Dragoncrest Cliffs weeper

jorunn busied herself in the days that followed her time with @Erzulie — and how easy it had become. to patrol the cliffs, round the babes off for playdates or lessons.

but only so much could be done in the daytime and soon night crept upon her.

the moon neared a full state and bathed her in light for it. for once, she wished for darkness. to sit in it and be afforded a few hours of wallowing. for what? for all the emotions she still carried for erzulie and rosalyn.

instead she slowly waded out into the waters until she was near chest deep.

here she could hear very little and found some part of her soothed for it.

can't resist <3 I gotta try and catch up some tomorrow

Some nights, sleep was harder to come by. Rosalyn had tried to settle but her mind was too full for darkness to overtake her. On nights like these she tended to take to the shore. The waves could quiet things sometimes.

She spotted Jorunn as she stepped onto the firmer sand, but she didn't call out. If she was here for quiet than it made sense that the other woman might be too. Instead she entered the water, just up to her ankles, and breathed. The moon on the waves was almost dreamlike. Perhaps she had fallen asleep.

She let that thought fall away and simply enjoyed the view, choosing to let the silence linger a few moments longer.

<333 also enjoy unexpected flirting jorunn!

she had not expected rosalyn to be here, thinking she might be curled away with erzulie and their babes — or perhaps that was only what she wished for the warrior woman.

jorunn, for a few lapping waves, watched the woman wade in the water. her heart stirred and clutched. her sides heaved beneath the waves. slowly she worked her way back, headed for rosalyn's place. every time seeing the ruby felt like the first time. perhaps this was a side effect of the way the older woman could shift day to day.

this did not stop words of kindness (perhaps overly kind...) from spilling through her.

she had told erzulie to cherish her, there was no reason to not show such a kindness here too.

you are beautiful in moonlit waves, a coy smile on her face. erzulie has fine taste.

She heard the water move as the other woman approached but didn't turn to glance that way until the distance had been closed. The water tugged gently at her ankles, pulling sand from beneath and settling her more firmly into the shoreline. It was a beautiful night.

She wasn't expecting the words and heard them, immediately, with skepticism.

It's been a long time since I worried about things like that. You don't need to worry about my pride. She wondered if Jorunn thought she might suddenly have changed her mind, become jealous with the trysts her wife and she shared. It was strange - instead, she found relief.

Some tastes grow with time, she added, looking at Jorunn with a slight teasing air. Honestly, if she allowed herself to embrace it, she was touched by the thought. But she couldn't. She couldn't help but assume other motives.

i have no worries of your pride, she answered, still coy but teetering on teasing now. her tail swayed slow and heavy with the water of the sea.

rosalyn had always been strong in jorunn's eyes. the woman was still strong, she knew. things may have not been kind or easy, but the strength of the ruby was still there in her heart. briefly she wondered what erzulie would make of this little mingling. a thought she softly tucked away.

is that true? she turned her gaze off down the beach, stealing only sidelong glances at the scarred woman.

What did she mean, asking if it was true? Rosalyn had meant it more as a way to potentially dismiss the unnecessary flattery, if it was only that, so she hadn't put anything deeper on it. It sounded, from the way Jorunn asked it, as if she had found something more.

As true as anything else, she replied, curious. She supposed she did mean it, however. She loved her mate more with every passing season, but their love grew in different and immeasurable ways. It wasn't the same as it had been when they began.

Everything changes. Eventually. That thought was inevitable and drew her back to the pressing nature of time, the gap between who Jorunn now was and who Rosalyn had become. She didn't want to linger there.

guilt.

a soft budding of it deep in her stomach, some level of self awareness. enough to halt...whatever antics she had thought might bring light to rosalyn.

i suppose so. she moved to be sidelong to the great woman.

you are out. late and alone. but there was no shaming in her tone. the state of rosalyn did not always impair her ability to do whatever she pleased.

The pure curiosity in her tone was enough to warm Rosalyn to her further, at least bringing her to share more than she might have with another. She appreciated the woman's presence, there, and that she wasn't here in silence.

Sleep is hard to find, some nights. She looked out again. The water has always helped me to find some quiet, no matter how loud things get. She's the one exception to that rule. One thing that doesn't change. There was comfort in knowing that, no matter what happened, the ocean would always remain. Did Jorunn feel that as well?

You are out late too. She noted, rather than asking outright. There was a warm hint of humor in the parallel.

"one thing that doesn't change."

she felt it, deeply. in her core a resounding hum of peace. since her arrival to sapphique, the sea had not once scorned her. only welcomed her and loved her with a constant presence.

you have caught me. she laughed soft and warm. as if she was a busted child, sneaking out after dark.

i could not sleep either. i toil all day and yet my mind still sings at night. the sea, she was there for me too.

Something about Jorunn seemed almost lonely, in that moment. Rosalyn realized how little she knew about the woman who shared her wife's heart, the things that brought her here as well as the things that kept her mind at work well beyond the time that others slept. But perhaps, like her own thoughts, giving them voice only lent them more credence within. There were some things that weren't for speaking.

The solidarity of understanding that led her to shift closer, sharing her space as well as her company if welcome to it. Not the only thing here. Maybe the only constant, but changes can be welcome. There was more genuine affection to her look now, less of the carefully guarded distance. Jorunn should know what it meant, that she had been here through all of this. I'm glad that you found us and chose to stay.

She wasn't a sentimental wolf, and that covered what she meant to convey. The silence would provide the offer for Jorunn to speak of whatever bothered her, but Rosalyn did not feel she should ask. She wouldn't ask questions she herself was not willing to answer.

maybe a fade? but doesn't have to be <3

jorunn was warm beneath the words. they meant worlds coming from rosalyn. the space shared was more than agreeable.

the scout found a great comfort in it.

there is not any other place i would be, that i would want to be. here was the best she had ever found. even this moment in time, sharing space and words with rosalyn.

im okay to keep it a tidge longer, but we can see how it flows!

Jorunn was quietly steadfast here. Yet Rosalyn was suddenly struck with the sense that a deeper core lay within her, one with things she did not share as freely as others. Maybe it was this that gave her this kind demeanor and the distant allure that undoubtedly drew her wife. She felt its draw herself.

Rosalyn glanced with a warm look and made a soft sound of acknowledgement. Agreement as well. Of course she felt the same - her bones almost felt as if they'd been carved from these cliffs.

What keeps you awake tonight? She left a bit of space before but her reluctance to pry had fallen away. Maybe the ocean had created a space here that lay outside the confines of such boundaries. Any secrets they shared could be swiftly carried away in her grasp.

her breath settled somewhere deep in her chest.

i...just think of all i have seen, in sapphique, in my time here already. then all the things i have not seen. not yet.

melancholy, almost. sapphique comforted and cradled, it felt. yet that did not shield any one of them from the world.

from tragedy.

past and present.

Rosalyn let herself drift closer. Two sides of her warred... the side that sought what she desired and the side that sought to hide away in the sureness of age and contented acceptance. She could not be harmed by the things she did not seek.

You have time to see them, I think. So much time. Rosalyn smiled. Perhaps I'm a bit jealous of that, in some ways. That there might still be things you want to see. There was no resentment in her expression, however. Just warmth overlaid with soft sadness.

warm, flushed. she dared to edge a bit closer.

sometimes...sometimes i worry that i wish to see too much. she laughed, soft and tired. perhaps we will see these things together? side by side. she hummed her words warmly, sought to take that jealousy and twist it kindly into hope, into the future.

was it cruel? was it kind?

it did not matter in the pale moonlight with the sea their only other soul.

Perhaps. She knew it wouldn't be true. She wouldn't drop the true extend of the things she grappled with on the other woman, but there was a tired sort of acceptance that things had changed irrevocably for her. Her mind betrayed her - her body was following.

But with that came a kind of resilient resistance. Time grew short - yet she hesitated to do the things she wished. What was the point?

Suddenly Rosalyn was filled with a silent insistence. Her gaze burned anew and she gently closed the space between them, looking for signs of hesitation. Of the rejection she expected to find.

but jorunn was there.

warm and welcoming. with those she trusted and adored came the desire to get closer and closer. melt into one another. she could not deny that she wished that here. even if only for a moment.

if rosalyn did not change her mind, jorunn sought to tuck herself against the woman's chest, head along an auburn neck. a warm sound in the back of her throat.

she had always been better at saying things without words.

Erzulie never gave Rosalyn reason to doubt, but she also had not felt beautiful since the day these very cliffs had marked her. Jorunn was different. She had not known her whole and unmarred- had not seen her in her prime, carried her through the way the pirate's wife had. But still she responded.

Something Rosalyn hadn't even known was broken mended within her as Jorunn crooned.

She drew her close and began to trail her touch in a way that was familiar, tracing her jawline and throat the way she had so many times with her wife over the years. She knew Erzulie would not berudge her this - their love was an understanding and a shared acceptance. It was large enough to contain and enfold this third recipient.

Rosalyn would explore with her beneath the stars, gently held by the sea. And if Jorunn was willing they would pass the night tangled on the sand.

fade? <3 *big heart eyes* ;.;