Grayell smiled then. He closed his eyes for a moment and his kinship with all living things searched for a reason, a message. His eyes opened on the grand bird and he smiled, he needed help. Anything. He could not read it's mind but could know it's intent, translate it's actions and call.
(Kiko. Blow on the pedestal... if it is glowing. This has to be air. I'm not having a lot of options here.)
He smiled then, laughed in just a single breath, delicate and subtle. She could hear his heart in his words.
(Your breath is magic. It will work, I know this. Your very breath gives me life, stirs my soul. And as you breathe such magic into me, my breath is yours in return. I know it will work... when it is time.)
The osprey turned its head. The eye was startling in the streak of black across her face and she stared directly into Grayell's. She was lonely. He could feel it in the look that pinned him back to the rocks behind him. Her mate was gone and she had no young this season. She was hungry, and while she was interested in the fish below she had not bothered to hunt.
She mantled on the ledge above him then took off. She buzzed him once and then folded her wings back and dove. Right beneath his ledge, where it had been hidden from sight, was a rope ladder; one that seemed to go on forever. It swayed with her passing.
Kiko had done has he suggested. She blew on the podium and was at that time she noticed the symbol beneath it was already gleaming. She hadn't noticed any of the symbols glowing before. Had she just missed them in the rush to figure out the puzzles? How had she not noticed that? However, the podium was glowing now too, and the top retracting back as had all the others.
(The podium is glowing Wolf. I missed something earlier, though. It seems all the symbols glow first. Please hurry Wolf, I need you.)
Grayell watched her go... and part of him went with her. That was not a fate he would wish on such a beautiful creature... it was something he could not simply neglect either. He swung onto the ladder and began his descent.
(Kiko... I need you as well. You cannot...)
He sighed. It was almost a whelp of pain, an ache but he smiled.
(I cannot be without you. I fall asleep to your touch and your body against mine and am blessed with dreams of your laugh and your smile. I awake to your skin and your sweet breath, the beauty that simply radiates from you even before you awake. I cannot picture my world without you in it now. It... would be incomplete. I would be torn.)
He continued down the ladder, sombre now as he thought of such a separation.
(I cannot ever express the light you bring into my life Kiko. You have given me a reason, a wholeness, a sense of purpose. You are the sun on my face, the wind in my hair, the rain on my skin.
You are everything to me Yukiko... and I need you now.
But you must wait a moment. There is something I must do.)
Grayell was still climbing down but he paused a moment and twisted at the waist. His eyes scanned the skies above and below and his lips pursed, his tongue pressed against his teeth - and he let our a shrill cry, the cry of an Osprey.
Kiko was curled in a tight ball beside the podium. When did she become so weary? It ached from every pore; every inch of her body was exhausted. It did not make sense, and beneath the exhaustion was heartsickness. An aching void that had taken the Wolf from her, tears were running down her face.
She was supposed to do something. What was it? She tried to think back but her mind was full of loss until his voice penetrated those thoughts and threw them away.
The osprey’s wings were flung out with a snap. She stopped the dive to wheel around and ride a thermal back to him. Her voice was shrill, solemn, and but no longer sad.
You do me honor, Hunter. For that I will offer this advice: Do not hesitate. The ladder will not hold. With those words she broke away from him and was soon lost to sight
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Grayell smiled as the incredible creature left his view... she would find purpose and love, belonging as he himself had. But he hurried now, quick to scurry down the ladder. He considered letting loose and throwing his fate to whatever powers be... but was not quite so hasty to chance losing her. No, he was less reckless now. But more determined. Faster.
But it felt good to burn, it brought him alive once more to hurry, his body feeling the strain of a rapid descent. He could not hear her though, she was silent. Again... he did not want her to worry.
(Kiko. Stay with me. Be with me later, when I am with you once more.
Picture a heat. An exhaustion, an ache so pure and whole throughout you and I, skin awash with sweat, almost milky with moisture. Hot, hungry, worn and with no desire to cease. An insatiable desire, an eternal sensation, a complete and overwhelming, endless ecstasy.
Our mouths meeting, almost hesitant, our bodies so locked in our motion, our breath so short, so delicate, so fast... that our kiss lingers before it is joined, tiny whispers, gasps of exquisite pleasure spoken into each other.
I can taste your sweat Kiko... and it drives me harder.)
Kiko whimpered at the words in her mind. Still, she was infused with a new sense of urgency that had nothing to do with the podiums. She wanted to rake her hands down his spine. Her breath hissed out in a rush with that visual. Visual? Hell, it was taking over every sense.
(More Wolf. More.)
Her voice was demanding.
He was descending fast, but as fast as he was the rope ladder was falling apart even faster. It started with just a strand. A pop that gave away the split, then little cracks all over the stone that secured it. It didn't take but a second for another strand to pop and start the cycle over, either.
There was smoke curling up beside the rock face, too.
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Dammit... why couldn't he just have more to fight? This was surreal, beyond his understanding... and that smoke has him worried. He cast a look down and started to drop now. The rope was giving regardless, he lifted his feet from the ladder and dropped now as far as his arm would allow, snatched lower with his other hand, dropped again. He kept this motion and smooth as he could manage, swinging in wide arcs... but it had to increase his pace.
The podium, it had to hold the answer once more but he did not understand the puzzle. And yet... she demanded more. Hell with the air, he heeded only her desires.... but dying would not have him see her again.
(Kiko. The air. I need it now... blow upon the podium once more. Hard.
And feel me. My mouth wet, my lips swollen, my breath ragged and rasping.... my eyes searching yours, desperate to witness your magic, needing, urgent to know I have taken you there.
Below your waist Kiko, feel my breath washing upon you skin. Breaths stolen in short moments where I need air. Breaths that cool moist, throbbing skin.
Kiko came up over the podium to breathe. Not that it was hard to do, at all. No, her breath was already bursting from her lips and nose in sharp exhales. She'd lost the ability to deny him anything.
The podium stopped glowing and the stone top threw her back off the surface of it when it began to retract. She collapsed on the floor, hands flung out to either side of her heaving body.
(Wolf. The podium is no longer glowing. It has closed.)
The note in her voice was different this time. It was pleased, one might even say satisfied.
If Grayell thought this puzzle was surreal then the next event was worse. Suddenly, right in front of his face the rocks opened up to reveal a wall of fire as tall as a man. There was no way around it, and no way past it.
Of course, he could wait until the ladder dropped him to the earth. It would happen soon enough should he remain stubbornly attached. And as far as he'd descended there still was no sign of the end.
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
He had no time and there was no way in hell he was about to fall to his death. He'd come to far and whilst she now sounded rather.... elated... well he had his own anxiety that needed to be worked out. He snarled aloud as he kicked off the rocks, forcing himself out and way from the rock face, only to swing directly toward the fire....
Kiko grabbed the torch and scrambled over to fire's podium. But, it seemed to her that she was moving way too slow. And his voice urged more speed out of her. The top of the podium was open and she threw the torch inside without any other consideration but to close it, and fast.
When she looked up again the room was dark and the vermilion blaze of color from the stone gone.
(Closed!)
It was the only thought. No. There were other thoughts, but they were tangled about her desire for him. He might be able to get flashes of images.
The flames were snuffed to nothing with the closing of the podium and the tunnel beyond them was lit up with a series of torched much like the ones he'd found in Earth's tunnel. Here, though, the heat seemed to seep in from the sides, it was entirely oppressive and cloying, humid air made it hard to breathe.
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Grayell sighed, a heavy breath of relief. That was all too close, there was little he could have done had that failed entirely. One left... or at least he hoped. He wiped sweat from his brow, ran his hand down his cheek and took a moment to weigh his surroundings.
(Thank you Kiko. You just saved my life.... and we have but one more left. Metal.
Perhaps you'd like to talk about it?)
He chuckled then and she knew it's reason, he wasn't quite done with their game.
Kiko had made her way to the last podium. The last? How long had she been down here without him? The time made an impression on her, now. Years upon years of time.
She was almost surprised when he spoke.
(Talk... about... it?)
Little nerves she thought numb sparked and her eyes were glittering.
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Grayell smiled as she stammered. He ventured inward... but thought to tread carefully, more with his words than actual steps. He searched for any signs of a trap, and indication of one last diabolical mechanism that might rob him of his chance to see her again.
(Yes. Metal... like your blade. So hard, so very strong. Unforgiving. Masterful. It has but one purpose and it is eager to please in that regard. It is cold but your hands warm it, make it so hot. Your palm sweat upon it, to hold it too long without motion is like teasing, your hands shift and writhe upon it almost uncomfortably. So secure, so safe and yet almost alien.
It drags from it's sheath so slowly, so created to fit so well. It feels good, does it not?)
Her eyes widened as he spoke. Definitely not numb. She shuddered and rolled over on her hip, hands tucked in between her knees and her head pillowed on the sprawl of her hair.
(Yes, Wolf. It feels good to swing my blade. It feels even better to plunge it down into waiting flesh. To hear the shriek of completion. To feel the shudder... )
The growl was back in her voice.
The tunnel came to a halt at a metal door. There had been no place where it diverged, no other way through but this one entrance or exit. Who knew what lay beyond it, or what might happen when he opened it.
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Grayell smiled... just a little. He stopped before the door, calm. Serene. His voice rolled into her mind like a gentle wave graces the shore... and pulled away just as slowly.
(Kiko. Hold that very thought. The last podium. See if you can activate it. I would be away from you no longer Lotus.)