The grey cloud of pipe-weed smoke dissipated quickly in the light breeze gently blowing under the brilliant noonday sun. After a few puffs, the traveler grinded his smoke out against the worn wooden slats of the cart that they finally climbed into and slept in last night, and flicked away the tip as he turned to look down at the sleeping girl who laid against his boney side.
She was even more perfect like this, he thought as his eyes followed the line of her petite body. Her tawny skin was soft and smooth despite the hardships they faced living off the road, and she smelled good; not like perfumed noble ladies artificially did - no, Kitten was not so pretentious as that - but her body’s natural scent faintly reminded him of the woods and of greening plants, and not at all of sweat and dirt and other baser things.
Just remembering those things set him aflame again. The girl had awoken a dormant hunger in him, and now he found it impossible to restrain it. He trailed a calloused fingertip along the curves of her side and Kitten soon blinked up at him, smiling and groggily whispering, "Hello."
A warm half-grin appeared as he bent down to kiss her gently, answering, "Good morning." She brightened at the kiss.
"Is it this late already? We slept the whole morning away," she sighed as she pulled herself up to seated. The traveler raised one hand to her shoulder to stop her, then gently pushed her back down to the floor of the cart, smile widening as he brought his lips to her neck.
"Early. Late. Does it matter?" He murmured against her skin as she giggled and replied, "I thought we had a book due."
He nodded against her neck, the fragrance of her filling his head with lascivious thoughts as he whispered back, "It is due and we will go return it. But I am not ready to leave yet."
She offered him no resistance as he began a long, slow trail of kisses across her body.
Cheeks flushed and eyes glazed, Kitten grinned brightly when he whispered that she tasted like raspberries before he helped her to stand. They gathered up their belongings for what travelling could be done with the remains of the day, and it was fortunate that Scary was not far now from where they stood.
As she pulled on her trousers, Kitten winced and sucked in her breath. She placed her hand on her rear and said, "I think I got a splinter from last night."
The traveler slipped behind her and asked her to show him, and as he crouched he indeed saw an embedded piece of rotten wood on her backside. He had only his nicked knives at hand though and they would cause more damage than help, so he promised to look for something small and sharp once they reached Scary. He planted a kiss on the reddened spot, and with that the realization that he could easily spend the entire day in the cart with her if he had no other obligations to meet jarred him.
Had he fallen that much, already? A single night with the woman in his arms and he’d completely lost his hard-earned self control.
She was only a momentary weakness, he sternly chided himself. As soon as she was safe again within Bree, he would slip away and return to being nothing. Nobody. Just a nameless figure in tattered garments following the dusty trails ever onward.
She would move on too, in time. There were good men in Bree, some with land and title. One would win her eventually. She would know a good life then.
And he would linger on, skulking in the shadows of his failures.
The pair jumped down off the cart at last, their shadows having grown longer against the pebbled road. The traveler let the girl walk ahead of him, her overly loose boots noisily flopping with her footfalls. Still she chose discomfort for his sake, and it unsettled him.
He lost himself to reflection as they passed by halfling homes and shops, remaining taciturn even as Kitten sought conversation. Past intertwined with present, the memory of the silvery voiced woman he knew as wife shadowed the figure of the fiery maned girl who reignited that which he thought extinguished.
The sun had disappeared beyond the horizon when they rounded a bend and saw the gates of Scary before them, Bounders lazily leaning against the stone wall enclosing the small town, the flickering torchlight sending dancing shadows over their green regimentals.
The traveler turned to the girl and asked her how her feet were, having walked a good ways with loose boots chafing her skin. She answered that they were fine before quickly changing the subject, wanting to know if the person he needed to return the book to was here.
Yes, I must return it here in Scary, though I know not which house. I will need to walk in the town to find the right person, he replied as he gestured towards Kitten’s bag. She smirked and reminded him that he had tried to hide his part in obtaining the book for her, at first. His mind still seemed to be faraway however.
With a pained expression she slid the borrowed tome into his hands, then the traveler asked her to wait and rest, for it might be some time before he returned. Kitten turned away and strode up a nearby hill, and when she had vanished into the dark he set to circling around the gate so as to avoid the otherwise inattentive Bounders.
OOC 1: No screenshots taken for this short roleplaying session. Player was tired at the time and simply forgot. Found one single shot.
OOC 2: Shout out to folks who may have been influenced to play a solitary, quiet, hooded, brooding mysterious wanderer of their very own. Peace and pipe-weed, friends.
