As A Stranger Or A Friend?

Mariel - 27 Rain's Hand, 1245 A.D.

I woke up in something of a daze. Judging by the light, it was morning, though, which morning I couldn't say. I had no notion of how time passed in The Realm of Dreams, so perhaps it was still the same morning or many mornings after that. The events from our time there came flooding back, and despite them making me feel warm and happy, I had so many questions. But where would I begin organizing my thoughts enough to ask anything? So much had happened there after all. I laid my head down and sighed, furrowing my brow. My pillow was...moving? I got my bearings, suddenly realizing I was lying on Axtapor's bare chest! My face reddened intensely, and I pushed myself off of him to sit up.

"Good morn', lass." He said sleepily, yawning and stretching out his long limbs.

"G-Good m-m-morning..." I stuttered, pressing my hands to my cheeks.

He folded one arm beneath his head to look at me with a gentle smile on his face. "Nay be afeared, I nay put a hand to ye."

I nodded. My tongue felt heavy and uncooperative in my mouth, so even if I wanted to say anything, I was sure I couldn't.

"Ye should rest. We be leavin' tonight." He said, tiredly scratching the spikes on his chin.

While I supposed such a determination was logical and even expected after what happened, I was still saddened to hear him say it. I knew that we would eventually be leaving, but I suppose it felt altogether too soon for that to happen.

"You should rest too." I counseled.

He sat up and kissed my forehead as if it were a normal thing to do. "Nay, fret 'bout me."

I covered the spot where his lips had been and heard him chuckle as he got out of bed. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that he was bolder now, given what had happened in The Realm, but even so! He could show some modesty...

Once on his feet, he stretched again, this time with his back facing me. I had to admit that I was taken by the sight of him that way, though he was so overtly male it was almost annoying. He fulfilled the descriptor in nearly every physical aspect of the word: tall, strong, broad, and admittedly handsome. I remembered struggling with the idea of how he could be so masculine in my dream, but now that I saw him this way, it was plain and easy to take in. Ordinary despite being completely extraordinary...

Each curve of his, so carefully crafted for the sake of aesthetics and lethality. I had seen how those muscles rippled angrily under his scales; his strength was certainly not something to be overlooked. Though perhaps more eye-catching than that were his tattoos, motifs of Kava and her rising, imagery of the sea and the many beasts that lurked beneath its surface, and scenes of the desert likely meant to represent the Holtep Empire. I found myself drawn to them and wanted to observe them closer, but before I could, his shirt dropped over his body, snapping me out of my reverie.

"Please wake me so I can make us a meal before we go." I said softly to him as I nervously wound my hands around one another.

He chuckled. "Aye, aye. Sleep now. Go on."

I nodded and laid back down in the warm spot he left behind, hugging one of the pillows to my chest. The door closed softly, and a tiny voice in my mind cursed him for kissing me on the forehead, not the lips.