Dragoncrest Cliffs you set me on fire

jorunn.
what had brought pleasure now brought a mingling of shock and of shame. and yet when she recalled, when she remembered, there was none of it.
@Rosalyn. she stirred and in the dawnlight, returned to the roja den with a wary delight washing through her ribcage.
aminthe and quennell had romped to sleep. they lay in a small heap nearby. she reached for her wife, almost hesitant.
"did you send her to me?"

It only took Rosalyn a moment to realize what Erzulie was asking. There was only one her that could possibly be meant, and the pirate had wondered how long it would take the woman to act.

Aye. She was unapologetic and stretched, then looked at her wife with a bit of a devilish gleam in her eye. If there's a question, it deserves an answer. And it was plain neither of you were asking.

She hadn't been sure of either of them until she'd read the want in Jorunn. She thought she knew her wife well enough to read this too, but she'd hesitated there; mainly because she could not find a reason why Erzulie would not pursue what she desired.

Was it welcome? She had meddled, after all. And even if she amused herself with it, she might be persuaded to apologizing if Erzulie saw it differently. Perhaps.

rosalyn confirmed; yes, yes, and she was not angry. erzulie had never searched for this in her wife. men were a necessity to their aim of children. but other women; well, she was not blind but she was indeed faithful.
there came a sinking sensation next, one that dragged the obsidian's mind toward unwelcome thoughts of mortality and whether or not rosalyn was looking now toward that future.
erzulie pressed closer, overcome. 
"it was," she admitted, though her confidence did not waver. she eyed her wife. "is she desirable to you also?" she asked, her face warming beneath the spiced mask.

She was relieved and glad, though a deep ache struck through her when Erzulie turned that question upon her.  It wasn't one whose answer mattered much.

She would never doubt her wife's affection.  They were tied together in ways that defied reason - in every past she'd walked, and every time she'd wandered, her wife had been at her side.  Even in those that she had not in reality shared.  Not even time could part them.

But selfishly she envied their affection for another reason.  It didn't bear mentioning - Erzulie couldn't facilitate this the way Rosalyn had.  She hadn't turned a single head since the close of her last heat, and even that had been transactional.  Now with her scars, an aging body, and a slipping mind... she wouldn't ask for it.  Would she give it if she had the choice?

She's beautiful.  But I think her tastes run with mine and not yours, Rosalyn answer lightly, releasing a slight huff of laughter with the words.  She wouldn't beg for validation, no matter how desperately she yearned to be reminded of how it felt.  It would mean nothing if it was a favor.

A touch of a shadow, but then it was gone. Maybe we are too alike. Self-flattery and a relatively honest denial in one.

erzulie suddenly found her wife unreadable. it was an odd feeling, a specific sensation. rosalyn seemed to close even as she opened with affection and acceptance. and again she wondered why the pirate sanctioned this now, and if she knew something that the obsidian did not.
she refused to feel wrong for tucking herself against that still-honed shoulder, tilting her muzzle up toward the side of her mate's magnificently scarred face.
"t'ere be no one like you."

Rosalyn smiled. She didn't fully believe it, but she could amend it into something she did. There is no one like us. It was an agreement.

The pirate left a lot unspoken nowadays, wishing to keep her image strong and the doubts that plagued her at bay, even if just for her own sake. But as Erzulie embraced her, she recalled the conversation with Val. Around the guilt of the encounter, there was something that her wife should know.

I spoke with Val, shortly after he came back. I told him about Raleska. She admitted. It was something they likely should have decided together, but she had her reasons and would stand by them. He said it changes nothing, but he knows.

erzulie trusted rosalyn and so she did not grow tense.
she studied the face she had long loved all these years.
"i am glad he knows," she answered quietly. "i t'ink of regin often. what if de sea only carried her to a place she could be happy?" 
she had been a daughter of the ocean as well. who knew the whim of the saltwater? she had maintained hope.

I rolled so close omg

She didn't mind. There were some things that Rosalyn could anticipate, but there were some areas where she still could not fully predict her wife. When it came to their children, this tended to be the case. Erzulie carried her emotions so deeply, and wore them so fully, in a way that Rosalyn admired and adored but could not replicate. Her own love was quieter, more reserved. It didn't make it less.

She brought a name forward that Rosalyn at first didn't recognize. It took a moment, and only the context of Val and Raleska triggered the connection. There had been another, a daughter, who had disappeared so long ago it seemed that Rosalyn could no longer remember who she'd been. Only the name.

Hadn't Nieve been taken by the sea? Or was she mistaken, mixing daughters?

The sea knows us. She would take care of her own. Rosalyn could say that with confidence. The distance of forgetting helped, and maybe that was a small mercy. She will take care of all of them. The ones she remembered and the ones she knew were there, but whose faces and names she couldn't recall.

She didn't really owe the explanation, but she wanted to share it. Raleska deserved a legacy. He doesn't have to carry it, but I didn't want to be the one to take that from her. Maybe that was why she couldn't rest. Why she had walked in dreams ever since.

i love her ;;;

suppose jorunn joined them?
the thought was untoward, even in the mind of one who had been a harlot.
and on the heels of harder things! "val has roots now, to make his own way. he is not such a boy now. he was ready to know it, rosalyn."
she kissed the scarred mouth, softly at first then with a growing firmness.
"you have done well as maman to so many, my love." erzulie did not wish to allude. she did not wish to know. these moments for so many reasons were now wholly sacred.

Both, she replied, knowing she couldn't gave begin to do it alone. Before she could answer further, she was drawn into the kiss and leaned in, shifting to press closer in a way that would likely lead to distraction of other means.

She carried the kiss down along the curve of her wife's jaw, a trail that lit her own nerves on fire as she released any of the somber thoughts of a moment ago from her mind.

Right now, it was only the two of them.

can be a timeskip or fade <3

erzulie came alight; she inhaled the richness of rosalyn's coat. in these moments, she and her wife were fervently, vitally alive; her mate was here, was present. 
and for a while it was only the two of them.
and for a while she forgot.
rosalyn was the only one who could temper erzulie's flame, who could bank it beneath her own body. the obsidian deferred to no one else in this most intimate of ways.

skip is fine! We can fade at any point <3 but no rush

This was something she could still give. Sometimes it felt as if she had little to offer, and despite knowing their love was unwavering, this bothered her. Here she lent herself fully to Erzulie, distractions and private insecurities falling to ash in the inferno that swept through.

After she was quiet for a moment, her head resting on her mate's side as she encircled and held her.

We will never lose this. She didn't need to say it. She knew it was true and the thought would only pull them back into serious things. For another moment, she let herself simply be.

<3

erzulie lay spent and content in the circle of rosalyn's embrace. some tiny part of her was afraid to speak, to shatter the dome of comfortable silence that wrapped around their bodies for now.
and so for a time the obsidian said nothing, only eventually turned and moved until her muzzle was tucked close to that of her wife.
and she only looked deep into the scarred face which she had long loved, long adored; rosalyn touched her heartstrings with a thousand songs and her throat tensed then with a sudden and welcome emotion.

It was perfect.  No interruptions, no other worries, just the two of them and the glow of the early light.  She nearly could have drifted off again, entirely content, except doing so would mean losing the awareness of her wife. She rested her temple against Erzulie's, then glanced over to find her looking back with an expression that wasn't hard to read.  It filled her with something indescribable and her gaze softened further, reflecting it.

It felt they had spent lifetimes like this.

Her mind drifted to Chacal and, finally, she allowed herself to break the silence between them. The charge of it did not leave her. We've been grandmothers before. It will be different, knowing them. She recalled Reyes and his, but not their names nor what they had been like. They hadn't had the time. She had spent most of it focused on him.

I am glad that she is alone, but I wish that our children could find this. Reyes had seemed like he had, in the woman he brought, but he'd felt that before. Rosalyn thought perhaps men, even her own son, were incapable of the resolve that it took to truly build roots. It was why the cliffs persisted while all else fell.

"maybe dey do, in a way. de sea be a constant lover. she stays when all else is gone." the ocean played along the lovelorn throat; she drew in a shaking breath, for the moment was so beautiful that it threatened to bring tears to her.
"chacal has us. an' her children will also. i am rather looking forward to being a grandmot'er, in action as well as name." her eyes shone, twinkled, sparkled; she kissed the ruddy chin and sighed contently into the warm fur.
everything was as it should be.

That might be true, but it did not compare. Rosalyn would give up the sea a thousand times over if it meant having Erzulie at her side. Knowing this, it had become harder to see her children struggle to find something so constant. Reyes, Chacal, any of them. Would they have stayed if they had? By staying, did Chacal give up her chance?

The second notion was preposterous, she knew immediately. Her family was here and this was where she wished to be. A partner worthy of her would understand this. Her problem was the same that others saw.... she sought men, and what man could ever be worthy of her?

I am too. They will be spoiled, between the two of us, but I think they will be the better for it. Rosalyn smiled thinking of it.

fade this? And obv have another ^^ soon