"Tiana's Little Secret"

Log Date:
	6/30/02

Log Cast:
	Tiana, Vardeus

Log Intro:
	The Vraeyan camp has been in a state of emergency ever since the
assault upon them by a pack of magically warped, three-headed dogs -- which
were, or so the elves Tefin and Wayfound have reported to Vardeus, created by
one of their own kind, and most likely on purpose and deliberately sent 
against them. Determined to get his people moving as quickly as possible,
the Captain of the refugees from Vrae has upped the pace of his people's
preparations to trek cross-country to the distant village where the people of
Xhosa, Shelbor, and Coralfire dwell...
	But in the meantime, Vardeus' wife and second Tiana has made a quiet
little discovery of her own... and can't quite yet bring herself to admit it
to her husband....

----------
Early morning brings the first stirrings of movement to the encampment of the 
  wayward _Windrider's_ crew. Even in the small hut off to one side of the 
  main shelter, there is a stirring.
Tiana, the crew's second comes to wakefulness with a start. She gets to her 
  feet just as quickly as she possibly can without waking her husband 
  and hurries for the door which she darts through so quickly that the 
  sunlight barely has a chance to pierce the small room's interior. In a 
  flash, she bolts around the side of the shelter, heading in the direction of 
  the latrine.

Vardeus has needed the sleep as of late, to be sure; the man's been pushing 
  himself again, as he was wont to do while the _Windrider_ was lost upon the 
  oceans that led her to this land of elves and strange magics. He's been 
  everywhere, overseeing the building of the rafts and wagons, questioning the 
  elves as best he can for clues as to what sort of elf might have been 
  prompted to create the beasts that attacked the camp, doing his level best 
  to keep Dharce from falling apart and making sure that her baby continues to 
  be fed... not to mention Dharce herself, for her sake and the sake of the 
  babe to come. He's taken his turn at the watches, too, keeping sharp eyes on 
  the surrounding woods _and_ the ocean in case of any further attacks -- 
  because Vardeus has not forgotten that the first great monster that 
  destroyed the ship was an ocean beast. There have been supplies to be 
  packed, clothing to be stitched up and lined for the winter travel, and a 
  host of other tasks. And so Vardeus has taken shift-and-a-half watches for 
  days now, most of the time only remembering to eat when someone shoves food 
  into his line of sight, dropping into bed when he's reminded, and looking 
  generally grim of eye. Except when he's asleep, like now...
Though, when Tiana bolts out of the shelter, he stirs groggily without opening 
  his eyes, pawing with one big hand at the place where she'd just lain, as if 
  subconsciously wondering where she's gotten off to.

Wherever it is, it's certainly not curled up beside Vardeus. Tiana isn't gone 
  long but, when she comes back around the shelter, it would appear that she's 
  chewing on something which she quickly spits out before entering the shelter 
  once more and laying back down beside Vardeus, hoping that he didn't wake. 
  Seamother's pearls, but she knows he's needed the rest.

His brow's furrowed up, but when his wife snuggles back down beside him into 
  the sleepfurs, Vardeus's features smooth out again. Mostly. On some level, 
  the fact that Tiana moved starts niggling at his subconscious, even now. 
  "((Wha' time is't?))" he whispers dreamingly, even as he drops an arm about 
  Tiana and tugs her close, back to where he can fit her against his larger, 
  broader body.

Tiana snuggles up close and whispers, "((It's still early yet, carrus.))" She 
  sighs as she slips an arm around his waist. Her breath smells like mint 
  leaves, though there aren't any green at this time of year. She places a 
  soft kiss on Vard's cheek then rests her head on his shoulder.

For a moment or two uncertainty ripples through Vardeus' sturdy frame; he's 
  starting to wake up. Shouldn't that mean he ought to be _getting_ up? There 
  are a thousand more things to do, and the winter is on the camp, but they 
  need to get _moving_. He starts to stir, even as his body wars with his mind 
  and tells him Tiana is soft and warm and curved against him, coaxing him to 
  roll onto his back, all the better for her to snuggle there against his 
  shoulder. "((Should get up,))" he mumbles, frowning vaguely... and then his 
  nose crinkles at the fresh scent that comes to him, and a little wordless 
  noise of query rumbles in his chest.

Tiana simply snuggles up closer and shhhs her husband, "((It's not time to 
  wake,))" she assures him. There aren't many noises around the camp yet 
  and no smells of cooking. She didn't catch Vard's nose crinkling but, 
  she does note the sound from him. "((Hmmm?))" she queries right back 
  fighting the urge to drift right back off to sleep just yet.

"((Smells good,))" Vardeus rumbles huskily, eyes still firmly closed, as he 
  turns his head to his beloved's hair in search of a whiff of that elusive 
  scent again. He subsides under the lulling tone of her voice, but still... 
  "((Where'd ye gae? Dinnae gae. Cold, 'tis.))" This is, after all, a 
  consequence of the winter; one body beneath sleepfurs is passably warm, but 
  two are infinitely cozier.

Tiana murmurs, "((Around back))" which seems to have become the 'polite' way 
  of saying one had to relieve themselves around the camp. As she speaks, 
  another whiff of mint reaches Vard's nose even as Tiana snuggles even 
  further under the furs adding, "((I wasn't gone long, carrus.))"

Vardeus lets out another little rumble, this one of pleasure and 
  acknowledgement, but there's that scent of mint again. He slits open a 
  drowsy blue eye, murmuring, "((Mint? Ye smell like mint, m'love...))" Most 
  of his still-sleepy mind approves of this, but the part that's been niggling 
  at him to get up and get busy wonders -- _did we have mint in the stores?_ 
  He cranes his head downward a bit, sniffing absently.

Tiana cracks an eye back open and rolls it upward to peer at her husband with 
  something of a slightly guilty expression on her face, "((I chewed some 
  dried leaves before I came back in,))" she says as if it is really nothing 
  at all. And yes.. the mint is definately coming from the direction of her 
  mouth.

It's the tone, really, more than the information, that makes Vardeus open both 
  his eyes, blinking owlishly as he teeters on the edge between slumber and 
  awareness. "((Mmrmrm?))" A loose, crooked grin curls his mouth, and he rasps 
  in teasing tones, not quite understanding that tinge of guilt in his wife's 
  eyes. "((Love ye, mornin' breath or nae. Dinnae worry.))"

Tiana snorts at that and gives Vardeus a half hearted swat for that, "((It 
  wasn't my morning breath I was worried about,))" she says then and shakes 
  her head. She falls silent then and snuggles up once more. In an attempt to 
  distract him from delving any further into the matter, she twirls lazy 
  circles on his chest with a fingertip.

There's a sensitive spot right along Vardeus' sternum, a place where just the 
  right sort of delicate contact can provoke the most intriguing little noises 
  out of him, and he makes one of those now: a hoarse little groan, 
  accompanied with an intake of breath and his eyes threatening to flutter 
  shut again. "((Well, if it's _mine_, ye should be after givin' _me_ th' 
  mint,))" he begins, that groan trailing out under his words to make them 
  huskier, before he trails off entirely.

Tiana giggles and shakes her head, "((It has nothing to do with your morning 
  breath,))" she replies as she continues drawing circles on his chest. She 
  trails her fingertips over his belly then back up to brush over that spot 
  again and this time, she raises up a bit just so she can watch his 
  expressions as she does so.

"((Well, wha--))" The fact that something feels elusive to him here keeps 
  Vardeus worrying at the matter, though he is not quite awake enough to truly 
  focus on it -- especially not with Tiana's deft fingers starting to drop 
  those feather-light circles along his muscled chest. His lips part on a 
  soundless breath; his stomach tautens momentarily, as her hand dips lower 
  and then higher again. And then his head turns sidelong, while he murmurs 
  thickly, "((Ye're distractin' me...))"

Tiana gives Vardeus an overly innocent look, "((Distracting you?))" she 
  queries as her hand continues to flutter over his chest and stomach under 
  the warm furs.

He manages to open his eyes again, enough to show that their ocean hue has 
  turned a trifle smoky in the dim early morning light leaking into the little 
  shelter, and a trifle glazed, too. "((Aye,))" he agrees, while he begins to 
  try to stir, arms tightening about his wife. Certain portions of his person 
  begin to report in, with enthusiasm, about this particular form of 
  distraction -- and yet, he can't quite yet let it go. Brow furrowing, he 
  breathes out, "((If ye're worried we're short on th' mint, I cannae think 
  Remirric'll mind, I think he's got s'more seeds put by...))" Fascinating, 
  though, how those attentions to his front are making even those prosaic 
  words come out of him enticingly deep, ever so slightly breathless.

Tiana giggles as Vard's arms tighten around her and her hand stills for just a 
  moment, until she shifts so that she can continue to distract his attention, 
  though it isn't working nearly as well as she thought it might. She shakes 
  her head, "((No, I'm not worried that we're short on it since I found a 
  dried up plant a few days ago.))" And boy is she glad that her frantic 
  searching turned one up, too. She isn't about to go ask Remirric for the 
  herb because he will ask way too many questions and she's not quite ready to 
  admit to herself or anyone else that her stomach has been way too quesy 
  these last few days.

Something is _still_ niggling at Vardeus's consciousness here -- though now 
  that Tiana's distraction has begun to take its effect on him, he begins 
  nuzzling against her hair and laying down a trail of kisses along the top of 
  her head. "((Somethin' ye _are_ worried on?))" he rumbles, though.

Oh dear, a question that if she sidesteps he's going to be worried, and if she 
  doesn't she's either going to have to tell her husband a lie or tell him the 
  truth. One of those choices would cut her to the quick and the other is 
  quite likely to send Vardeus into a tizzy. It takes her but a heartbeat to 
  decide and she shrugs her shoulders as her expression becomes mildly 
  indifferent, "((I've had an upset stomach, is all.))"

That makes him stop and blink again, pulling back slightly to bring a hand up 
  to turn his beloved's face into his view. His own can be seen to have a 
  touch of consternation now, despite the fact that he's forgotten to shave 
  again for the last several days and a beard has come in to blanket his chin. 
  Beard or no beard, his face is still quite expressive, and now it conveys a 
  sense of bemusement that Tiana might experience any sort of physical ailment 
  at all. "((Ach,))" he murmurs then, sympathetically, anxiously, "((me poor 
  love. Cannae blame ye, I've been... sick at me stomach, thinkin' on what's 
  happened as o' late, meself...))" Here in the privacy of Tiana's arms, he 
  can admit that. But now his embrace gentles, and he finishes, "((Th' mint 
  helpin' ye?))"

Tiana watchs her husband's face and the expressions that flit across his 
  features. Aye, she's been greatly bothered by the events of late and yet.. 
  something tells her that she's not suffering from that. No.. she won't think 
  about it.. not right now, there are too many other, more important, things 
  to deal with. She nods her head in reply to his question though, "((Aye, it 
  helps greatly,))" she admits then offers a reassuring smile to him before 
  adding, "((I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. I don't feel weak or ill.))"

"((Good))," comes Vardeus' reply, low and soft with relief. "((Ye'll tell 
  me... if ye feel summat else?))" His brow crinkles up a bit again, as he 
  sheepishly adds, "((Thought it was _ye_ who's s'posed t' be after _me_ to be 
  lookin' after meself, aye?))" This, though, granted, comes out with a 
  crooked, rueful smile.

Tiana chuckles and leans in to give Vardeus a quick kiss, "((Aye.. and you 
  should be but, I know you won't rest until we're safely away from here or 
  you're nearly falling asleep on your feet. If you get to that point again, 
  I'll definately be after you before you can say Skyfather's baubles.))"

That's the Tiana he knows and loves, and the Captain's laughter rumbles deep 
  within his chest, coming up to flavor his side of the kiss as he squeezes 
  the woman he loves close to him. _Now_ he is definitely unworried, and with 
  the vague little worry attended, he lets his embrace change again -- an arm 
  sliding down lower along Tiana's hips, his eyes turning smoky once again. 
  "((Good,))" he murmurs in satisfaction. "((Now, remind me, what time did ye 
  say it was then, love?))"

Tiana grins at her husband and snuggles as close as she possibly can. Her own 
  reply is slightly husky, "((It's not quite time to wake, carrus.))" Her jade 
  eyes have grown darker as his embrace shifted. Her hand begins drawing those 
  spirals once more and she leans in to nip playfully at his chin, even with 
  the beard that's grown back to cover it in the way.

To this, Vardeus shifts beneath the furs, the better to get into a position 
  where _his_ hands can begin to rove... and as they do, that beard of his 
  does absolutely nothing to conceal the devilish smile that blossoms out 
  across his face. One arm remains curled about Tiana, while he reaches with 
  his other hand to tug the blanket a little higher, just to block out the 
  world for a few precious moments of time they can steal together.
And as he does, he rumbles once more, this time with distinct anticipation, 
  "((_Good_.))"

[End log.]