a haze of smoke with fear in his eyes, and passion in his heart and I ... felt something for the very first time."
"What did you feel?" Narim asked innocently as he felt the Androgen's heart thudding against his own in the embrace. In the next instant lips crashed down upon his own.
