The ranger perched on a large rock for the night's watch, a granite wall at his back and scrub, rock and heat spread out before him. The sun had sunk below the horizon an hour or more ago, he'd lost track of time in this desert, and left an eerie glimmer of light through the seemingly dead branches of the brush that littered this strange landscape. The moon cresting the horizon just opposite where the sun had been gave a surreal spirit to the whole scene. The man thought he might hear the whispers of those long dead if he listened to the descending darkness. A wry smile crossed his lips,
an experiment
, he thought to himself letting his dark eyes drift to the form lying under a tree a few paces from him.
He noticed the dance of shadows across the pale and sweat beaded skin of her bare shoulders, neck and face, strands of her dark hair falling in a veil along her cheeks. Her cloak was haphazardly wrapped around the curves of her body. She looked more entangled than covered but that only made her more enticing. The ranger let his vision blur just past her and cleared his mind. Letting his thoughts drift idly by without acknowledgment he listened to the empty silence that lingered in the heated desert air. Carefully he began to pick his way across the ether to the woman still sleeping near him. He brushed a lock of her hair from her face, tracing her cheekbone with his finger to her temple, then down across her long, narrow ear finally resting on her neck just behind her jaw. He listened to the rhythmic beating of her heart through his fingers, trying to tune himself to the song of her life-force.
His heart began to race as he saw images flash in his mind. Her fierce eyes looked into his, her soft lips moving to form words that he could almost make out,
almost.
Her hands small, but strong, pressed hard against his chest and her body near enough to raise the hair on his neck but he did not feel threatened. The ranger pushed deeper, seeking to hear the words that she would say to him in this other plane, words he did not believe she would say to him while awake. In his mind, he reached out to touch her face, to offer comfort for the anguish he could see in her eyes, refuge for the thoughts she might want to share with him. He could hear her voice a whisper now, only, and then the anguish turned to rage, the hands at first pressed into his chest now pushed hard and the Ranger rocked back on his perch, nearly falling from the rock as he came back to himself.
He glanced down at the girl. She still slept albeit restlessly, her hair still veiling her pale skin. Then the man on the rock realized it had worked, he'd made it past her defenses. He was beginning to master this new found talent she had awakened in him. Now if only he could master the feelings that she'd awakened as well. He thought back over the last moon cycle since they'd met. They were an unlikely pairing neither needed the other to survive and yet perhaps they needed each other to live. He'd seen her fight and the results.
He'd been set upon by a harpy just over a fortnight ago and had held his own against the undead flying creature for some time. But the silver winged, screaming beast would not be deterred and the ranger was tiring fast. His fortune turned when an arrow whistled past his head and caught the harpy in her shoulder, bringing her down in a rage to fight on foot against the man and this new cloaked ally. The mysterious warrior raised a rowan staff and swung it with both hands catching the harpy in her ribs, and pulled the staff back for a wicked jab to the chest, deflecting a blow by the harpy in the process. The ranger had backed off a step to catch his breath and was amazed by the rage and precision with which this new warrior fought. A final blow was struck to the harpy's head and she fell hard to the stone ground.
The cloaked warrior, the same in stature to the ranger, turned to him. The voice was deep, quiet, and laced with distrust, "You should leave now for Carrion Birds linger here and won't be long for the feast." The ranger watched as the cloak billowed out from behind this warrior stalking away from him, his mind in a whirl. Was that a woman's voice under the cowl? He couldn't be sure, but the sandals laced up over baggy breeches couldn't be mistaken. She was several paces in front of him before he realized he hadn't even moved. He jogged to catch up with her.
"Wait! What is your name please?" He asked forgetting to thank her for the rescue.
"Irrelevant," she replied in the same dark voice. She regretted the loss of her arrow as he came within a few feet of her. She sensed his magic and pulled her cloak more tightly about her in defense. "Look, she was gravid. You can not be merciful with them when they're gravid. Now you know I doubt you need me around." She quickened her pace.
The ranger was not to be put off, and stepped up his own pace to match hers. He asked no more questions though, grateful enough for the presence of another human in this wasteland. That had been how they'd met, and the weeks passed in an uneasy trust. Each sensed new things about themselves through the presence of the other. The ranger noticed an ability to pick up the woman's thoughts, to finish her rare sentences. The woman noticed sensation evoked within her while in the ranger's company. She became troubled by her disease when they separated, even for short periods of time. Both welcomed the chance to truly sleep instead of being on guard all the time. And so it went for 20 days.
