From the Ashes (w/ Holey, M)

[PendragonXeno94]

As the day dragged on, a young Phoenix had made her way through the trees to keep out of the sun. She had almost slipped off the branches once or twice, but she was able to keep her balance. Her white hair held red and orange highlights and was tangled from not being brushed for some time. Her coppery freckled skin was dotted in dirt. Silver eyes remained vigilant as she made her way down, being careful not to damage her tail feathers.

Moving along, the Phoenix found herself by the small waterfall she frequented. She discarded her tattered clothing in favor of jumping into the water, vigorously scrubbing her skin free of the dirt. She tried her best to detangle her hair but without a brush, she was unable to. Her necklace rested upon her chest, showcasing a white elephant in fire topaz. She started swimming around, letting her tail feathers be on display. Her feathers showed a white hue with red and orange eyespots as she dunked her face in the water. Soon, she was simply swimming around rather than bathing.

[Holeypaladin]

There were reports of flying creatures burning villages in the area. With the dragon war now raging the world, a red dragon slayer was dispatched to seek out the menace in the area and slay it. Some of the reports were varied and conflicting... did the creatures have two legs or four? Were they human, bird, lizard, or something else? Regardless, they were in fact a real threat, so a real warrior was sent to deal with them.

At this moment, however, the knight was weary. His water supply had run low, and hearing the sound of a waterfall in the distance, he decided to make his way over to the source of the noise. As he arrived, however, he saw that he was not alone... someone else was apparently using the water as a pool, swimming around without a care in the world. It was quite obvious that it was a woman... a very attractive woman... but what was most unusual was the fact that she had feathers. A harpy? But he didn't sense any malice from her... so he approached and sat on the edge of the water, watching her swim.

[PendragonXeno94]

She hardly noticed the knight that had approached as she dove under the water, letting her tail fan out. Her father had mentioned before that their fathers were highly valued and that other races hunted them for them. But she managed to stay away from everyone so far. Now that she was alone, she just... let herself wander. She had always wandered, but with her freedom she could explore to her heart's content.

Surfacing, she shrieked as she covered her body by submerging it once more with her head poking out. The human in question was just sitting on the edge of the water. Maybe he was one of those that hunted Phoenixes like her father had warned her about. Moving to the side with her body still concealed, the woman glanced at him as she went to hide herself in the thicket. After drying herself off and redressing, she slowly began to approach him, tail feathers fanned out. She had crouched to his level to tap on his helmet and armor. She even looked at her own reflection in it. Once she determined that he wasn't going to harm her, she giggled as she disappeared into the forest, wanting him to chase after her.

[Holeypaladin]

Chuckling at the girl's reaction to being seen swimming naked, the knight just casually sat still, filling up his water skins in the waterfall. He managed to steal a few glanced of her whenever he could, but she seemed a bit shy, so he was content to leave her be for the time being. Her feathers were rather interesting... not harpy feathers, but something more unique. He scanned her with his spirit sense to figure out her true nature... phoenix. Well, that explained a lot. She was walking with phoenix down on her butt.

Before long, she had dressed and seemed to slowly approach him, tap him, and run off. That was... odd. What exactly was that for? Was she... playing? "Oh..." he said, "Does this mean I'm it?" He was suddenly reminded of a children's game... she didn't look like a child, but if she wanted to play tag... well, he had nothing better to do at the moment. Standing to his feet, he chased off after the girl, navigating his way into the forest after her.

[PendragonXeno94]

As she scurried through the bushes, she climbed back into the trees, her feathers swishing as she vanished into the canopy. Perching on a branch for a moment, she watched as he came through. The Phoenix kept to the trees, wanting to hide for a few moments longer. Silver eyes followed him as she went deeper until she positioned herself behind a fallen tree.

She wasn't exactly sure what her father meant since the human was playing with her. Getting as close as she could, she held her feathers down as she crept behind him. It was so hard not to giggle as she peered over his shoulder. Backing up, she released her feathers, letting them fan out as she slipped into another part of the forest before folding them once more. This went one for another five or ten minutes before finally she went back to the trees to prepare pouncing on him.

[Holeypaladin]

The girl was playing with him... this much was obvious. The knight noticed the way she hid, climbed trees, and snuck up on him... but for the time being, he decided not to make it obvious that she noticed his presence. She seemed like a cute, playful, mostly harmless creature... he certainly didn't feel like he was in any real danger, nor did he portray the impression that he was hunting the girl down for malicious means. "Hellooooo," he said out loud, knowing she could hear him, "You knoww you can't hide forever..."

Pausing for a bit, he heard sounds from a tree behind him. So, she was climbing it... but for what reason? Still pretending not to notice her, he glanced at the girl from the corner of his eye. It looked like she was about to pounce... waiting until the last minute, he would turn as she began her pounce in order to catch her in his arms and hold her. "Gotcha!"

[PendragonXeno94]

Leaping to pounce on him, she yelped in surprise when he caught her in his arms. She was held in his arms, she reached and tried to stick her fingers into his helmet to see his face. This was the first time in a few years that she had seen a human up close. They looked like her but they lacked feathers and most of them didn't have powers. Her plumage flicked as she wanted to peek inside the thing.

She knocked on his armor lightly as she peered down at his weapons. What would he do with those? Did he mean to catch her so he could finish her later? Curiosity got the better of her as she ignored the possibly fatal alternative as she climbed down and inspected his personal arsenal. Once she was satisfied, she looked back up as she tried to read his face. The helmet seemed to block it, though.

"H-Hello?" she asked timidly. As she circled around him, her tail feathers twitched in agitation as she kept looking him over. She even had her hands running over him, not really meaning anything by it. She was touching an actual human! "Hello?" she asked again, tapping on his armor. "What are you doing out here? How did you find me?"

[Holeypaladin]

Catching the girl in his arms, he gave her a closer look. It was unusual to him to see a phoenix in a humanoid form... typically, they only used their bird forms. Well, he supposed that if dragons and beastfolk could take a human form, it wasn't too much of an exaggeration to think that some phoenix breeds were like another type of beastfolk... after all, the world was very, very big.

He let the girl examine him for a bit. She was a curious one... cute, too. She seemed overly fascinated by his equipment... such as his armor and weapons. Well, he had a lot more weapons at his disposal than the ones she was able to inspect, but she didn't need to know all of his abilities. Chuckling as she inspected him, he removed his helmet so that she could see him a bit better.

"Hi there," he said, giving her a brief wave. "Would you believe that it was coincidence that lead me to find you? I'm actually out here investigating reports of red dragons in this area..." he shrugged. "You wouldn't happen to know of any giant scaled lizards with wings flying around burning villages with their fire breath, would you? Also, what's your name, pretty girl?"

[PendragonXeno94]

She did have a bird form, but she was informed when she was younger that she put herself in more danger if she took that form. So she stuck with her humanoid form. The Phoenix paused for a moment. Red dragons? She hadn't seen any. Shaking her head, she reached up to touch his cheek. It felt like hers! Her hands hastily went for his hair, which she had ruffled all over the place.

"I haven't seen them," she said, "but they're probably closer to where I used to live." She paused when asked for her name. "It's Tati. Well, actually it's Tatiana, but I've always gone by Tati." Continuing to caress his hair, she marveled that how it felt like hers as well. His hair was even darker than hers. And his eyes! They weren't silver, but she always wondered if humans could have the same colored eyes as Phoenixes. "What's your name?" Excitedly, she moved her hands over his body, trying to figure out why the rest of his body was hard and cold but his face was soft and warm.

[Holeypaladin]

The phoenix girl seemed very interested in touching and examining him. To give her a taste of her own medicine, he reached out to touch her cheek as well. He touched her hair, as well, stroking and sliding his fingers through it as he gazed into her eyes. Her eyes were of an unusual color, but most of her features were indeed quite humanoid. With a shrug, he continued to touch her as he felt her hands over him.

"Nice to meet you, Tati," he said, continuing to stroke her hair, feeling how soft it was and sliding his fingers through it. "You're pretty, Tatiana," he said with a chuckle. His name? Pausing bit, he gave it some thought. "Hmm... Wilhelm," he said with a nod, pronouncing the W like a V. "I'm a dragon slayer. Where is it that you used to live?" As he felt her hands roam over her, he let his own hands wander hers, and eventually they settled on her breasts, gently caressing them. Soft, squishy... very feminine, for sure.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati giggled from him touching her cheek and stroking her hair. She hadn't been touched this way since she was a child. Her parent insisted that hair stroking should be for children or spouses, but she saw nothing wrong with touching his hair since she wanted to get a better feel for him.

"Thank you," she said, her timid voice returning as she called pretty. As she kept exploring him, she heard that his name was Wilhelm. Very odd name. "I used to live in-" She squeaked as her breasts were caressed, pulling away and bringing her plumage up in a semi diagonal fashion to hide her reddened face. "No one's touched me there before." She was sure that if she stayed in her homeland, it would have eventually happened. Clearing her throat, she slowly brought her feathers down as her cheeks lost their red hue. "I used to live in the Phoenix kingdom," she said. "Why would you touch my breasts?" she held them like they were in pain, though it was more out of shock than anything.

[Holeypaladin]

She seemed to enjoy being touched at first... all the way up until she froze mid sentence at the feeling of her breasts being touched. Trying to hide his smirk, he paused a bit, before saying "Hah! I win!" Pretending it was all some sort of game, he gave her a sort of questioning look. "What?" he said, "We weren't playing the 'touch each other until someone pulls away' game? I guess I got the wrong impression..." Well, it sounded like a good enough excuse to him, at least, since she seemed unfamiliar with him.

"There's a phoenix kingdom? Interesting..." He wasn't aware that the phoenixes had an organized society to that degree... they tended to be more playful, chaotic creatures like Tati, after all, though he supposed even wood elves had some sort of society, so it made sense that her kind might have one as well. "Well, we don't appear to be in any sort of phoenix kingdom..." he considered, "So where do you live now?"

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati threw a confused expression at him. Touching each other was a game? She had never heard of it. Sighing, she brushed her shirt as she sat in front of him, glancing up. He seemed like a strange human, indeed. But he was handsome enough, she supposed. Though Phoenix males were more exotic in their coloring.

She nodded. "I live here. I... I lost my way years ago. I haven't been able to find my way back so I stayed here. It's quiet, there's no one around, I can explore all day long." It was no secret that she suffered from wanderlust. She had to explore all of her new surroundings, even re-exploring to discover things she hadn't seen before. "I would point us about... that way." She gestured behind him. "That's as far as I've got." But she didn't seem all too eager to go back.

[Holeypaladin]

"You've been living here all by yourself?" He gave the girl a concerned look. How long did phoenix girls live? He didn't know their lifespan... only that they eventually lit up in flames as fires reduced their bodies to ash, only to be reborn from the ashes... a symbol of eternal reincarnation. Well, it was definitely possible to kill a phoenix, but they were still quite resilient. "Sounds lonely..."

Stroking her hair again, he pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her and squeezing. "It must be difficult, without any friends." He continued stroking her hair as he held her. "Why don't we be friends, then? That way, you don't have to be all alone anymore!" He doubted she'd accept his offer so easily, but then, who knew? All he knew was that this girl was pretty, and lonely, and he would like to, if possible, see if he could provide her with company. And the fact that she was a magical beast that surely held some powers that would insist in combat... was definitely a plus.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati nodded. "I don't mind, though." Well, there was a way to bypass the eternal rising from the ashes every time a phoenix died. Something about killing the soul that lingered in the ashes. She wasn't exactly sure how as she was never taught that. Though given the events, she was sure that was what happened to her father. "Well, it tends to be lonely, but..."

She was pulled into his arms, her hair stroked. He wanted to be her friend. "Ok." She stroked his hair in return, thinking the humans did that as an expression of friendship. Tati could hold her own in combat as all phoenixes inherited some ability in magic, some more than others. "So what do we do now?" she asked. Unfortunately for Tati, she was still fairly naive and had no idea what the knight had intended. All she knew was that he wanted to be her friend and keep her company.

[Holeypaladin]

Wilhelm actually was familiar with the method required to kill a phoenix permanently... if the ashes left behind were thrown into the river, which symbolized the flow of souls into the next life along with being the opposing element to the bird's fire, the phoenix would never be reborn again. Not that he had any such intention of doing so to his new friend... she looked young, though he had no idea how many times she had combusted and been reborn.

The naive girl didn't seem to know much about friendships or what to do next, preferring to follow his lead. The gave him... ideas. She was, after all, incredibly beautiful and exotic... "Well," he said, "That largely depends how close a friend you want to be. Since I'm currently your only friend... we can be very, very close," he said. "So in that case... you can press your lips up against mine and try to follow my lead..."

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati might have risen from her ashes at least once but she had no recollection of it, as phoenixes should remember each time they were reborn. All she knew was that she nearly drowned once in the river but her powers were able to prevent it. And now she might have found someone to take back to her kingdom.

Well, seeing how she was fairly young, and arguably incredibly sheltered, she waited until Wilhelm told her to press her lips on his. "Oh?" She traced his lips with one finger for a moment, contemplating if she should follow through. So she touched his cheek and brought her lips to his. Humans had a strange way of showing affection to their friends. "Like this?" she asked.

[Holeypaladin]

Observing the phoenix girl for a time, Wilhelm began to wonder if he was asking too much of her. She seemed a bit confused at first... but eventually, she followed through with his suggesion, and he felt her lips pressed against his. "Mhmm..." he said, pressing his lips back in a tender kiss. "Now follow my lead..." he said, trying to see just how far he could take this. He slid his tongue against her lips, tasting them gently, before drawing her into a deeper kiss, wrapping his arms around her.

Holding her close, he parted her lips with his tongue, stroking hers as he did, licking her tongue as he stroked her hair and held her body close to him. Eventually, he pulled away, gazing into her exotic eyes but still holding her with his arms wrapped around her. "So..." he managed to say, trying to suppress his excitement as much as possible, "Did you like that?"

[PendragonXeno94]

The phoenix opened her mouth slightly as he licked her lips before she pulled into a deeper kiss. She pressed herself against him as she kept her lips on his. Silently, she attempted to copy him as she stayed in his arms and stroked his raven hair in return. As she stood on her toes to level herself better for him, she held his face as she kept at it.

She almost whined in protest as he pulled away. She cast her eyes down for a moment before bringing them back up. "Yes," she whispered before pressing her lips against his once more, her fingers gripping his hair. She felt... different. Tati couldn't quite put her finger on it, but he did something to her. Did friends always do this?

[Holeypaladin]

"Since you enjoy it so much," said the knight, seeing just how close he could get to this adorable, naive, playful girl, "Perhaps we're compatible to be a certain type of special friend. You can be my 'girl friend' and I can be your 'boy friend' and we can do things like this together as much as we like," he said, stroking her hair and kissing her again, continuing to lick and stroke her tongue as he held her.

"Does that sound like something you'd like to be? You can only have one 'boy friend' at a time, since it's special, but then... I'm your only friend right now anyway, so I think that's fine." Stroking her hair, he gazed at her as he held her, wondering if she'd say yes. She seemed to enjoy kisses and being held quite a bit... so he was starting to think that he stood a chance with her.

[PendragonXeno94]

Oh, so they could be that type of friend? As he kissed her back, she nodded. She never had a boyfriend before so she was curious as to how it would turn. And she didn't mind having one boyfriend at a time. "What do boyfriends do with their girlfriends besides this?" Maybe they had a special way of showing affection, hence the kissing.

Peppering his lips with kisses, she felt even more different. Like her body was aching. Not that she was in pain, but... if there was such a thing as a good kind of aching then that was what her body had. There were slight changes she hardly noticed, but probably be known by Wilhelm.

[Holeypaladin]

As she readily agreed to be his girlfriend, the knight smiled as he heard her question. "That, my dear girlfriend, if a very good question." As her body had already begun to react to him just from the kissing, he felt like she was enjoying this experience as much as he was. "Come with me..." he said, "And I'll show you the special ways that boyfriends and girlfriends can do."

Taking her by the hand, he led her back to the waterfall, gazing at the girl. "Now... this is difficult to do with clothes on... so we'll take a bath while we do it." He said with a smile, "Sound good?" He was already starting to slide her clothes off, giving her more kisses and stroking her soft hair, holding her close to him as he undressed the beautiful phoenix.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati nodded, letting him take her by the hand back to the waterfall. She glanced up at him with her silver eyes, her cheeks already turning red. Well, she didn't really need another bath, but she thought he implied that he needed one. But she was more than happy to help him with his bath.

Letting him undress her, she struggled to remove the armor from him, though she eventually figured out how to free him from it. As she removed the last of his armor, she looked up and down at his body, noticing that underneath he had soft, warm skin like she did. Why would he wear the outer shell if it could come off? Tati, however, waded into the water as she beckoned for Wilhelm to follow her. Her tail feathers began to sprawl out and twitch as a way of courting. She couldn't understand why they were doing that on her own.

[Holeypaladin]

Taking his new girlfriend into the water, Wilhelm went on to show her several different ways that boyfriends and girlfriends could enjoy their time together. He almost felt like he was regretting taking advantage of her naive, trusting nature... but once he saw how eager the phoenix was to accept him and indulge in the pleasures he was teaching her, he got a bit carried away and lost track of how much he did to her.

By the time he had finished, he ended up picking the phoenix up in his arms rather than forcing her to walk funny, and kissed her. "Let's go to your tree house, then," he said as he followed the directions of the phoenix, carrying her in his arms up to her nest. He had never seen the home of a phoenix, as very few mortals knew much about the species, so he was eager to see where she lived.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati let him pick her up and pointed to him where she lived. She rested her head on his shoulder, grateful that he wasn't making her walk as she was walking funny from their "special time" in the water. Once they reached further into the forest, they came across the largest tree that stood proudly almost at the center. "Here," she said.

Climbing out of Wilhelm's embrace, she began to climb up the tree to her beloved home as she removed a few stray branches from the floor. It wasn't much. Just logs and the like that were built through magical means since she was inept with building things by hand. The grassy roof had hardened and been fortified by the several layers of mud and leaves that have been added over the years of her solitude. The home was mostly barren except for a small stone fire pit, sparsely placed furniture she had found and the large nest she constructed. Having found the abandoned caravan a few years ago, she was able to make herself feel even more at home as she brought back blankets and pillows and some other things. Her nest was made of materials one would find in a bird's nest but she added a few of her molted feathers to it so others would know she used it. "It's not much... but it works."

[Holeypaladin]

Not being sure what to expect, Wilhelm found it rather cliche that her home was, of course, a bird's nest. A fancy one, however, which provided shelter from the elements. "How cute..." he said, following her up into her nest. He entered, looking around and examining the materials. She had done a pretty good job in constructing a makeshift shelter, though it was quite obviously scavenged materials.

"It looks cozy," he said, finding a seat on the pillows and pulling the phoenix into his lap, holding her close. He wondered what her reasons were for showing him this home... did she want him to move in with her? While the thought of living with her in seclusion had its merits... he had other duties to attend to, as well. "Tati..." he ended up saying eventually. "I want you to come with me on my mission." He gave her a hopeful look as he kissed her tenderly. "Won't you?"

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati giggled, she didn't think he'd find her nest cute. She only made it more comfortable for herself so she wouldn't get so cold or rely only on her feathers as a blanket at night. As she sat in his lap, she pulled the blanket over them so they could be warmer. It was going to get dark soon, so she didn't want to start shivering. She always closed the shutters to further keep the air from coming in at night before she went out for her afternoon stroll. Snuggling up to him, the phoenix nuzzled his chest before he spoke.

"You want me to go with you?" she asked. "But... what if someone steals my house?" Well, it was obvious he would be lonely if she didn't go with him. "I can go." Returning his kiss, she held his cheek before she glanced up at him. "I don't really have much except some fruits to eat. I can go get something else if you don't want fruit tonight."

[Holeypaladin]

Wilhelm was fine with the idea of spending the night in this girl's nest... it certainly beat trying to pitch camp in an unfamiliar area. He squeezed her in his lap, watching as she insulated the small home in preparation for the cold night air. He held her head to his chest, stroking her hair and gently squeezing her as she spoke. He placed a tender kiss on her head as he slid his fingers through her hair, nodding at her words.

"Fruit is fine," he said. "And if someone steals your house.. we can get a better one. Dragons have a ton of gold, you know. All we need is a handful of their treasure and we'll be able to buy just about anything you might want from a human city." Squeezing her close, he kissed and held her. "I'm on a quest to save the world... well, to contribute and do my part towards saving it, at least. As you're magical creature, I'm sure you can help me out a lot!"

[PendragonXeno94]

"They do?" she asked. So it was true. Dragons did have lots of riches that they kept to themselves. She wasn't really sure what she would do with it, but she was sure Wilhelm would help her out. Nodding, she got up and brought some fruit to the nest, nibbling on one. Well, if he wanted to buy her a new house, he could. But since they were to leave, she needed to pack what she couldn't bear to leave behind.

She quirked a brow as he said he was on a quest to save the world. "From what?" Well, he did ask if she saw dragons lately. And she had her powers and had lots of magic at her disposal. So... "I could help. I can show you my state of power later, if you want." The phoenix had been told that her state of power... gave everyone a wide berth, whatever that meant. She also only used it when the danger was greatest, or so she was told...

[Holeypaladin]

"Oh yeah," he nodded, explaining the nature of dragons to the phoenix. "All dragons are greedy to some degree or another... they have a tendency to collect as much treasure as they can over their long lifespans. And considering they live until someone kills them... that tends to be a rather long time, especially considering they only grow more powerful with age." He shrugged, "More treasure than we'll need, that's for sure." He waited as she brought up fruit, helping himself to some of it as he wrapped his arms around the phoenix.

"From itself," he said with a bit of a laugh. "There are two kinds of dragons, and they're at war with each other. Problem is, they either view mortals as pawns on a chess board, or value them enough to want to protect them. Either way, everyone is getting involved to some degree, as this war will end up shaping the next Age." He kissed her tenderly and nodded. "I'd like to see it," he said, "Just try not to burn me," he added in a slightly teasing way.

[PendragonXeno94]

So there were two kinds. She always thought they was only one kind of dragon. But she knew that they were already powerful creatures. Phoenixes only became more powerful the more they rose from their ashes, almost to the point where they were almost immortal. There were a few before her time who aspired to godhood only to be brought crashing down and their ashes thrown into the river.

How did the world need saving from itself? That didn't make sense to her. Well, she seemed to lean more towards the kink that didn't want to use everyone. But when he said he wanted to see her form, she sighed, moving away from his lap to stand. "I have to channel it enough so I don't blow things up." Sitting criss-cross, she slowly levitated herself, her feathers fanning out as they seemed to enlarge. Her eyes were completely silver as her hair flowed freely and several pairs of arms grew from her back. A silvery-gold aura surrounded her; shortly after, she quickly reverted back to her humanoid state and almost collided with the floor. "I'm sorry, using it drains me so much."

[Holeypaladin]

The knight watched the phoenix girl reveal her form, gazing at her. "Interesting...." he said, examining the way she looked. He wasn't aware that they had arms grow from their back like that, having figured they looked like birds, really. As she reverted back to her humanoid form, he caught her in his arms, squeezing and holding her. "Don't worry," he said, "I have ways of recharging you." Giving her a tender kiss, he stroked her hair and held her.

It seemed like phoenixes were capable of incredibly power... far more so than most stories told. It wouldn't surprise him if the dragons were jealous of their power and culled their numbers every few centuries, as they were one of the few species in the world which grew more powerful over time. Dragons did strive to remain the most powerful species in the world, after all, and many of them were in fact more powerful than gods already.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati did have a bird form, which she would have used if that was her most powerful form. There were only certain bloodlines that had the form she possessed. Those lines were just as powerful as the oldest dragons. Holding onto him, she returned his kiss and let him stroke her hair. "Like what? I can always eat or sleep to recharge my energy."

Unless he meant the special time they would have with each other like earlier. "We can see if the phoenixes would want to help, too. I'm sure they'd be happy to." Though she had been away for years, the young phoenix hoped that not much had changed while she had lived on her own in the forest.

[Holeypaladin]

"You can... but those also take time," he said, stroking her hair and kissing her again, holding her close in his arms. "Since you have a boyfriend now, it opens up a few other alternatives, too." He stroked her hair as he held her in his arms, gently kissing her cheek. "But yes... we should visit the phoenixes, like you said. They won't listen to me, but perhaps they'll listen to you, since you're one of them."

He wasn't aware of how much authority she held within the hierarchy of her kind, though he had sensed great power from her true form, despite her obvious inexperience. He highly doubted most of her kind had anywhere near a fraction of the power that she had displayed, so she would indeed be a valuable ally, as well as pleasant company. This should be interesting indeed.

[PendragonXeno94]

Well, they do, but she wasn't sure what having special time with him would do for her. But she was happy to hear that Wilhelm wanted to go to the phoenix kingdom with her. "I'm sure Mother has come back by now and that Gafur is still there. He was my mentor when Mother and Father were too busy. He taught me how to control my magic."

She snuggled closer to him, pulling the blanket around them more. She was fairly exhausted thanks to the knight and she needed to rest. His body would provide more warmth for her. The phoenix was excited to introduce him to her mother and mentor if they were still alive. Though she remember Gafur chased all the boys away for some reason.

[Holeypaladin]

"Sounds good," said the knight, stroking the girl's hair and kissing her tenderly. "Tomorrow, then, we'll head towards your homeland." He wasn't sure what had caused her to leave her homeland and live alone in the first place... but he supposed the phoenix would tell him when she was ready to do so, and didn't pressure her on this matter. Though they had hit it off incredibly well for their first time meeting, there was still a long way to go, after all.

As she snuggled closer to him, the knight kissed his girlfriend, and proceeded to teach her the sort of things boyfriends and girlfriends did at night in bed prior to sleep. After exhausting her along with his practical instructions, Wilhelm went to sleep, holding his beautiful new girlfriend in his arms.

[PendragonXeno94]

"Tomorrow then," she said, before being shown other special things boyfriends and girlfriends do. When she awoke, they went at it again all because she was curious of one little thing. But she didn't mind. Though at the end due to her dancing a bit, she went into her celestial form, her eyes turning completely silver. Soon she collapsed on top of him, sighing contently. "I don't know what happened," she said.

She, of course, wanted to relay this to her mentor if she saw him again when the entered her homeland. He was bound to be impressed.She couldn't wait to show Wilhelm her home where all the phoenixes flew free and kept to themselves away from the prying eyes of the outside world. Laying on top of him for a moment, Tati ruffled his hair before getting up and getting dressed, nibbling on some leftover fruit. "We need to use these up," she said, beginning to pack whatever she could not leave behind.

[Holeypaladin]

Though he wasn't sure of the exact cause of her silver eyed form, Wilhelm figured it was energy overflow from all of the spiritual energy transfer they had been performing since the previous day. After satisfying her as much as he could for one morning, he got dressed as well, finishing off what fruit he could. Wrapping an arm around his girlfriend, he gave her a tender kiss.

"Whenever you're ready," he said, holding her in his arms. He wasn't sure if she'd be able to walk, but since she was a phoenix, she could always just fly. "If your legs hurt too much," he said, "Go ahead and fly." He hadn't seen her bird form yet, after all, so it would be interesting to watch her fly if she chose to do so. He didn't see anything particularly valuable in the nest, but allowed the girl to pack the things that she personally valued, at least.

[PendragonXeno94]

Her legs did hurt somewhat, now that he mentioned it. She would have to revert to her bird form so she wouldn't have Wilhelm wait for her. As she packed, she gathered whatever she had from when she left her original home, some things that she grew attached to, and some other things that she might need, like her blankets and the mirror.

Once she was ready, she patted the nest before walking outside to shift into her bird form: a white phoenix with red and orange coloring. Her wings were larger than her body and she took off, hovering over until she saw Wilhelm making his way out so she stayed above him as if to guide him to where they were going.

[Holeypaladin]

Though he would have liked to hold his girlfriend in his arms, the knight settled for admiring her winged form as she flew overhead. Realizing it would be faster to simply fly along with his, he concentrated on evolving his magic circuits, using the spiritual energy he had gained through his relationship with the beautiful woman, and before long, he incanted the words, "Wiap, ihk drong tairais."

As he finished his incantation, he levitated off of the ground without the need for wings, and soon he was flying alongside Tati, occasionally reaching over to stroke her feathers. Since the forest terrain was no longer an obstacle, he was able to speed up his pace quite a bit, and keep up with the phoenix as she soared through the air.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati hardly noticed that Wilhelm was managing to fly without growing wings until he stroked her feathers. She shook her body slightly as she kept soaring over the canopy. Wilhelm seemed to like her bird form though she thought nothing of it. So she continued until they were near where she originally lived. Reverting to her human form, she glanced over at her boyfriend. "How did you do that?" she asked.

Two older phoenixes spied them from afar before sneaking off into the shadows. No human has set foot in their kingdom for centuries, and one of their own was willingly bringing one in. No phoenix in their right mind would do that! But their king would probably want to hear of this. However, they brought word to the court advisor first, who seemed to perk up at the description of the female. He immediately flew off to find her.

"Tatiana!" he shouted, his gray feathers slowly fanning out at his feet, blue and black eyespots seemingly glinting.

[Holeypaladin]

"Magic!" said the knight, twirling around the phoenix and gazing at her. "Alteration spell, actually... it involves a telekinetic manipulation of one's own body." It was a fairly advanced spell, hence the need for him to evolve his circuits in order to use it, but it was fun to fly next to his beautiful girlfriend, though in her current form she wasn't exactly physically compatible with him.

"We've been spotted," he said, noting the two scouts that had detected them entering the phoenix kingdom. Sure enough, before long, another phoenix had approached them... this one a male. He seemed to recognize Tati immediately, though he wondered why she would prompt such a reception for her return. He had no idea anything about the girl's lineage, after all.

[PendragonXeno94]

She had returned to her human form as he said they were spotted, sighing. "I know..." She tended to know where the scouts were and when they were there. But seeing the male approach her, she squinted her eyes as he got closer. He had short gray hair and his skin was milkier in color, his feathers a great deal larger than her own with blue and black markings on his shoulders and arms.

"Gafur!" she exclaimed, running to him and hugging him. "It's so nice to see you again!"

"What is he doing here?" accused Gafur, pointing at the knight. "Didn't I tell you that-"

"His name is Wilhelm." She shyly looked at the ground as her body turned slightly. "He's my boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?!" His yellow eyes snapped at Wilhelm's direction. "I don't believe it. Your father would be so disappointed."

"But he's not like-"

"He's probably using you so he can tell everyone where we are! Just..." He huffed to himself before placing a hand on her shoulder. "Bring him in, but I want him where I can see him."

[Holeypaladin]

"Paranoid much?" The knight shrugged and proceeded to take Tati's hand in his own, gently squeezing it as he observed the reactions of the older man. Certainly, there were humans who hunted phoenixes for their feathers, as they had unrivaled restorative powers... but he wasn't interested in such things. "Relax, old man... if I had come for feathers, I'd have plucked some of hers by now."

Wrapping his arms around Tati's waist, he squeezed her gently in his arms. "I have other reasons for coming. Some disturbing reports... just so happened to meet this pretty little thing along the way." He placed a tender kiss on Tati's neck, on a spot where he had marked her at some point in their recent activities together.

[PendragonXeno94]

"Hmph." Gafur watched while trying to conceal his disgust as the knight held Tati's hand and hugged her. "Well, you have a fair point. Most humans would have killed her for her feathers by now." But he was still weary as there was something different about Tati, something he hardly approved of.

"The dragons. I know." He pulled Tati away once Wilhelm dared to kiss her neck. That was when he noticed the mark on her neck. "How did you get this?"

"Well, Wilhelm and I were doing special things that boyfriends and girlfriends do."

Gafur grimaced. "Do you realize what he did to you? He's corrupted you!" Pulling her along, he beckoned for Wilhelm to come with them. "I will be holding Tatiana," he grumbled.

[Holeypaladin]

"She's fine," said Wilhelm, wrapping his arms around the phoenix girl and pulling her back into his arms. "In fact, she's better than fine. She's incredibly powerful, in fact... far more powerful than any ordinary phoenix that I'm aware of." He still didn't know much about her bloodline, but he had indeed given her a lot of power in their special things earlier.

"Anyway, you're not taking her away from me against her will... right, Tati?" He placed another tender kiss on her cheek, seemingly unintimidated by this old man's attempt to take her away from him. Phoenixes were known for using fire magic, but Wilhelm's red dragonscale armor was every bit as effective at defending against phoenix fire as it was at defending against dragon fire.

[PendragonXeno94]

Gafur pulled her away from Wilhelm once more after he took her back and kissed her cheek. "Well, as the princess of her people, I would certainly hope she's more powerful than the rest." He sighed, keeping Tati to one side as he pushed Wilhelm along. "Well, she was. Her father died because he was betrayed. I think, anyway. Everyone else says that it was an accident when the palace burned down. Oh, your poor mother has been worried about you. She had to remarry the new king."

"Who is the new king?"

"Ivan." Gafur seemed to scowl at uttering his name. "Good for nothing bastard. He even had your mother give him an heir."

Tati's silver eyes brightened. "I'm a sister?" she asked with a huge grin.

"Yes, but that's not the point. Ivan doesn't want you to assume the throne so he and your mother had a son."

"Is he a baby?"

Gafur rolled his eyes. "Yes... he's three."

Tati squealed happily, passing under the large willow trees that gave away to the city of amber and gold. It looked the same as it did before, but she already knew her father wouldn't be here when she got back. At least her mother was still alive, so she could go see her. And she had a stepfather and a little brother!

The mentor was less than enthused. "Why are you happy? Don't you care that you almost died because Ivan wanted to-"

"He'd never do that!" she said, as cheerful as ever.

[Holeypaladin]

"Princess?" The knight was somewhat shocked by the words of the old man. Glancing over to Tati, he said, "You never told me you were a princess! I'd have totally sexed you even harder... that's so incredibly hot!" Glancing at Gafur, he paused, "Er... something like that," he chuckled, shrugging his shoulders.

Listening to the rest of the man's words, Wilhelm frowned. A conspiracy in the palace... an assassination of the old king... finally an explanation for why the hot princess was living alone in the woods... a pretender on the throne, with an heir. "Oh..." he said. "Oh.... this is bad."

Nudging Gafur, the knight shook his head. "You're still loyal to your princess... right? You wouldn't speak treacherous words against the pretender king if he had your loyalty, so I'm assuming that's a yes. In which case... we can't take Tati back to the palace. At least, not unless we're prepared for a fight. Are you prepared to kill your own kind? Because the first thing Ivan will do is try and burn off loose ends... which means executing or assassinating the princess."

He knew that Tati was naive and altogether too trusting... but Wilhelm himself knew enough about the ways of the world to realize that she was, in fact, a direct threat to Ivan's authority, as she was the rightful heir to the throne, rather than a pretender king's offspring.

[PendragonXeno94]

With Tati blushing furiously, Gafur gave Wilhelm a death glare. "I think you corrupted her enough, don't you think?" He kept an arm around the princess as they kept walking toward the palace. "You need to keep your voice down. You'd be incinerated on sight for that,. You're already at risk of that for setting foot here." Indeed, more humans were burned alive if they set foot on their land and were dealt with on sight. But with him in the company of two powerful phoenixes, he had some safety though he still that danger to worry over.

"If her mother was dead, he'd wanted that. But he doesn't want to be at odds with Amita. He knows she would go after him if he had something to do with Tatiana being in harm's way. So I think she's safe for the time being." Not only that, Ivan wouldn't outright have her hunted down. Maybe if she was threat to everyone he would have no choice. "So for now, Tatiana has nothing to worry about."

"He wouldn't hurt me," protested Tati, "he's so nice."

Gafur shook his head. Tati was a threat to Ivan's rule but with her mother as queen she wouldn't allow him to do anything to her. But why would she have remarried when she loved her first husband so much? Nearing the palace, Gafur waved the guards off to lower their weapons as they entered the gate. The halls were mostly barren save for s few golden statues of birds. Once the reach the jade throne room, the mentor bowed to the two on the obsidian thrones.

The male was tan with various shades of off white and red dotting his skin and predominately in his long hair and feathers; his dark green eyes glaring at the human and the young phoenix that accompanied him. The female's long green braid ended at her knees with her dark skin covered in violet and blue markings. She stood upon seeing Tati. "My baby!" she cried, running to her and pulling her into an embrace.

"Mama!" said Tati, joyfully hugging her back.

[Holeypaladin]

The knight was still unconvinced. They were entering dangerous territory, with an apparently hostile race to deal with as well. "Incinerated on sight? With that sort of hostile attitude, it's no wonder your kind are hunted... have you considered diplomacy instead? There are many different kinds of humans, after all." A trade agreement would be far more beneficial to both races than a mere poacher versus burninator relationship.

"You think she's safe..." he said with amusement. "Would you be willing to stake your life and hers on that claim?" Wilhelm was at least somewhat relieved to realize that Tati's power was not typical of a phoenix, but that it was more likely a result of her royal bloodline... but being alone in the company of other royal phoenixes was a bit more than he was currently equipped to handle. Perhaps some more time with Tati would allow him to evolve into a dragon knight, but until then... he would have to avoid offending these creatures too much.

With high skepticism, the knight watched as the phoenix queen greeted her daughter. She genuinely seemed to miss her and be glad to see her... but why had she betrayed her by marrying the pretender? Though Tati seemed to trust Ivan and the queen, Wilhelm didn't trust either of them... not did he trust Gafur. The only one he knew he could count on was, in fact, Tatiana herself. But at least he realized from the way the pretender's emotions betrayed him that he was, in fact, the enemy.

[PendragonXeno94]

"We prefer to keep to oursevles," said Gafur as they walked the halls. "And we have reason."

Amita stroked her daughter's hair before looking at her. "I thought you were dead."

"No, I was living in the forest until Wilhelm found me."

She raised an eyebrow. "Who's Wilhelm?" The queen looked at the knight and gestured to him questioningly.

"He's my boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?" asked Ivan, finally deciding to speak. "You brought a human into our lands because he's some boyfriend?" Rubbing his eyes, he moved down to place his hands on her shoulders. "I'm glad to see you live, but why would you bring a human here?"

"He said he was hunting dragons."

"Huh." Ivan eyed Wilhelm's dragon armor. "That explains his ridiculous attire." Smiling at his stepdaughter, he patted her head and glanced over at the human. "As long as he's supervised, he can stay. But he is not to be in the same you as without without proper guard."

"But-"

"But nothing," he continued, tapping the female's nose. "I won't let him do anything to you."

Gafur huffed. "Sire, she told me that they did 'special things.'"

"I see." He sighed, knowing what that meant. "Well, I can't betroth you to anyone now since..." Oh, she wouldn't understand. Tati was still just as naive as she was before. "Amita, would you show these two to their rooms?"

Amita nodded, taking her daughter by the arm and moving out of the room.

Gafur somewhat shoved Wilhelm forward. "Go on now."

[Holeypaladin]

Wilhelm expected that the phoenixes would try to separate them... but there was no way he'd leave Tati alone in this hostile place. It was time to play a bit with magics that he never though he'd end up using... and to take a slightly different evolutionary route than he might normally have used. He followed the instructions of the guards... for now. But as soon as he was in his room, he concentrated on evolving his magic circuits.

He would lose much of his dragon slaying potential... but this could not be helped. Tati had become more important to him, so she would need to be preserved at all costs. Instead he developed his circuits along the lines of illusion and compulsion. A stealthy approach... transforming himself from a Dragonslayer into an Arcane Infiltrator. But he decided to keep the red dragonscale... it would be useful against phoenixes, after all.

Once that was done, he decided on his next course of action. To create a realistic, lifelike illusion of one's self was actually highly advanced magic.. which was why it was necessary to adopt Illusion as a primary circuit. He concentrated on his new circuit and incanted, "Trilvol di sio, zi lesota." As he finished his incantation, a very realistic, lifelike image of himself, complete with sounds, appeared on his bed, sleeping.

With that taken care of, he incanted the words, "Rifstejarwim, jennuilt." This caused Wilhelm to turn invisible, allowing him to sneak in to Tati's room and evade the guards... which is exactly what he did. He was still invisible when he entered her room, but the first thing he did was incant the words, "Jashi wyogale de shio."

Finally alone with his girlfriend, the infiltrator cancelled his invisibility spell, appearing next to her. "We're alone now," he said, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her deeply. "There's no way I'd let them take us apart so easily. That did use up a lot of energy, though..." He had used quite a few spells in order to sneak in to her room, after all.

[PendragonXeno94]

Seeing how they wanted the two of them to be in separate rooms for now, Tati glanced at Wilhelm before being placed in her room. "But Wilhelm can stay with me."

"No, child," said Amita. "It's safer this way for now. Maybe in time, but Ivan doesn't seem too pleased with him." Stroking her daughter's hair. "It's been a long day. Get some sleep." She kissed her forehead before exiting. "I'll have some clean clothes for you soon."

Tati curled up in the nest, her bag of things next to it for the time being. As she slowly drifted off to sleep, she felt someone wrap their arms around her before seeing that it was Wilhelm. "How did you get in here?" she asked.

[Holeypaladin]

"I'm a mage," said the man with a chuckle, "I used magic. Well, I had to switch around the circuits in order to use the right kind of magic, but... I have a feeling these circuits will be necessary soon. I'm expecting someone to assassinate the illusionary double that I left behind... they really want me dead. They'll probably have some 'he left this morning' excuse for you tomorrow for why I'm gone, too... but enough speculating for now, it's been a long day and I missed you."

Kissing her tenderly, he began to slide her clothes off, in order to show the phoenix how much he missed her. Since he had used a privacy spell, she could be as loud as she wanted and the guards outside her nest would be completely clueless as to what was going on... and so, Wilhelm decided to take advantage of this time he had acquired.

[PendragonXeno94]

Letting him climb into her nest, she enjoyed the time the spent until someone pounded on her door, making her hurry up and finish things before hastily getting dressed.

"Princess?" the voice asked.

"Yes?"

"Is there someone in there?"

"N-"

Before long, the door creaked open. "Princess, please. We just want to make sure you're-"

"I'm fine!" she said quickly, her cheeks reddening.

The guard had noticed something in her nest so he barged in. "What happened?"

"Nothing. I'm fine. Go away!"

"Tatiana!" called Gafur, making his way to her room. "I know that human's here somewhere. We found his double in his room." The old man had a way of deciphering what was a double and what wasn't as he heavily concentrated his magic in Illusion. "Have you seen him?"

She shook her head.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

Huffing to himself, he ordered the guards to search the palace again as she didn't seem to have known the boy's whereabouts.

[Holeypaladin]

Wrapping his arms around the girl from behind, the real Wilhelm squeezed and held her. "They killed it," he said, whispering into her ear. "That's how they know it wasn't me. You can probably smell the smoke in the air, if you try... reduced the bed to ash, but didn't leave a body behind. Feel free to go check.. before they clean up the mess and replace the bed with a new one."

He wasn't sure if Gafur was the one who tried to kill him, or if it was Ivan, but someone wanted him dead... and Wilhelm wasn't too keen on letting himself get killed any time soon. He maintained his invisibility, his arms wrapped around the phoenix princess.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati went to go check his room, seeing that the nest was reduced to ash before hastily returning to her room.

"What's the meaning of this?" she heard her mother demand. "I told you no burning guests in my palace!"

"But Amita," protested Ivan. "The human is a threat! That was a double that we killed!"

"I don't care! He came in with my daughter and she obviously trusts him. If I hear you or Gafur decide to do anything else, I'll make you life a living hell. You just sit your feathery ass on the throne because you're too much of a coward to do anything."

"But Amita-"

"Don't you Amita me! I want nothing else burned because of some assumption. We'll deal with him if proven otherwise. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, dear."

"Good." It sounded like she turned on her heel. "Go back to bed. Let me check on Tatiana." The door opened slightly. "Darling, are you alright?" Her mother's voice was noticeably calmer.

"Yes," the young princess answered.

"Is your pet with you?"

Her cheeks reddened, looking away from the older woman.

"Dear, I know he's in here. Just remember that he can turn on you. I'll make sure nothing happens to you ever again." Moving into the room, she pulled her daughter into an embrace before kissing her forehead. "Get some sleep."

"Yes, Mother."

Once Amita closed the door, Tati turned to her invisible boyfriend.

[Holeypaladin]

Sure enough, Wilhelm was in the room the whole time, his eyes narrowed as the current ruler openly admitted to having him assassinated in his sleep. He restrained himself from acting... for now... though that Ivan certainly wouldn't be getting away with such things in the long run. He also didn't like the way the queen had referred to him as her pet... but at least she had spoken against the words of the king. But perhaps that had also been for his benefit, as she seemed to know he was in the room.

Wrapping his arms around the princess, Wilhelm became visible once more, and kissed her. "I'm not a pet," he said. "And I'm not going to turn on you, either... that Ivan, however.... he needs to die. He tried to kill me... you heard it yourself... one does not simply try to kill me and get away with it." He held Tati, pulling her into the bed and squeezing her. "I hope you understand..."

[PendragonXeno94]

"But he said 'we,'" she added, "so it's not just him." Why would they try to hurt her boyfriend when he didn't do anything? At least her mother had taken a stand against Ivan. And why were they so concerned about where he was? "If you kill him, then the kingdom would hunt you down. And then they'd want me dead because I brought you here." That was how it was. If a human was brought in by a phoenix and committed a heinous crime, the phoenix would punished along with the human simply because they brought them along. "Please just don't do it... for me."

Pressing her body against his, a tear rolled down her cheek. Maybe she shouldn't have brought him to her homeland, or became his girlfriend for that matter. But he was so nice to her. She never had a boyfriend before, and it showed. She really wanted to keep him around despite him wanting to do something horrible like killing her stepfather.

[Holeypaladin]

"I never said I had to be the one to kill him..." said Wilhelm. "But, he does need to die... he's a bad person. That's reason enough, right?" Squeezing Tati in his arms, he held her close, wiping her tear and kissing her. "Since he didn't work alone, he's not the only bad guy... well, let's not worry about it for now." The princess was far too kind for her own good... but someone needed to fight for her, even though she wouldn't fight for herself.

"We're alone again, at least," he said, kissing her deeper as he laid her back on the bed. "Since my bed got turned into ash, I guess I'm going to have to sleep in yours," he said in a slightly teasing tone. Of course, he had no intention of returning to his room to begin with... but at least now he had a decent excuse. Sliding Tati's clothes off once again, he lowered her onto the bed.

[PendragonXeno94]

All this talk of killing just soured her mood. Though he said he wasn't going to do it, Ivan was still a bad person. But why would he want that? As Wilhelm kissed her and lowered her onto the bed, she pulled away when he slid her clothes off. "I'm tired," she said. He already wore her out and she didn't feel like going at it again.

She pulled her blanket over her just as she pulled him closer to her. Laying her head on his chest, she stroked his hair as she buried her face in his neck. The phoenix squeezed him in her arms and yawned softly. "Good night, Wilhelm," she said softly, curling up next to him and drifting off to sleep.

[Holeypaladin]

He hadn't intended to ruin the girl's mood... but it seemed it couldn't be avoided. He had a strong sense of justice, but a tendency to say the wrong thing, at times... while Tati seemed like a complete pacifist. Pacifism only worked if one could rely on someone else for protection, however, and he didn't particularly like the methods of protection the other phoenixes had employed... as they would have killed him, had he not chosen to sneak out of his room that night.

Sighing, he wrapped his arms around the phoenix, holding her and stroking her hair. He already knew that he wanted to be closer to this girl's heart than he was... but how to accomplish that? Even as she seemed able to sleep just fine, Wilhelm was unable to sleep until a bit later, lost in thought regarding how to proceed. Eventually, however, he did fall asleep.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati stirred a little throughout the night as her feathers flicked. She had a dreamless night as she tossed and turned once or twice. Opening her eyes, the phoenix glanced over at the knight, remembering what he had said the night before. Well, she would have to refrain him from doing anything that would harm both of them in the long run.

Touching noses with him, she gave him a tender kiss as she let her feathers move over his body. She leaned down and kissed his forehead, stroking his cheek. "Wilhelm..." she whispered. "Wilhelm..." She prodding his shoulder with one finger. "Wake up."

[Holeypaladin]

Feeling the phoenix stir him awake, Wilhelm woke up and kissed her, rolling her onto her back. "Morning, Tati," he said before proceeding to properly greet her, kissing her and tending to her body for some time. Once her had finished, he held the phoenix princess in his arms, squeezing her and stroking her hair. "You're so beautiful," he said to her as he gazed into her eyes.

Stroking her feathers a bit, he glanced at her. "Can I... have a couple of these? For emergency... in case they actually do discover me and I suffer serious injury..." Phoenix feathers were known to have remarkable restorative powers, after all, and were the primary reasons why her kind were hunted by evil poachers. They grew back like any other feather, so there was no need to poach the creatures in order to obtain such feathers. As a princess, Tati's feathers were more powerful than most of her kind, as well.

[PendragonXeno94]

She let him tend to her, loving every minute of it, even bringing out her celestial form in the end. Once she had reverted back, she pressed her frame against his as he stroke her hair. The phoenix caressed his cheek before tenderly pressing her lips on his. Glancing on at her feathers, she fanned them out for a moment. Phoenixes had several layers of feathers that were added on as they got older, so hers had only a few layers.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt if you took a couple," she said after some consideration. They would grow back, so it wasn't that big of a deal to her. She didn't know why he needed them other than in case of an emergency, in fact she didn't know what he meant by that. But if it made him feel better then he can have one or two.

[Holeypaladin]

It seemed the girl didn't really know what he might need the feathers for, so as he caressed her and gently removed a couple of them, he squeezed her in his arms. "Phoenix feathers are magical," he explained, kissing her tenderly and holding her. "I'll take good care of these, and only use them in the most dire of circumstances..." Squeezing her more, he kept kissing her as he explained.

"The reason bad people hunt your kind are because of your feathers. Phoenix down is perhaps the most powerful restorative in the world... a single feather can bring a man back from the brink of death, you see." He squeezed her more. "Humans don't rise from the ashes like your kind do, so they need to rely on other ways of recovery. When we make you queen, we'll instead work out a fair trade agreement to sell feathers to humans in need so that your kind are no longer hunted, alright?"

[PendragonXeno94]

"I figured they were," she said, after he gently took a couple of feathers. They would grow back and she had enough to where that two missing feathers wouldn't even be noticed. But why would he need them, anyway? What kind of situation would be counted as dire?

The phoenix didn't realize that the power in her feathers was the reason why her kind had been hunted down for generations. She was told that feathers like hers were pretty and humans used them for decoration and to stick them on their clothes and hats. She had seen one human woman was a few phoenix feathers in her hat, and it looked silly on her. But then Wilhelm suggested that they set up a fair trade so that the hunting could be stopped. "But what if I don't want to be queen?" she asked.

[Holeypaladin]

Squeezing Tati in his arms, Wilhelm kissed her tenderly. "A certain Emperor I know has a saying..." he said. "Those who desire power are usually the least qualified to wield it. The fact that you don't want to be queen... means that you'll probably be a very good queen." He kissed her again, stroking her feathers and holding her. "I don't intend on forcing this on you, of course, and I also intend on being with you to help you the whole time... but the hostilities towards humans only cause them to shoot first when they see a phoenix. It's not going to work in a world dominated by humans... they'll only hate your kind for it."

"But you're a good girl.. I don't want the humans to hate you because of what you are. Which is why we need to change the way people view you... so that the whole world realizes how beautiful and wonderful you are." He stroked her hair and gave her a soft smile, squeezing her in his arms.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati quirked an eyebrow. "What Emperor said that?" she asked him. The only rulers she knew were of her kingdom and she was taught to memorize all of them from the time she was a child. At least he wouldn't force her to be queen if she didn't want to. "Why would I be fit to rule a kingdom? I'd be the one that always wandered off for several hours before coming back." She couldn't say more as he kissed her and stroked her hair and feathers. The phoenix sighed, it was sad that both sides usually killed each other on sight without reason.

"You think so?" she asked timidly, her cheeks reddening slightly. She could why he wanted to change how his kind viewed her, but she wasn't sure if he also meant the rest of her race as well.

[Holeypaladin]

"Friedrich I," he responded to her question. "He rules a large empire on the continent of Empyrean. Decent guy... better than Ivan, at least." He squeezed her in his arms and held her, kissing her tenderly. "I wouldn't expect you to rule it alone, you know. But the fact that you actually care about people... makes a huge difference. You wouldn't make any decisions that hurt people for no reason, right?"

She wouldn't be good at a lot of the necessary decisions required to be a strong ruler, but she wouldn't do terrible things, either. "I do think so," he said with a nod to the princess. "Most people have no idea that your kind can assume a humanoid form... they think you're just birds, really. So they don't realize that you're also highly intelligent, able to reason, and... different from the other birds they hunt for feathers, such as peacocks. When they see what you're really like, their opinions will change... for sure."

[PendragonXeno94]

Blinking for a moment, Tati never remembered learning about a Friedrich. But then again, she never left her home until her father died. "What's Empyrean like? I might want to go there someday..." She let him kiss her again as she snuggled closer to him. "So... we'd have to find a king, then?" Well, no phoenix would want a human for a ruler so she would have to marry a male phoenix to be at least a prince-consort.

"Well, if we changed in front of them they would know. They don't know that otherwise." She didn't morph in front of the knight when they first met, but she was certain that they need to walk around in more than just their bird forms. Then everyone would know that they had a human form and they could understand her people better. But she still felt a twinge of doubt that she could be a good ruler.

[Holeypaladin]

"Hmm..." the knight had no intention of handing the princess off to someone else... ever. "Nah... you don't need a king. You have me," he said with a chuckle, squeezing the girl in his arms. "There have been queens in some human kingdoms that never married... Some of them being among the greatest rulers of their people. Czarina Katerina of Muscovia, for example, leads one of the largest kingdoms by land area known to man... a rival to the Empire, at least when it comes to land area."

"Empyrean is... well, a continent, like any other. The Empire is among the most advanced technologically in the world, and they treat Arcana like a science, as well. The Arcane Circuits I use are developed by the Arcane University in the Imperial City, in fact. It's a long way from here, though... but perhaps we'll have an opportunity to visit at some point, considering you can fly and all that."

"Most humans have simply never seen a phoenix... you're creatures of legend, after all, considered among the most rare. Not many humans have any idea that you have an entire kingdom of your kind hidden in these forests... they figure it's another fae forest, which is considered to be more common."

[PendragonXeno94]

Well, if human women were able to rule empires without a husband, then she probably could... if she ever wanted to be queen. "But you'd take me there, wouldn't you? For a trip?" She wouldn't want to live far away from her family, but she wouldn't mind visiting another kingdom for a few days and then coming back. But Empyrean sounded amazing! And she could visit the Arcane University that he spoke of.

Glancing down at her feathers, Tati thought it over for a moment. Why would humans want to destroy everything and not try to understand everything around them? "Would you like to walk around the garden?" she asked him, wanting to get out of the room for a while, and hopefully show her family that Wilhelm wasn't a bad human that wanted to kill everyone for their feathers.

[Holeypaladin]

"I'd love to take you there sometime," the knight smiled at his girlfriend, giving her a tender kiss and a nod, stroking her hair and sliding his fingers through her feathers. "I'm sure the Arcane University would love to get to know more about you, as well, though they might want you to extend your trip for a long time," he chuckled a bit, squeezing her in his arms.

"Sure..." he nodded to her request. "I wouldn't mind walking with you... though I should probably change my... face," he said with a smirk. A simple illusion spell, easy to incant, should suffice. "Jisgus," he incanted a single word, and before her eyes, Wilhelm took on the form of a male phoenix... a royal guard, to be precise. He had seen enough of them in the palace to be able to look like one.

"How do I look?" he said, turning around in a circle so that the princess could take a long look at his disguise. It was a perfect match, or at least close enough that he was unlikely to be questioned, and with the princess by his side... well, she could chase off any inquisitive types.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati moved in his arms, adjusting so she could be more comfortable on her side. She shuddered from him moving a hand through her feathers. "Why would the University keep me there for more than a few days?" she asked. There was nothing special about her. He made it sound like they would have to move there should that happen. Though... that wasn't a bad idea should she get exiled or decide not to assume the throne.

The phoenix had to walk in circles around him for a few minutes as he shifted in front of her. "How did you do that?" she mused. "Do you have phoenix blood in you?" He was certainly handsome in this guise, but not as handsome as his human form. He could pass as a royal guard, but then they would have to keep the facade up if they had to come up with an excuse as to why the knight wasn't there.

[Holeypaladin]

"Well, because of your magic, of course," the Knight said, kissing her again as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "By studying you, they might advance the college of Restoration quite a bit... which would translate to human lives being saved. They wouldn't force you to stay, of course... but they'd try really hard to convince you, no doubt." He chuckled at the idea.

"It's just a simple illusion spell," he said with a shrug. "Much simpler than the invisibility I used earlier... These aren't real, you see," he plucked one of his illusory feathers and dropped it, watching it fade out of existence before it hit the ground. "If I could magic forth real phoenix feathers... that would indeed by impressive, even to me." He chuckled and kissed her, stroking her hair. "Well, lead the way, my princess."

[PendragonXeno94]

"Oh..." She giggled from him kissing her once more. The people in the University sounded like they could be fun. She would certainly have to visit them whenever they went to visit. Maybe she could convince her stepfather to let her go for a few days if she promised to come back. Of course, Ivan might send a few bodyguards with her to ensure her safety.

Watching the feather practically disappear, she moved to run her hand through his feathers. "But the feel real," she said. The phoenix wondered if it was possible to change someone into a phoenix; in that way, he would be safe and not targeted in any way. She would be able to keep him without being kicked out. Another giggle escaped her as he kissed her and stroked her hair. "Let me get dressed first."

Amita had brought a few gowns for Tati so she wouldn't keep wearing the outfit she had from yesterday. She settled on the blue gown with short sleeves and gold embroidered beneath the bust. Taking Wilhelm by the hand, she led him down the corridors and out the back where the garden reached over the walls and all but swallowed the pathways. Azaleas and many other flowers grew wild, which made the garden Tati's favorite place in the palace. "Over here." She pulled him to a swing attached to a large oak tree where she had him sit and she nestled next to him.

[Holeypaladin]

The knight watched as Tati dressed up in an extremely pretty princess gown. "Looks good on you," he said, stroking the soft fabric as he gazed at her. "So you really are a princess, after all." He kissed her and stroked her feathers, gazing at her as she took his hand. He went and followed her out into the garden... it was pretty remarkable, of course, as expected of a royal family. It reminded him somewhat of elegant elven gardens that took decades to grow to perfection, and he wondered if the phoenix people spent as much time on their own gardens.

Sitting next to the princess on a swing, he wrapped his arms around her, holding her close to him and squeezing her. "It's a very pretty garden," he commented, kissing her neck tenderly as he stroked her feathers. "Not nearly as pretty as you, of course... but still very pretty."

[PendragonXeno94]

It didn't take much effort for the phoenixes to grow their gardens the way they did. They simply did not want to bother with gardening that much except for weeding and trimming when needed. The phoenix permitted Wilhelm to pull her closer to him as he kissed her neck. She smiled, her cheeks reddening.

"You know, I think you have made a good phoenix," she said. "Maybe we could find a better color pattern so you can look like you're a noble." This made her think for a moment. "I think I might know how I can keep you safe." Since there was no one around, she snuggled closer to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "There was a noble family that was hunted down, and no one knows if the couple's son survived. His name was Nicholas. I can show you the family portrait that was recovered. You could try to look like someone else, right?"

[Holeypaladin]

"I think you make a much better phoenix than me," Wilhelm nodded, squeezing his girlfriend closer in his arms. "This disguise won't fool anyone who knows what they're looking for... but it should fool enough people that we'll be alright for the time being. After all... I can escape pretty easily if need be, and no one would dare hurt you, except maybe that Ivan guy." He still got the impression that Ivan wanted Tati dead, as she was a threat to his son's inheritance.

"I might be able to look like him..." Wilhelm said, considering the words of the princess. "But I would not have his memories. Anyone who actually knows this Nicholas in person would probably be quite excited to meet him... but under any intense questioning, I would flunk miserably. I suppose I could fake amnesia... so it's an idea, at least."

[PendragonXeno94]

"Oh." Well, if he was inspected closely, like pluck his feathers and dropping them, his cover would be blown and he would have to escape. But she was sure he would escape easily. The phoenix wasn't sure why Wilhelm would think so poorly of Ivan when he hadn't done anything yet aside from killing his double.

She nodded as he explained that he could try to look like Nicholas but he would have to fake amnesia. "That would be perfect," she said, burying her face in his neck. They wouldn't question him if he lost his memory from the time his family died.

[Holeypaladin]

"Something tells me I'm guaranteed to be discovered eventually if I try that." The knight chuckled and squeezed Tati in his arms. "I'll consider it, though..." He stroked her feathers and gazed at her, kissing a mark on her neck as he watched the garden. He began to consider some of his options... did he have any allies in this kingdom, besides Tati? It was difficult to say...

Well, there was her mother. She was the one who had chastised Ivan for his attempt to kill him... yet, she had also married Ivan, and had a son. Could she be trusted to look out for anyone besides her own children? Again, it was difficult to say... perhaps if he spoke to her mother... if nothing else, she could answer some questions that had been on his mind for quite some time now. Deep in thought, he laid his head down on Tati's lap.

[PendragonXeno94]

"No one has seen him since he was maybe two or three. So chances are, he was spared and given to another family to be raised. Humans don't seem to kill baby phoenixes." Well, to be fair, phoenix children were adorable with their short feathers and large eyes. She doubted that he died, though, possibly taken to be raised elsewhere. Where and what the race of that family was, she wasn't sure. "You could make something up. Like you were raised in a different culture and that you didn't know any better as they let you live."

Tati never met Nicholas, the whole incident happened a few years before she was born. As he laid his head on her lap, she stroked his hair, leaning down to give him a small kiss. "The only thing that would have you discovered is if Nicholas somehow comes back."

[Holeypaladin]

"He probably will come back, at some point." The knight returned the phoenix girl's kiss, holding her in his arms. "Before taking on any sort of disguise... I'm going to need to speak to your mother about some things." He had considered simply sneaking off at some point in order to speak with the queen without bothering to inform Tati... but decided it was best to be honest with her, at least. Hiding too many things from the princess was generally not a good idea... though he could hide things from everyone else in the kingdom just fine.

"But I don't want Ivan or anyone else around when I do talk to her... because many of the things I need to discuss are sensitive in nature, and things she won't want anyone else to overhear. So..." he looked up at the pretty princess. "Any suggestions how I can get a private audience with the queen?" He stroked her soft feathers and gazed at her.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati was surprised that Wilhelm wanted to speak with her mother in private. Well, Amita didn't seem too be unapproachable. "I can talk to her," she said. "She likes hearing others out so she can help them." It was a shock that she wasn't the ruling monarch, though that might have changed since the males were usually the more dominant ones. "She seems to like you, though."

She can understand why he didn't want anyone else around as it sounded like his concerns weren't for anyone else to hear.

[Holeypaladin]

"Talking to her might help..." He still had his suspicions, but perhaps he was being a bit overly paranoid. Her next words were interesting. "You think so?" He didn't think the queen had any reason to like him... sure, he had taken her daughter home, but he had also taken her virginity and made it difficult to marry her off to anyone else. He didn't regret it, as he had no particular love for the way the phoenix kingdom was run... but he figured the queen would at least dislike him because of it.

"I suppose it's worth a try," he said with a shrug, sitting up and pulling the princess into his lap. He held her close, stroking her hair and soft feathers, squeezing her in his arms. "Tati is a good girl," he said with a nod, gazing at his girlfriend as he held her in his lap.

[PendragonXeno94]

Well, Amita might have disliked the fact that he deflowered her daughter, but she did scold Ivan for killing the double after all. Maybe him talking to her would help, if nothing else. Tati, in fact, was glad that she didn't have to worry about an arranged marriage, so maybe her virginity being taken was a blessing in disguise. Not that she didn't want Wilhelm to take in the first place, but there was that.

Being pulled into his lap, she couldn't help but continue to kiss him. Her feathers twitched as he ran his hand over them. "Gafur wouldn't like that if he sees you doing that," she said, recalling thather mentor was incredibly strict about how she interacted with boys when she was a child.

[Holeypaladin]

"Too bad for him," said the knight, pulling her closer into his lap in order to do a great many things that Gafur wouldn't have approved of. He ended up taking her into a more secluded area at one point, where he made quite a mess of her pretty dress before helping her to her feet.

"We should get you into a clean dress," he said, steadying and holding her. Turning around, however, it soon became clear that they were no longer the only ones in the garden... and returning to her quarters to change without being seen by someone would not be an easy feet.

[PendragonXeno94]

Letting him pull her into his lap, Tati was paranoid about being seen before they went to a more secluded area where they continued. While they were occupied with each other, Gafur had strolled around the garden with a little boy.

"Come, Evgeni," he said, smiling as the boy followed him happily. He sat underneath one of the cherry blossom trees as Evgeni pranced around it. "Come sit, boy. We have to learn today."

Evgeni, however, decided to wander off where he watched a male pick up a female and help her along. He had to help her, too! So he ran to them, holding onto the female's leg.

Tati glanced down as the boy hugged her leg. "Hi," she said softly, to which the boy smiled at her.

"Evgeni!" Gafur called. "Where did you go?"

[Holeypaladin]

Chuckling as the kid hugged Tati's leg, Wilhelm patted him on the head. "Sounds like the old man is looking for you," he said to the kid. "Big sis will be able to play with you later, but you should really focus on your lessons... even if they're very annoying at times!"

He suddenly paused, realizing what he had said. Chances are, Tati had no clue who he was... yet somehow, Wilhelm had added two and two together, and realized based on his age and association with Gafur that he was indeed the half-brother that the old phoenix had mentioned previously. He turned to glance at the princess in order to see her reaction.

[PendragonXeno94]

Glancing down at Evgeni, Tati's smile only got bigger with the boy's as Wilhelm said that she was the boy's older sister. She hoisted him up in her arms and lifted him over his head, to which her little brother squealed with laughter.

"Evgeni!" Gafur called again, approaching Tati and another male phoenix. Looking at the male questioningly, he crossed his arms as he narrowed his gaze on him. "Who are you?"

"He's a friend," said Tati.

"I didn't ask you."

Tati fell silent as she looked over at Wilhelm.

[Holeypaladin]

The knight smiled slightly as he saw his girlfriend's reaction to meeting her little brother for the first time. She was so incredibly adorable, if innocent and naive. The boy also seemed to be innocent and naive, largely due to his young age... but it could be problematic if he was influenced in the wrong direction by his evil father. Wilhelm would like to see the siblings get along... but in a hereditary monarchy, siblings were inherently rivals, especially when they had different fathers.

He was interrupted, of course, by the prying voice of the old man... Gafur, who he suspected had been involved in the attempt on his life. Regardless, Wilhelm didn't trust this man, nor did he consider him a friend or ally of his, though he seemed to have some sort of twisted loyalty to the queen, but went about it in all the wrong ways.

"Like she said, I'm a friend," said Wilhelm, waving his hand in a compulsive spell. He wasn't sure if it would work on Gafur as he seemed to be an accomplished mage, but it was at least worth a try, and he wasn't particularly concerned with the consequences, as he had plenty of reasons for disliking this man. He decided to add something witty to his suggestion. "Just a simple royal guard, protecting the chastity of the princess."

[PendragonXeno94]

Gafur didn't like the fact that there was something off about the male, but he would let himself be amused by it. "I see. You do realize that should anything happen to make her look more promiscuous, you could easily be punished with death. Or if you're the direct cause, perhaps something worse than that... I'm sure you wouldn't want to lose anything precious to you." It was bad enough that Tati lost her virginity to a human, and it was worse that he seemed to be alive as Amita scolded him earlier about it. "I'm afraid Evgeni has to stay with me for his lessons. But he can play with you later."

The boy leaped out of Tati's arms and into Gafur's.

"Are you trying to throw my back, boy?"

Evgeni giggled as he snuggled himself closer to the old man as he was walked off.

Tati breathed a sigh of relief. Looking to Wilhelm, she began to take his hand and pull him away back to the interior.

[Holeypaladin]

"I understand," said the knight. "I would go to every length necessary in order to protect what's precious to me." He was referring to Tati, of course, though he had no desire to clarify to the old man. Instead, he let him take hold of the young prince, grateful as he left. "I don't like that guy," muttered the knight once Gafur had left. He had every reason to dislike him, of course... he didn't strike him as an ally in any sense of the word.

Allowing Tati to bring him back inside, he squeezed her hand, heading to her room so that she could change. "He didn't comment on your dress," he said. Perhaps he had too many other thoughts on his mind to notice how dirty the princess' dress had become from their activities. But she definitely needed to change. Kissing her neck tenderly, he wrapped his arms around her and squeeze. "I don't regret meeting you and making you my girlfriend. Not one bit," he said, stroking her feathers tenderly.

[PendragonXeno94]

Waving her little brother, TatI simply went back to her room where she finally noticed how dirty her gown was. She let Wilhelm hold her and stroke her feathers before she pulled away to change into another gown. This one was lavender that was also sleeveless so she donned a dark violet scarf over her shoulders. Thankfully her mother didn't see her in her first gown so she didn't face disappointment in that.

"That's good to know," she said. Once she realized how low cut her gown was, she wrapped the scarf over her breasts, though she had nothing to hide from her boyfriend at this point.

[Holeypaladin]

Wilhelm sat on Tati's bed, watching her change and admiring her pretty body as she did so. He chuckled a bit over the way she used a scarf to cover her cleavage... but figured it was mostly because she was shy about other people seeing her like that, as she didn't seem at all shy about him seeing all of her. "Very pretty," he nodded to her once she was done, kissing her gently and stroking her hair.

"Let's go say hi to your mother..." he said, taking hold of her arm tenderly and pressing against her a bit. "I have some things I want to ask her." The older phoenix lady didn't seem naive like her daughter... and she could very likely enlighten him a great deal as to what exactly had been going on in the phoenix kingdom ever since Tati left years ago.

[PendragonXeno94]

The phoenix blushed as Wilhelm approached her and kissed her. She felt uncomfortable showing that much skin to other people, and she would have been nervous about showing it to him if they hadn't already had a physical relationship. Nodding, she led him to the throne room where Ivan was holding a trial for an elf who had tried to poach in his kingdom. Amita sat quietly as he gave the elf his verdict, to which the elf was dragged away, yelling and begging for his life.

Tati and Wilhelm had entered after the trial and waved to her mother who rose from her seat and went to the doorway to greet her.

"Don't you look lovely," she commented. Glancing over at the male who was with her, a perplexed expression possessed her features. "I don't think I've seen you before..."

[Holeypaladin]

The last place Wilhelm wanted to be was in the presence of the tyrant king... the unjust way he sentenced the wood elf bothered him greatly. Not being one to stand idly by after seeing such injustice, Wilhelm was already thinking of ways to interfere in the situation.

As the queen approached him, Wilhelm gave a slight smirk at how she didn't recognize him. This was fortunate... she didn't see through his disguise either. "Greetings, Queen Amita. We need to talk about something... important. But this isn't the place... we'll need some privacy. We've met before... but due to certain attempts to terminate my life, I've been forced to use an illusion to hide my identity. When and where would be a good time and place for us to speak?"

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati's heart began to break seeing the wood elf begoing to be spared as he was dragged off. How could Ivan want to punish him so severely? And how could her mother just sit by while he gave his verdict? When her mother approached, she tried to keep a neutral expression as Wilhelm spoke, thinking of the poor elf's fate.

Amita's expression molded into bewilderment as he explained himself. "I apologize. I don't have time right now. But we could-"

"Please Mama?" pleaded Tati.

The queen sighed. "The library after supper should be private enough."

[Holeypaladin]

It did bother Wilhelm somewhat that Amita didn't seem to care for the fate of the wood elf... though he also realized there was little he could do to make her a better person, only hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Wilhelm wasn't afraid of doing a modest amount of dirty work if it meant ensuring Tati's safety. There was always the option of taking her away from the kingdom entirely, he supposed, but that was more of a last resort.

"Alright then..." said the knight to the queen, "I'll see you in the library. Take care, now," he said as he made his way after the guards who had taken the wood elf. If he wasn't going to get any justice, Wilhelm decided that he'd at least get freedom. Following them at a distance, he incanted the words, "trilvol bahsk, throden xiekivi!"

The effect of this spell as Wilhelm willed it in this case was the make the elf look like one of the guards, and one of the guards look like the elf. The confused elf would soon find himself not being the one thrown into the prison cell... but instead, one of the guards, screaming and protesting that he had been tricked through vile sorcery, was tossed into the cell instead.

Walking past the confused elf, Wilhelm said to him, "Just walk out the front gate. No one will stop you. Best hurry before the spell wears off and they realize they locked up the wrong man." Chances were the spell would wear off before the execution... but even if it didn't, Wilhelm didn't care for the type of man who would blindly follow the orders of a tyrant, so it wouldn't bother him if a guard or two got executed instead of innocent men. Wrapping his arm around Tati's waist, he went ahead and took her to the library, a smirk on his face.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati watched Wilhelm slip away as her mother departed from her as well, happily greeting Evgeni and holding him close to her. The young phoenix supposed that because her brother was so young, he needed more attention than she did; she couldn't help but want her mother to be as loving to her still. Even Ivan and Gafur seemed to forget that she existed as they showered the young prince with so much affection. Actually, Evgeni was getting more affection than she ever received.

When her boyfriend returned, she allowed him to wrap an arm around her waist, not even bothering to ask where he went off to. Resting her hand on his shoulder, she let out a soft sigh.

[Holeypaladin]

Squeezing Tati close to him, Wilhelm made his way in to the library. It was long before the appointed rendezvous, but he wanted to prepare for the queen's arrival, after all. After a bit of exploring, he was able to find a secluded alcove, at which point he kissed Tati and stroked her hair. "I expect there are some things that she wouldn't want you to hear," he said, "So I'm going to have you hide here to listen while I talk to her. Make sure not to make a sound, as it might reveal your hiding spot."

The hiding spot allowed for some other perks, as well. Sliding his hands up the phoenix' thighs, he pressed her pretty dress high as he laid her down on a comfortable couch, gazing into her eyes and stroking her hair. "Since we have some time and privacy," he said to her with a wink.

[PendragonXeno94]

Walking with him to the library, Tati glanced around before he found somewhere for her to hide while he would speak with her mother. As he pressed her dress up and laid her on the couch, she couldn't help but smile at him and blush furiously. But it would have to wait as the doors swung open before they closed with a thud.

"Oh!" She pushed him up and away as she spotted the violet and blue markings on the female who was looking around the room.

"There you are," Amita said, not realizing that Wilhelm had been pushed out. "I decided to see if I could speak with you earlier than planned."

[Holeypaladin]

Interrupted by the arrival of the phoenix queen, Wilhelm shrugged and figured he'd have to get back to Tati later. Allowing her to remain out of side in the alcove, he turned his attention to the older phoenix lady as she approached. "Wasn't expecting you so soon," he said with a shrug, "But I figured I might as well get some reading done in the meantime. Hello, Amita."

"One moment while I grant us some privacy," he said before incanting, "Jashi wyogale de shio," creating the private zone for them to avoid external detection. Though the alcove in white Tati was hiding was within the zone of privacy, he wasn't going to tell the queen that. "We're alone now," he said. "I'm sure you have a lot you'd like to tell me. We can start with the events that led up to your daughter leaving the kingdom... and everything that's been going on in the meantime. And since I have justifiable reason not to take your words at face value..." he incanted, "Goawy di vis." The compulsion spell created an additional area, which prevented anyone from telling any lies and compelled them to be truthful and honest.

[PendragonXeno94]

Amita rolled her eyes as he put up a privacy barrier. "Really? You know that no one would disturb me if-" After he incanted another spell, she couldn't figured out what he did so she resumed.

"I wasn't in the palace at the time. I was speaking to some diplomats before I received word that Alexi died in an accident and Tati was nowhere to be found. So I ruled alone for years because I didn't want to remarry. I thought that my daughter was dead for all these years until you brought her back. But Ivan was a dear friend of my husband and he has been there for me since I lost Alexi. So... I married him and we had Evgeni. But do you really think that Ivan is the true king? Everyone knows who holds the real power." She found her husband to be nothing more than a figurehead with some degree of power, though Amita was the one who ruled longer. "I had a search party for Tati but someone said they saw her fall into the river and that there were no traces of her. How was I supposed to know she survived?"

[Holeypaladin]

Wilhelm considered the words of the queen, a slight frown on her face. So.... she was the real ruling force of the phoenix kingdom. Which meant that Ivan didn't do anything without her consent... and all of the tyrannical actions sanctioned by Ivan were, instead, the decisions of Amita herself. The unjustly ordered execution of the elf... the extermination of any humans who approached their territory... Amita was behind it all. Very likely, she was also behind the "accident" that had cost her first husband his life... but there was no way she would admit this to him.

"So..." the knight decided to say something to provoke the queen, already plotting a potential escape route for any fury she might unleash, "The xenophobic bigotry that causes your people to kill humans and elves... the 'accidental' death of your first husband... whatever it is that prevented Tati from returning to the kingdom up until now... you're behind it all, then? Have you also made an alliance with Tiamat's chromatic dragons?"

[PendragonXeno94]

Amita scoffed at him. "I had nothing to do with my husband's death!" she said. "It was purely an accident. What makes you think I would want to harm Alexi? And if your kind and everyone else didn't hunt us down for our feathers, we wouldn't be killing all of you the moment you set foot here, now would we?" His next accusation was an amusing one. "Why would I do that? That's not my affair..."

Tati sunk back into the couch. Her mother would order an elf to die? But why? What else was she hiding from everyone? What if her mother and Ivan had been together for longer than- Wilhelm seemed to have used a spell that made her honest, so what she said was probably correct.

[Holeypaladin]

"Such utter brilliance," the knight remarked. "The humans view your kind as violent killers, so let's all violently kill them. That will surely cause humans to not kill every phoenix they see for fear of being killed themselves." He waved at his face, "This is sarcasm, by the way. It's the worst plan ever, and any idiot can tell you that."

"Anyway..." he said with a shrug, "Phoenixes don't accidentally die. It takes quite a bit of effort to kill them, as not only must they be violently terminated, but their ashes must be dumped into the river to prevent them from rising again. You don't seriously think he accidentally managed to die through some sort of dangerous activity he was doing in the one place that could end his life, do you? How long have you and Ivan been together, anyway?"

Perhaps he was being too direct towards the queen... but he himself was also within the effects of the truth spell. And he had already witnessed the fact that she was, indeed, an incredibly terrible, tyrannical queen.

[PendragonXeno94]

Everything Wilhelm said wasn't something Amita already knew. Hearing him now was giving her a slight headache. "I told you, Ivan and I have been together for five years. Why does that matter to you?" Huffing to herself, she turned on her heel and began to walk away. "I believe we're done." She didn't want to listen to him a moment longer, and it seemed to be a mistake to talk to him.

After her mother left, Tati inched forward, glancing at Wilhelm. "You don't think she's that mean, do you?" She didn't want to believe that her mother was the way she was. It didn't sit well with her hearing everything her mother said. "Why would she say that?" Turning away, tears welled up in her eyes. It was too much for her to process. First, her mother went back on her word to never remarry and now she seemed to have changed because of her becoming the ruling monarch, albeit behind closed doors.

[Holeypaladin]

Wilhelm frowned as Amita turned and left. So... she wasn't an ally, after all, and instead one of the three main enemies he had made in his short time in this castle. Chances are, she'd end up informing the other two that Wilhelm was still in the palace... and they'd hunt him down. Or at least attempt to. His thoughts were interrupted as Tati came closer to him.

"I used a spell that compelled everyone within its area to tell the truth..." he said to the phoenix with a slight frown. "She supports the indiscriminate execution of any non-phoenix person who happens to wander too close to their kingdom. You heard it from her own lips... she would have tried to kill me if I hadn't come with you."

Taking her hand, he took her back into the alcove. "I still don't want to be separated from you, though," he said to the princess as he stroked her hair and feathers. "I'm quite fond of you, after all."

[PendragonXeno94]

Holding Wilhelm, she walked back to the alcove with him, sniffling and burying her face in his chest. As he stroked her hair and feathers, she plastered her body against his as she didn't want to let go. "But why would she say that?" She understood that he used a spell that made anyone honest but she couldn't understand why her mother would say such things. "You don't think she's involved with other things, do you?"

The phoenix didn't know why her mother would want to side with the bad dragons, but at this point it sounded likely. Maybe Ivan made an alliance with the dragons and had Amita's permission to do so.

[Holeypaladin]

Squeezing and holding Tati in his arms, Wilhelm stroked her hair, tenderly kissing her and sliding his fingers through her feathers. Bits and pieces were falling into place, but there were still some key factors that remained unclear. As he held the phoenix, he slid his hands over her body, gripping and gazing at her. "She might be..." he said, "I don't know for sure."

Giving her a tender kiss, he decided to ask something incredibly important and obvious, yet something no one had brought up at all. Finally addressing the elephant in the room, he said to his girlfriend, "How come you didn't ever return home until I showed up?" There had to be some serious reason why she never went home... something she might have forgotten, but it was important enough that she stayed away from her mother for quite a long time up until now.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati squeezed him back as he stroked her feathers. Returning his kiss, she glanced up at him as she didn't know if there was anything else her mother was hiding. She didn't want to know what else she could have been involved with and she didn't know if she could take much more.

Sighing to herself, she gave him another squeeze. "My father sent me away," she said. "He was afraid something would happen to me, too. I think I was pushed out of a window and fell into a river. I don't know how, but I think my celestial state saved me. I didn't know how they would treat me with it, so I stayed away from everyone, figuring that it was the best thing. Had I known that I'd be welcomed back with open arms, I would've come home sooner. But..." She touched his cheek. "I don't know if I want to stay here anymore."

[Holeypaladin]

Squeezing the phoenix, Wilhelm stroked her feathers and hair, pressing her back into the alcove just in case someone entered their privacy area. There, he slid his hands up her dress, caressing and stroking her thighs as he gazed at her. "I understand what you mean..." he said. Leaving the phoenix kingdom was starting to sound better and better with each passing moment... but they were also a threat that would have to be dealt with at some point.

Her father would have the answers... he seemed to know what was going to happen before it happened, as he had sent Tati to safety. Wilhelm would have to make a note to talk to his spirit, at some point... but for now, cheering Tati up had a higher priority. Pressing her up against the bookcase, he kissed her deeply, lifting her up against it in order to give her something she loved in order to cheer her up.

[PendragonXeno94]

As she was pressed against the bookshelf, Tati allowed him to cheer her up in a way that she had grown to love. As he kissed her, Tati pulled away so she could rest next to him. All this love making had her wanting to take a break. She kissed his forehead as she pressed her body against his side. Her feathers began to act as a blanket for both of them, fanning over their bodies so they were at least concealed.

She hardly registered that he spoke as she zoned out, snuggling closer to him and wanting to stay warm next to him. "Wilhelm..." she said. "Why are you so amazing?" It was a wonder to the phoenix that he was still able to please her body and then become more powerful from it.

[Holeypaladin]

Squeezing and holding the phoenix in his arms, Wilhelm just shrugged. "Born that way, I guess," was all he could say. He stroked her hair and feathers, holding her close until he sensed a certain breach on the edge of his privacy field. Instantly thinking that the queen had returned with guards in order to arrest him, he turned his attention to Tati and gave her a whisper into her ear.

"We need to get out of here," he said, handing her the pretty princess dress that was now dirtied somewhat, "But not through the main entrance. You know the secret passages, right? Every castle library has some sort of revolving bookshelf that leads to a secret passage... let's take that exit." Even if it wasn't the queen come with guards, it would do no good for someone to find a naked princess with a strange man in the library.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati hummed happily as Wilhelm stroked her hair and feathers before she was handed her dress. Putting on her dress, she took his hand and moved to one of the shelves opposite of them, pressing on one of the stones on the wall to reveal a hidden doorway. She moved through the corridors, trying to remember where to go to her room so she could gather her things. She couldn't leave without them! Happening upon one of the passages, she poked her head in, quickly retracting and stepping back.

"Did you hear something, dear?" she heard her mother moan.

"Oh, it's probably the vermin," Ivan's voice replied, followed by a few grunts. "I thought they were already taken care of."

The phoenix hurried down the hallways before finding another passage, relieved to see that it was her room. After she entered, she locked the door. "I think it's best if we after dark when most everyone is sleeping," she said. "If we leave now..." Well, he would try to rebuke it.

[Holeypaladin]

Squeezing the princess' hand, Wilhelm let her lead her through the secret passages behind the library. He smirked when he spotted the king and queen in the middle of intense sex, but ducked away with Tati before the two could spot them. They were distracted enough that they didn't seem all that interested in chasing them... so it crossed his mind that it was more likely Gafur who was attempting to arrest them in the library currently.

Before long, he found himself back in Tati's room. Wrapping his arms around the princess, he held her close and considered her words. "After dark..." he said. "Well... it would be the best time to conduct the ritual at least, as the dead don't like to wake up in the daylight. Once it's dark... we need to head over to your father's grave. We have some questions that need to be answered, and he's definitely the one that would know the answers, don't you think?"

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati turned to embrace him as he wrapped his arms around her. She looked at him questioningly as he said that they needed to go to her father's grave. "Well it does make sense," she said. "Though I don't know what contacting my father would accomplish." He had been gone for so long, she didn't know if he would want to be contacted after so long. Still, she wanted to know what had happened to him after all this time. She didn't want to believe that his death was more than an accident.

The phoenix had packed her things before laying down in the nest. Covering herself up, she looked up at Wilhelm who she beckoned to come lay next to her. She wasn't in the mood for another round, all she wanted was to snuggle up to him and maybe take a short nap. At least for now her mother and stepfather were too preoccupied with each other.

[Holeypaladin]

"We'll see," he said, squeezing the phoenix and holding her close. He stroked her hair for a time, gently kissing her and laying down with her in the nest for a time. As he stroked her hair and feathers, he gazed into the eyes of the phoenix. "I'm so glad to have met you..." he said to the princess, gently kissing her and holding her. There were still some things she hadn't said... perhaps she should say them before running away from home on his behalf.

"You're the best girlfriend ever," he said to her, "And I definitely don't want to be separated from you." Caressing her more, he gazed into her eyes, "But what about you? You mentioned leaving this castle again... despite how glad your mother was to have you back. This goes beyond just being a good girlfriend, you know?"

[PendragonXeno94]

She held onto him as he caressed her hair and feathers. Returning his kiss, she buried her face in his chest as he continued to stroke her hair. The phoenix was unsure of what to say as she figured that he wanted her to say something, though she didn't know what. So she draped her feathers over him and began to stroke his hair.

"I can't stay here," she said. "I'm nut sure why, but I know I can't stay here." Despite her mother being so pleased to have her back, now that Wilhelm was able to speak to her, she couldn't help but feel that something wasn't right. If she stayed, something was bound to go wrong. She wanted to contact her father and confirm her suspicions before they ran from the castle. She was probably as good as banished anyway.

[Holeypaladin]

"I understand," said the knight, stroking her feathers more and holding her close. "Let's get ready to leave, then. We'll contact your father on our way out of the castle." Kissing her gently, he began to select items that he wanted her to take with her. Her princess tiara for sure, along with a couple of those pretty princess dresses because he liked him, and also a dancing outfit.

As night came, he took her hand and held her. "Are you ready?" he asked her, squeezing her tenderly and gazing at her. "I don't know where the grave is... so you'll have to show me the way." He went so far as to carry the bulk of her luggage, as it would be impolite to make her do so herself. He stroked her hair, sliding his fingers through it as he gazed at the pretty princess.

[PendragonXeno94]

She let him pick a few items he wanted her to take with her as she didn't particularly care what he wanted her to take. She had already gather the things that she had brought with her as she didn't want to leave them behind. Although this meant that they might not take Evgeni with them, she wanted to at least leave the kingdom before anything else happened. She squeezed his hand as she quietly led him out of the palace and out into a field where many beloved phoenix warriors and kings were buried. Unfortunately, her father was among the masses of drenched ashes as his was likely put into water to prevent him from rising again. She had already known when she found out that Ivan was king and not her father.

Tati eventually stopped at the mausoleum where her father was kept, and the state of it was fit for one of his stature. It was among that largest in the field and probably the most pristine given how recent it was built. "Do what you need to do," she told Wilhelm.

[Holeypaladin]

Wilhelm had almost forgotten about Evgeni, but it didn't seem right to kidnap the child on their way out to the cemetery, either. Holding on to Tati in order to comfort her, he let her take him to where the phoenix monarchs rested. Going off of their life cycle, it didn't seem likely that there would be all that many of them buried, but then it was nearly a miracle that Tati had a younger brother so close in age to her as well, as long life cycles were always balanced by low birth rates.

Nodding to the words of the phoenix, he gave her a gentle kiss. "I'll use the least disturbing spell I can..." he said. "It can be difficult communicating with the dead and allowing them to return in tact. However, since I suspect he died with some serious regrets and a desire for vindication... I'm guessing his ghost will be somewhat eager to talk to us."

Focusing some of the energy he had collected from all the sex he had with Tati, Wilhelm developed his Desecration circuit to the point where it could complete the ritual. Once the necessary preparations and summoning circle were established, he incanted, "Lasau yoscama navnik..." realizing he had forgotten to inquire the name of the dead king, he instead completed the spell with "Tati's father!" and tossed one of her feathers into the magic circle he had drawn.

The spell would immediately take effect, summoning forth an incorporeal spirit who looked incredibly familiar to the phoenix princess...

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati stood back as Wilhelm began to bring Alexi's ghost up, while she wanted to run up to him and hug him, she knew that there wouldn't really be a body to hug and she would go right through him.

After Wilhelm's incantation, a white ghost rose from the urn and stood in front of the two mortals. He somewhat materialized to what he was before his death: a phoenix with white hair and blue and red highlights, with those colors continuing into his feathers and blue and red markings covering some of his pale skin in various spots.

"Father?" whispered Tati.

The ghost stepped towards her and smile. "It's good to see you, too, my dear Tatiana." He turned to Wilhelm for a moment. "I assume my daughter brought you along? She's always doing that, you know."

[Holeypaladin]

The ghost was, for the most part, a pretty good representation of what he had looked like in mortal life. This meant that he had maintained most of his sanity and reason from when he was alive... which was a good sign. Often times, the more vindictive and vengeful the ghost, the more deformed they would look once summoned, but that often took centuries rather than a handful of years such as had passed.

"Oh is she?" responded Wilhelm to the ghost's question. "And here I thought I was the first boyfriend she had brought along..." He was pretty sure that he was the phoenix princess' first boyfriend, but he couldn't help but wonder who else she had brought to her father's grave in the past. Or was he referring back to the time when he was alive?

"Well, we wouldn't disturb your resting in peaceness if it weren't for a good reason. From what Tati has told me, you knew you were going to meet an 'accident' that would lead to your death prior to the actual event, hence your reasoning for sending her away from home, where she would be safe..." He paused. "So... would you care to explain what really happened? Who killed you, how did they get away with it, and why? Also, was your wife banging Ivan to your knowledge prior to your death? Because she is now. We just saw her doing so."

[PendragonXeno94]

Alexi chuckled. "No, she was never involved with another romantically, but I'm curious. Why made you want a human, Tatiana?"

"He..." Tati's cheeks reddened. "I was living in the woods on my own when he found me. And he... well..."

"Oh, I see. I'm surprised that he hadn't struck you down. You know how most humans tend to be." He turned back to Wilhelm as he huffed to himself. "It is true, I sent her away because I didn't wish to see her meet her end the way I did. I knew that someone would make an attempt on my life, but Amita wasn't exactly with Ivan. I'm sure he didn't come along until later. There was a human servant she was seeing. And when I found out about it, he lashed out at me and I had to deal with him accordingly. I didn't think Amita would be so upset about it. In fact, I'm not sure why she wanted to have an affair with a human when she hates them so much." From what he recalled, his wife wasn't even looking in Ivan's direction. "It wasn't anyone in the court that caused the 'accident' at the palace. There is a reason why humans are now killed on sight." His feathers flicked. "I have nothing against you, it's just that the human's brothers brought dragons to burn our lands."

[Holeypaladin]

Wilhelm considered the words of the king. So... he wasn't murdered by Ivan or his wife, but instead by humans. This certainly explained why the phoenix nobles were so anti-human in their mentality... but it also complicated things a great deal. For his wife to learn the truth of Alexi's death would be a bad thing, in this case, as it would only intensify the racist tendencies of the phoenixes.

"Bastards..." he commented. "They're trying to turn you against all humans...." Glancing to Tati, he squeezed her close and kissed her cheek. "We'll avenge you, old dead dude," said Wilhelm, "And in doing so... we'll show your people that not all humans are evil. Go back to resting in peace now," he said, dispelling the necromantic spell in order to dismiss the ghost.

Glancing at Tati, Wilhelm said, "Looks like we're not done in this kingdom..." Gently kissing the phoenix, he said, "Up for a dragon hunt or ten, my beautiful girlfriend? The men who killed your father were followers of evil dragons... so in killing the dragons and presenting their severed heads to your mother, we can possibly mend the rift between our people... somewhat."

[PendragonXeno94]

Alexi looked to Tati as Wilhelm said that they would avenge him and try to show that not all humans were evil. He kept his eyes on her as he faded into oblivion once more.

"Wait!" cried Tati. "I wanted to-" But he was already gone when she stopped herself. Tears welled up as she wished that her father could stay longer. She wasn't ready to see him off at that point. Burying her face in his chest, the phoenix pressed herself against him, nodding that she was ready to go dragon hunting. Though she didn't want to kill a dragon, they were responsible for her father's death and her people wanting Wilhelm dead. She didn't want any of it to continue or get worse. "Shouldn't we have asked how many there were?"

[Holeypaladin]

Hugging the phoenix, Wilhelm squeezed her in his arms. Perhaps he had dismissed the ghost a bit too soon... but using Desecration magic always felt wrong, so he was in a bit of a hurry to put an end to the spell. "Asking more wouldn't have helped much..." he said. "It's been so many years that their numbers and details have most certainly changed a great deal. We'll instead need to acquire some more recent information..."

Turning to Tati, Wilhelm kissed her gently. "Your mom's old human boyfriend... you should remember him, right? Where did he come from? If we head over to his kingdom... I'm sure we'll find everything we need to know in order to lead us to these dragons and kill them." There were still problems in the phoenix kingdom itself... but it was now looking like they were a result of dragon meddling more than anything else.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati had to think as she was asked about her mother's human lover. "Well, I want to say he was from somewhere further north from here. Like a remote village or something. All I remember that his name was Vilkas." She kept trying to think of what else she could recall. "He... He always wore warpaint, hand prints over his eyes and streaks down his neck. He kept telling everyone that he came from a semi-nomadic tribe that were nature worshipers. That's all I can tell you."

Honestly, she didn't know what her mother saw in him to make her want to be unfaithful to the princess's father. But at least she didn't cheat on him with Ivan at that time, as he seemed to only come in later after Alexi's death. "His tribe was near Bretony, I know that. That's a human kingdom, isn't it?"

[Holeypaladin]

"Vilkas..." the knight considered the words of the phoenix, as well as the way she described him. "Sounds like a certain werewolf member of the Companions," was something he actually didn't say. Instead, he said, "That's a Nordic name... likely a warrior, or a viking. He must have had a funny accent too, huh?" Remote villages were places that often had strange religious practices.. so for Vilkas to be a member of a dragon cult was certainly a possibility.

"Well, let's head north and see if we can't locate this village," the knight said with a shrug, taking Tati by the hand and gently squeezing it. "We'll be back... I'm not sure how long it'll be, but we'll be back. I'm... glad to have you by my side, Tati." Stroking her feathers, he gently kissed her before wrapping his arm around her, heading northward.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati shot him a confused expression. "What's a viking?" This clearly showed that she had no knowledge of anything outside of her kingdom. "Well, I don't remember him having an accent." Then again, it had been years since he died. But she couldn't understand why there were so many different religions. Phoenixes certainly didn't worship dragons, more of the monotheistic type with the One Phoenix. Why they didn't give it a name she had no clue.

"I'm glad to be with you," she replied, returning his kiss and leading him out of the cemetery. Now that she knew that her mother and Ivan weren't behind anything, she supposed that they had to locate Vilkas' village and see what they can find out about the dragon cult. Hopefully, they wouldn't attack her on sight. "Would... Would it be safer if I disguised myself once we get there?"

[Holeypaladin]

"Vikings are guys who like to pillage and plunder," said Wilhelm with a shrug. "Sort of like pirates, but they prefer axes and raid settlements more rather than focusing on plundering boats." Tati was proving to lack much knowledge on the outside world, so Wilhelm figured she'd have a lot of questions for him to answer at some point.

"Not much point in disguising yourself at the moment," said the knight with a shrug. "If need be, I can use some illusions to disguise you the same way I disguised myself. But there's no need for that at the moment." Thinking for a moment, he glanced to Tati. "Say... are you able to carry a passenger while you fly? It would be faster to fly, since you're a bird, don't you think?"

[PendragonXeno94]

The phoenix nodded. She held onto him as they continued to walk and was relieved that he would use an illusion spell to conceal her identity. For all she knew, the humans would strike her down and tears her feathers off as some trophy. Nodding, she transformed into her bird form, only slightly bigger so she could carry Wilhelm.

Flying over the countryside, she glanced down to see that her treehouse was still intact. Hopefully, it would remain that way until the dragons were dealt with and they could return. Or, they could figure out how to move the tree to somewhere closer to a town so she could be closer to people but enough to keep her distance from them. Tati spotted a nearby inn and landed, reverting to her normal form. "I thought we should spend the night before we continue," she said, not really wanting to admit that traveling at night made her nervous and she stopped at the first inn she could find. "I'll wait here until there's a room I can get into." She didn't know how she would go in with her tail feathers giving her away.

[Holeypaladin]

Watching as Tati transformed into her bird form, Wilhelm confirmed that she was, indeed, a phoenix... though this was the first time she appeared as such to him. It didn't change his opinion of her, of course, as he merely held on to his girlfriend and let her carry him for a time, to a human town shortly nor far outside the borders of her kingdom.

Finally releasing her as she set down by the inn, he kissed her gently and shrugged. "I'll open a window for you," he said, realizing how she was shy about entering the inn on her own. Walking inside, he reserved a room for the two of them, and headed upstairs, opening the window wide enough for Tati to fly on inside, figuring the task to be pretty simple after seeing how well she flew.

[PendragonXeno94]

Breathing a sigh of relief, Tati waited for him before she started to circle the inn, finding him opening a window. She quickly flew in and shut the window behind her, looking to him as she sat on the bed. "This isn't too bad," she said. "I prefer nests, but this will suffice." Hopefully, no one will figure out what she was and could slip out just as easily as she slipped. Though she wasn't sure if one or two travelers happened to notice her. She was grateful that she was able to get away from her mother for the time being, trying to figure out why she would take a human lover in the first place.

"Wilhelm... you don't think Vilkas tricked my mother, do you?" she asked, giving him pleading eyes.

[Holeypaladin]

It wasn't long before the phoenix flew in through the open window. Chuckling a bit at her words, Wilhelm said, "Well yeah... humans have their own standards for comfort after all." Wrapping his arms around the phoenix, he kissed her gently before lowering her on to the bed. As he gazed at her and stroked her hair, he considered her question.

"Well... chances are, he did, yes," he said as he began to slide the princess' clothes off, "It was a well-planned assassination, after all. But even if he managed to escape with his life... we'll still track him down and make sure he pays for his crimes." Kissing her a bit deeper, he said, "There's no use in worrying for now... allow me to distract you with other things."

[PendragonXeno94]

As she was lowered onto the bed, her feathers sprawled out for him as she returned his kisses. "But why? He supposed to be-" She felt him begin to slip her clothes off and she immediately went to peeling his off. He seemed keen on having special boyfriend-girlfriend time with her, and she was happy to be distracted by it.

"Wouldn't people hear?" she asked him. She didn't want to disturb others who were sleeping, after all. She never had that problem before.

[Holeypaladin]

"Only if you can't keep your voice down," the knight teased as he proceeded to make it very, very difficult for the phoenix princess to keep her voice down. On more than one occasion, some of the more drunk patrons even cheered them on, and the blushing response of the phoenix certainly amused Wilhelm.

After a time, he wondered if he should take her up on the offer. Figuring why not, he soon found himself in the bath tub with his girlfriend, washing her body and caressing it as he gazed at her, giving her tender kisses as he stroked her hair and feathers. "Pretty phoenix," he said to Tati, gazing at her body.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati playfully moved away from Wilhelm when he stroked her feathers and hair and washed her body. The only other person she took a bath with was her mother, who saw no point in letting the handmaids care for her daughter for everything and wanted to have some bonding time with her. Moving back to him, she washed his hair for him as he gazed at her body.

"You don't think anyone would ask you in the morning about us, would they?" she asked. Well, they already knew what they were doing earlier and they certainly weren;t sy about encouraging him.

[Holeypaladin]

Kissing the phoenix, the knight shrugged as he washed her beautiful body. "I don't expect any of them will even remember... and those that do should at least be sober enough to have some decency. I'm guessing they'll just give me some funny looks on the way out." He chuckled a bit as he hugged the princess. "They'll be less drunk in the morning, too, so I doubt they'll be cheering you on when you wake me up."

Once they had washed up, he picked up the naked phoenix and carried her to bed, holding her close and squeezing her as he stroked her hair. "You're a good girl..." he said, kissing her forehead as he held her close to him, caressing her and squeezing her.

[PendragonXeno94]

The phoenix sighed in relief. At least no one would really remember them being so loud. Hopefully the same wouldn't recur for the morning should they got to that. Letting him carry her to the bed, she curled up in his arms, peppering his face with kisses as she slowly fell asleep.

She fidgeted a little as her legs seemed to move and she whimpered some. Clinging onto Wilhelm, she whispered his name and begging him to save her. She was unaware of how her body pressed closer to him as her dream began to go south, with her running away from a dark mass that seemed to never let up on her.

[Holeypaladin]

Waking slightly to the sensation of the princess' body pressed against him, Wilhelm heard her whispers to save him, slowly realizing that she was most likely having a bad dream. Squeezing her in his arms, he kissed her, stroking her hair and holding her, slowly rolling her onto her back as he caressed her.

"Tati..." he said. "Tati... wake up. You're having a bad dream." He kissed her deeply, holding her close as he gently nudged her, wrapping his arms tightly around her. "I'm here, Tati..." he said. "I'll always save you."

[PendragonXeno94]

Fidgeting still, Tati soon held onto Wilhelm as she awoke. Stroking his hair, she returned his kisses as she moved off her back so she could be on her side. The phoenix nestled her face into the crook of his neck as she hardly wanted to go back to sleep for fear of her dream resuming. Her feathers began to fan out as she positioned them to cover their bodies.

She wasn't sure how long it was until she fell back to sleep, but she found herself wandering aimlessly through the forest that she had dwelt in for years, being followed by her father's ghost. As she approached him, his ghost began to drift further away, with her crying out to him and chasing after him.

"No! Father! Don't go!" she cried, jolting up as she awoke. How could she have two bad dreams in a row? Burying her face in her hands, she wept a little, not wanting to wake Wilhelm from his sleep in order to be comforted.

[Holeypaladin]

Rolling the phoenix onto her back, Wilhelm kissed her and proceeded to comfort her until she fell back asleep. Awaking to her affections in the morning, they caused quite a commotion for the waking guests of the inn with the phoenix' transformation once again. Chuckling at the reaction, he gave a shrug.

"I suppose we have a lot to do today," he commented. He didn't mind the idea of spending all day in bed with Tati, but there would be time for that later. "You can go on out the window if you don't want people to stare at you. I'll head downstairs to turn the keys in, then meet you outside." Giving her a kiss, he waved briefly before heading downstairs.

As he arrived in the common room, those guests who were awake began to applaud him and his performance, both the previous night and the following morning. Giving a theatric bow to them, he turned the key in to the innkeeper. One guest approached him and spoke, "Which... which whore were you with?"

Glancing around, he picked one at random, who happened to be a succubus disguised as a human. "That one," he said. "Highly recommended." The succubus smirked, knowing it wasn't her, but appreciating the inevitable addition to her business that would come, as she quite thoroughly enjoyed her job.

Making his way back outside, he wrapped his arms around Tati and kissed her. "We flying again?" he asked her as he stroked her hair and feathers.

[PendragonXeno94]

The phoenix appreciated Wilhelm wanting to comfort her and then proceed to fill her in the morning. But having her transformation caused her to be concerned that the guests outside their room would want to peek in and see what the source of the silver aura was. Smiling into the brief kiss, she went out the window and stood outside.

One or two guests already peeked inside once the room was empty, disappointed in the fact that whatever was giving off the aura was now nowhere to be found. They did, however, eye the succubus that the knight pointed out and they immediately ran to her, begging her to take her to bed; they even went so far as to almost exchange blows to see who would get her first.

Seeing Wilhelm approach her, Tati nodded and went into her bird form. She took off before anyone would have a chance to see her as she knew that once anyone saw her in her bird form, they would start chasing her until she was shot down. Continuing on their journey, she enjoyed the view below them, taking in the sea of trees and endless fields. As they approached what looked like a moving caravan, the phoenix couldn't help but move down to get a closer look.

"Phoenix! Phoenix!" someone cried before trifling trough one of the wagons.

Tati wasn't aware of what the elf was doing until she felt a piercing pain in her side. Quickly moving higher as much as she could, she felt pain shooting through her wing and shoulder blades. She flew as far as her wings could carry her until she rapidly descended, crashing into a thicket. As she morphed into her human form, she glanced up as she heard shouting and someone saying to go get help. She couldn't see where Wilhelm went, but she felt compelled to rest her head on her hands as she closed her eyes, her breathing slowing to soft heaves.

[Holeypaladin]

Allowing the phoenix to carry him through the sky, Wilhelm soon noted that she was getting a bit too curious as she approached the caravan. "Don't get too close!" he exclaimed, but it was too late, as an arrow pierced into her wing. As she began to plummet towards the ground, Wilhelm fell free, crashing into a tree as his girlfriend crashed into the ground.

"Tati!" he shouted, "Tati, are you alright?" Quickly locating where she had fallen, Wilhelm made his way over towards her, though he worried somewhat that someone might find her first. Finding her collapsed and stunned, he noted that the arrow was still stuck in her arm. Breaking it off, he pulled it free before incanting, "Irisv ezoukeic, vern." The restorative energy of his spell sealed the wound shut, though his main concern was that the person who shot her would arrive soon. Still... humans were unaware of the fact that phoenixes could shift into a human form, so they would be expecting a bird, not a woman.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati barely raised her head as she heard Wilhelm approach her. As she reach to grasp him, she yelped as he broke off the arrow and pulled it out while tears began to sting her silver eyes. "It hurts," she whimpered, letting him incant a spell that sealed her wound. Glancing down at her side, she noticed that there was a gash near her hip and she could still feel blood trickling down her back. "It hurts..." Slowly, she brought herself up and gripped his arm.

"It was right here!" the man said.

"You're bloody daft!" the other snarled. "That's clearly a woman." The older male made his way to them and crouched down to her eye level. "Are you all right, lady?" he asked.

Nodding, the phoenix pressed her cheek against Wilhelm's chest, weary of what might happen to her. She couldn't begin to think of what would occur if she was still in her bird form.

[Holeypaladin]

Noticing that the phoenix was still wounded, Wilhelm stroked her, incanting, "Irisv ezoukeic, vern" again to heal the rest of her wounds with restorative magic. Turning his attentions to the hunters, he prepared himself to defend the princess if need but, but such proved rather unnecessary as they quickly dismissed her as a woman rather than a bird.

Squeezing her close to him, he stroked her hair and spoke to the hunters. "We're fine, thanks for your concern," he said to the man. "I think we might be a bit lost, though. Which kingdom is this? Is this the kingdom that's been having problems with dragon cults? We're dragon slayers, you see."

If nothing else, these men might be able to provide at least a bit of basic information about this kingdom. Very few human kingdoms actually aligned with the evil dragons that plagued humanity, and such decisions were typically made by corrupt kings and unpopular among the commoners.

[PendragonXeno94]

The phoenix clutched him further as the two men exchanged confused expressions.

"Dragon cult?" the older man asked. "Sir, we're just traveling through to get to Bretony. We haven't heard anything about a dragon cult. In fact, I'm thankful we haven't seen any dragons at all." He gestured to the other male. "This one's a lousy shot. I'm surprised he hit anything." Pausing, he cast his eyes down for a moment before looking back up at the knight. "You should keep heading north, stranger. I hear there's a village of barbarians that would know where they are. We tend to avoid them."

Tati raised an eyebrow as she wondered why he wouldn't know about the dragon cult but know about a village.

"Bastards like to raid the caravans, so we skirt around them to prevent any accidents," the man continued. "If you want to risk losing your head, more power to you." Pushing the younger man along, he remained silent as they returned to their wagons to push on.

[Holeypaladin]

Continuing to hold the shy phoenix close to him, Wilhelm nodded in the direction of the hunters. "Thanks for the information," he said to them. "We'll keep an eye out for these vikings. Oh and one thing you might keep in mind about magical beasts... some of them are in fact quite intelligent and powerful. So I wouldn't encourage the shooting of phoenixes unless you want them to reduce you into ash. Some things are just too risky to hunt."

Waving to them, he slid his arm around Tati's waist, squeezing her close and holding her as he went in the opposite direction. "If they're passing through on their way to Bretony, then we're most likely within Frankonia's borders right now," he commented. "Their new king isn't a bad guy, though their late princess was a member of a dragon cult who was recently killed. She was super ugly though, so a disgrace compared to pretty princesses like you."

Kissing her neck, he nibbled on it a bit. "We should get some distance between us and the hunters before you shift back into bird form."

[PendragonXeno94]

The hunters simply waved him off as they returned to their caravan.

Tati held onto Wilhelm as they went in the opposite direction, still dazed and confused as to why they would shoot her down like that. She knew that was something her kind tried to avoid, but why would they want to kill them to begin with beside the fact that their feathers were valuable? No longer wanting to dwell on the thought, she turned to him as they continued to walk. She never heard of Bretony or Frankonia, yet she wanted to see what could be explored. For now, they had to focus on finding the village Vilkas was from. Nodding and playfully pulling away from him kissing her neck, she kept glancing over her shoulder to see if they were far away enough to shift back.

Once she could no longer see the hunters, she shifted back and took back to the air. Being mindful this time, she stayed above the treeline as the scenery below them began to be replaced by sand and crashing waves.

[Holeypaladin]

Holding on to the phoenix, Wilhelm held her close, allowing her to fly them towards the northern coast. Before long, they had reached a beach, and could not proceed further north without flying out over the ocean.

It occurred to him that this would likely be Tati's first time seeing the ocean. "That's the ocean," he said to her as he stroked her feathers and held her. "Quite a lot of water, isn't it? And it goes on and on for a long ways... there's more ocean than there is land on this world, you know."

[PendragonXeno94]

Glancing down at the beach, Tati lowered herself a little before seeing a small ship move along the coastline. Deciding to keep her distance this time, she stayed above the vessel as she followed it down a ways. She assumed the ship would lead them somewhere, and if she stayed above them, Wilhelm wouldn't have to tell her to not get too close as she didn't want to get injured again.

Seeing the ship go further down, the phoenix couldn't make out the ones that were walking around on the ship, but she noted where they were headed and landed on the beach once the ship began to move ahead of them. "Do those look like Vikings?" she asked him. She didn't want to follow the wrong group of people, after all...

[Holeypaladin]

In her bird form, Tati's eyesight was much, much better than that of a human... it was necessary, after all, for any sort of bird of prey like herself. Therefore, as she asked him a question regarding the boat she had spotted, he had no idea how to reply, as he could barely even see it from their current range. "Hang on..." he said, chuckling at the way she had somehow expected him to tell the difference at this range.

"Kiwieg svern, toma," he incanted, using his Divination circuit to enhance his eyesight. Soon, he was able to see the boat and its crew quite clearly... perhaps even better than Tati herself could, despite her being a bird. "That's a cog," he said, "Flying the Pendragon banner. An invading army from New Camelot, but not, in fact, a Viking ship. We're looking for a longboat, likely with a dragon head for a figurehead. It's long and it has a lot of oars, and a single square sail."

[PendragonXeno94]

She would have known what a Viking ship looked like if she had prior knowledge of them. When Wilhelm told her that it wasn't the group they were looking for, she nodded as he told her that they were from New Camelot. "Why are they invading?" she asked him. "Should we tell someone that they're doing that?" Once he told her what kind of ship they were looking for, she had him climb on her back before flying in the opposite direction, wanting to see if she could spot the ship before going back towards the one they were previously following.

It was almost midday when she eyed a couple of ships coming in when she had flown over the coastline for a few miles. They seemed to match the description that the knight gave her, so she slowly descended, praying that she wouldn't be attacked again like with the caravan. As she noted the multitudes of longhouses that were further from the coast, she landed and morphed into her human form to prevent anyone seeing her in her bird form. "Where should we go?" she asked, taking his hand into hers.

[Holeypaladin]

"It's a complicated situation," remarked Wilhelm in regards to the New Camelot invasion. "They've never been on good terms with Frankonia, but with the Franks having lost a war recently, they're weakened, while New Camelot is strong. Their pretender king wishes to expand his power by conquest, and Frankonia is currently a fairly easy target. I'm sure they are probably aware of invading armies, by now, so it's out of our hands."

Continuing to scan for ships, Wilhelm hugged the phoenix as she found some longboats, along with a Viking village. "That looks like the place," he said with a nod, waiting for her to land before pulling her human form close, kissing her deeply. "Hmm..." he said, "Let's go to the mead hall. Drunk Vikings talk a lot, and boast a lot, so we're certainly to hear some rumors there. Though some of them might say things that are alarming to you... know that you're safe so long as you're in my arms." With that, he wrapped his arms around the princess, holding her close to him to show his point.

[PendragonXeno94]

"Oh..." Tati wasn't sure how Frankonia was weakened or why anyone would want to invade them, though she was more concerned about finding the vikings. Once she was in her human form, she was taken aback by Wilhelm pulling her close to him and kissing her deeply. He seemed to like showing her affection, not that she was complaining. Finally able to break the kiss, she nodded as he told her they should go to the mead hall. The phoenix instinctively pressed herself closer to him when he told her she would be safe in his arms. "I'll let you find it," she said.

She could already see a few women strolling around and heading into their homes while most of the men made their way to the building in the middle. She assumed that was what they were looking for, so she let her knight lead the way and keep her close to him.

[Holeypaladin]

Gazing around the village of northern barbarians, Wilhelm tightened his grip around Tati's waist. These vikings were known to pillage settlements and plunder other sea vessels, so they weren't exactly considered the most friendly of men by the rest of the world. Still, the village itself seemed quiet enough, and no one bothered them as Wilhelm proceeded into the large mead hall in the middle of town.

As he entered, he noticed that the drinking had already begun. Making his way over to a table, he pulled out a chair for Tati and sat across from her. Soon a bar maid with huge breasts came to take their order. "Mead, of course," Wilhelm said, wondering somewhat what Tati would think of this wine-like beverage made with honey.

[PendragonXeno94]

The princess remained at Wilhelm's side as he led her into the mead hall where he took her to a table and sat across from her. When the bar maid come to their table, Tati's eyes widened in shock at how huge her chest was. Looking down at her own after the maid left, she wondered if hers would be better if they were bigger. She had always been content with them being of average size, but seeing the bar maid's made her a little self aware that... She shook at the thought, knowing Wilhelm wouldn't leave her because of the size of her breasts.

She had brought her feathers over her lap so no one would accidentally step on them or touch them. Hearing the raucous the vikings were causing made her reach over for her knight's hand and gripped, as if afraid of being pulled away from him. "What's mead?" she asked, trying to find anything to distract her from the drunken crowd.

[Holeypaladin]

Chuckling as the phoenix looked down to her own breasts, Wilhelm said, "I like yours a lot" and gently patted them. He gripped her hand and caressed it, as if to reassure the girl that she would be fine. Considering her isolation, he realized that the princess probably wasn't all that comfortable in noisy crowds like this one. With that in mind, he picked her up and pulled her into his lap, where he could hold her close to him and squeeze her.

"Mead is sort of like wine, but made from honey," he said to the girl as he kissed her neck. "It's got a sweet flavor, so if you're not used to drinking strong things, it might be a good way to start." He held her close, caressing her feathers as some of the viking warriors began to drink excessively. The boasting would start soon, and he was curious what sort of tales these barbarians would have.

[PendragonXeno94]

"Oh good," As she gripped his hand, she brought herself closer to him as the vikings continued to drink and she was moved into his lap. She hardly heard what Wilhelm told her about mead when she overheard one or two of the vikings saying the crudest things about women and seemingly catcalling her. They eventually focused their attention on a bar maid as Tati wrapped her arms around him. So far she hadn't heard anything about the dragon cult, though there were one or two stories about how someone pillaged more than someone else or how they bedded more women.

If she were by herself, she would be running for the door. But since she was with Wilhelm, she felt somewhat better about being with this rowdy crowd.

"I betcha I can get that girl right there!" someone behind them yelled. "She needs to be with a real man!"

The phoenix pressed herself against Wilhelm as she was certain that viking had someone in mind as he brushed his hand over her shoulder.

"What d'ya say, lass? Care to join me in my longhouse?"

"I have a boyfriend," she said, burying her face in her knight's neck.

"Oh, come now! You can do better than this whelp, can'cha?"

[Holeypaladin]

The things the vikings said were of no surprise to Wilhelm, but they definitely seemed to have an effect on Tatianna. As he sensed the nervousness of the phoenix, he held her close, gently stroking her feathers and kissing her neck. Soon the mead arrived, though he wasn't sure if the phoenix noticed it, as she was more distracted by the way volume level of the barbarians.

Taking a sip of the meat, the knight smirked a bit as one of them came over to try and hit on his girlfriend. As he set the chalice down, he turned his attention to the Viking, and said, "I think that man over there is more your type," nodding towards a particularly unfriendly looking brute before incanting, "Bahsk oupol."

As the compulsion spell went into effect, the barbarian who had hit on Tatianna walked over to the brute Wilhelm had indicated and gave a rather passionate tongue kiss. This, of course, resulted in an immediate punch to his face, and a short tavern brawl ensued between the two, resulting in an unconscious, heavily beaten flirt and a great deal of laughing from across the mead hall.

Winking at Tati, Wilhelm said, "Wasn't that amusing?"

[PendragonXeno94]

Thankful that the viking was leaving her alone, the phoenix watched in surprise as he went to another viking and kissed him before he was punched in the face. With the hall bursting in laughter, she glanced down at what she figured was mead and took a small sip before putting the chalice down. Nodding, Tati rested her head on his shoulder as a few of the vikings finally calmed down and looked at them surprise, wondering what had happened with their friend as he went from hitting on a rather exotic creature to making out and getting knocked out by another patron.

"Gods, my wife would want to hear this," the viking said, shaking his hand and spitting. "Dunno what got into him."

The phoenix stroked his hair as the hall continued to be filled with loud cheers and, strangely enough, singing. Of course, the songs weren't as eloquent as what she was used to hearing,

"Poor Vilkas," someone not far from earshot said. "I'm gonna go visit his grave after this and then go check on his sister. She's been a wreck since his death."

"We know what happened to 'im?" another asked.

"Ah, someone said something about phoenixes killin' 'im. What they do, peck 'im to death?"

"I heard he found something and was killed for it," a third commented. "That's why the dragons flew off after him. Not sure why, though."

[Holeypaladin]

Holding the phoenix princess in his arms, Wilhelm was kissing her tenderly and stroking her feathers when he heard some of the vikings mentioning the name Vilkas. Glancing at the barbarian who had mentioned him, Wilhelm also caught the fact that he had a sister. "We should follow him when he visits the sister," he whispered into Tati's ear, "We might learn something new in this little puzzle of ours."

With Vilkas dead, their lead was gone, and the man who had assassinated Tati's father had met his fate. Well, it wasn't really much of a surprise, as Vikings did tend to have short life spans, and preferred to die in battle rather than dying in bed. Of course, phoenixes were capable of much more than just pecking things, as they also had powerful pyromancy.

Continuing to listen in on the conversation, Wilhelm continued to drink mead. Perhaps he stood out a bit in this particular crowd, but not nearly as much as Tati did, but so long as she remained in his lap where she belonged, the princess should be relatively safe.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati almost melted into the kiss before Wilhelm mentioned that they were going to follow the man to where Vilkas' sister was. She hardly replied as she stroked his hair and remained in his lap. Perhaps the sister knew about the dragon cult or could point them in the right direction. Either way, the sooner they left the mead hall, the better. The phoenix took another sip of the mead as she overheard a few vikings call out to Wilhelm to shove her under the table. "Don't make me do that," she whispered to him. Why would they want to see her under the table?

Glancing over the knight's shoulder, she noticed that the viking had gotten up and began to leave the hall, leaving his drinking buddies to keep boasting about whatever came to mind.

"I saw a dragon this big!" one shouted, spreading his arms wide apart.

"Come off it!" another jeered. "Dragons are bigger than that!"

While Tati had yet to see a dragon up close, she hoped that they weren't too big and could easily be swayed.

[Holeypaladin]

Chuckling at the way the Vikings told him to shove the girl under the table, Wilhelm shook his head and kissed her. "I won't," he said, caressing her feathers and holding her. "These guys are weird," he murmured as he noticed the viking slipping out of the mead hall to go visit the sister he had mentioned. Helping the girl to her feet, Wilhelm began to make his way out of the mead hall to follow the man as he heard the vikings boasting about a rather small dragon.

"Probably just a wyvern," he commented. "A small one, at that. Most people don't know the difference between dragons and wyverns." As he made his way out the door, he incanted, "Rifstejarwim, buatleb." He held the phoenix tight as they both turned invisible, pressing against her to prevent her from stepping outside of the spells effects as he followed after the barbarian to the home of Vilkas' sister.

[PendragonXeno94]

Sighing in relief, the phoenix held him closer to her before he made her get up to follow the viking. She almost squeaked from him pulling her close and turning invisible. She held onto her knight as the viking went to an open field where the ashes of the dead were buried.

He sat near the spot where Vilkas' ashes were placed, never uttering a word, only sitting as the sea breeze brushed his face and blew through his hair and beard. It was about an hour or so before he left to go to a longhouse not far away. "Dagny," he called, placing his axe on a nearby table as he entered.

A fair haired woman gracefully walked across the the floor as she wiped her hands with her apron. "Hello, Haakon," she said, brushing her lips over his hairy cheek. Taking his hand, she pulled him to where the bedroom was and sat on the bed. "What brings you here?"

"Well, I like to visit you," Haakon replied, rubbing the back of his neck. "But I was wondering if you heard anything."

"From the priestess, you mean."

Haakon nodded.

"No, not recently. She hasn't even been back for a few months. Something about keeping a vigil over something."

[Holeypaladin]

Squeezing the phoenix princess in his arms, Wilhelm impatiently waited for the Viking to lead them towards the sister's house. He found it odd how Vilkas' ashes were buried... typically, Vikings who died in battle were buried at sea. The fact that he hadn't been was an indication that Vilkas had not died in battle, but due to other means. How unfortunate, for him, though the knight held little pity for barbaric raiders.

Following him to the house of the sister, Dagny, the knight watched as the woman pulled the Viking Haakon into her room. Perhaps they had some sort of sexual relationship, or at least desired one, but it didn't particular matter to the knight. He listened to a mention of a priestess... perhaps some cult priestess? But for the time being, he continued to wait, holding Tati and gently kissing her.

[PendragonXeno94]

Dagny and Haakon didn't exchange other words after that as the man eventually laid on her bed and was on the verge of falling asleep. "Too bad. Erika was a feisty one."

Dagny glared at him.

"Before I met you, of course."

"Did she treat you as well as I do?" she asked him.

"Well, no-"

The door closed as Tati was trying to not be distracted by Wilhelm holding and kissing her. "Isn't Erika the priestess's name?" she asked quietly. Judging from how Haakon worded it, it seemed that they had the name of who they would be searching for. There wasn't much else as the house was soon filled with grunts and sighs, making her cheeks redden greatly.

[Holeypaladin]

They hadn't gotten a whole lot of information before the two vikings began sexing... simply a name and a vigil. No mention of where it was held. But it didn't seem like they'd be learning anything else either. Returning his attention to the phoenix, Wilhelm nodded and kissed her. "But we still don't know where this Erika is," he mumbled. "I suppose we still need a bit more information on where to find her."

"I suppose we can try to find the temple?" he said, moving around to the window and glancing in on the two vikings as they went at it. "It can't be that far from here, can it?" Wrapping an arm around the phoenix princess waist, he held her close and chuckled at the amorous pair. "Any bets how long they'll last?" he said, mostly in order to make Tati blush more.

[PendragonXeno94]

"Maybe they'll mention it eventually," she said, "or someone else would know." The fact that they were still near the couple as they were making love made Tati blush even more, and Wilhelm's comment didn't help her, either. She would have pulled away in embarrassment if she wasn't invisible while hanging onto him. "Can we go now?" It was clear that Haakon and Dagny weren't going anywhere anytime soon, and she didn't feel right just standing within close proximity of them.

She didn't even know where to begin to look for the temple. Maybe the priestess visited the village sometimes, even if her visits were less frequent as of late. Or someone was still in contact with her. Tugging on Wilhelm, she was half tempted to leave the area of the spell's effect anyway as she didn't want to linger in the longhouse any longer.

[Holeypaladin]

The embarrassment of the phoenix princess from being so close to the amorous couple was rather amusing. "I suppose..." he commented, sensing that she was about to leave either way, and knowing it would be a bad idea for her to step outside of the invisibility. Squeezing her in his arms, he made his way away from the longhouse, back to the mead hall.

Sitting her back on his lap in the noisy mead hall, Wilhelm slid his hand up the inner thigh of the phoenix and felt a great deal of moisture. "Don't tell me..." he commented softly, "Those sounds got you pretty horny?" Glancing around, he noted that the barbarians were all quite drunk, but doing much in the hall itself would attract attention. "You need some attention?" he whispered into her ear and gently nibbled on it.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati was thankful that Wilhelm finally took her back to the mead hall where she went back to sitting in his lap. Silver eyes widened as she felt him slide a hand to her inner thigh. As he nibbled on her ear, she glanced over at him. "Maybe..." she said. "But not here." Even with all the patrons being drunk, she didn't want to be around them if he wanted to give her attention. In fact, she hadn't realized that the amorous pair affected her this much.

Looking at him, she adjusted herself in his lap to where she had her legs draping over his lap and facing him. "Can we go somewhere else?"

[Holeypaladin]

Stroking her hair, Wilhelm gave the phoenix a tender kiss. He watched as she repositioned herself on his lap, stroking her feathers and gazing at her. With a chuckle, he nodded to her words. "Sure," he replied. "Let's go somewhere else."

Helping her to her feet, he soon heard the bellow of one of the drunk vikings. "There's a sex room upstairs!" he called out loud enough for the entire mead hall to hear him, "You're welcome to use it!"

Laughing a bit at his words, Wilhelm let out a quick, "Thanks," before wrapping an arm around Tati, guiding her up to the "sex room" as the viking had called it. Sure enough, it had a rather comfortable looking bed, and wasn't currently in use. Closing the door behind him, he guided Tati over to the bed, laying her down on it. "At least they won't hear you over the sound of their own carousing," he mentioned. Vikings did tend to be incredibly loud, after all.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati jumped a little as she overheard a viking bellow that there was a sex room upstairs and they could use it. Letting him wrap an arm around her, she walked upstairs with him to where the room was located. Thankfully, it was away from the crowd and since they were being boisterous, it was doubtful that they would be able to hear her later on. The bed looked comfortable enough, and she looked up at Wilhelm as he laid her on her back.

Slowly, she began to push his shirt up and she kissed up his chest, eventually stopping at his neck where she began to nibble on his Adam's apple and mark it.

[Holeypaladin]

Wilhelm spent some time dealing with Tati's desires, making sure she was satisfied enough to focus on the mission before speaking up. "We know they have some sort of priestess..." he remarked. "So my guess is, some sort of temple around here."

[PendragonXeno94]

She nodded at the mention of the priestess. "Right." It did make sense that there had to be a temple nearby. While she was satisfied now, she was a little upset at the couple from earlier for making her so turned on. She couldn't understand why they didn't just leave when it became obvious that the two vikings were about to do the nasty. "And I'm assuming that we're going to try to make her tell us where the other cultists would be."

Well, they could just try to convince her mother to attack, though it was only wishful thinking. If it had been a week earlier, she probably would have wholeheartedly believe than her mother would want to help her. She had probably fallen out Amita's favor when she told her that Wilhelm was her boyfriend.

[Holeypaladin]

"Something like that," the knight remarked, wrapping his arm around the phoenix and heading back downstairs. The party was still going on, it seemed, though several of the vikings had passed out from too much mead. A few other vikings were doing amusing things to the ones who had fallen asleep, such as shaving off half of their beard, or drawing things on their faces, or some mixture of both. It was rather amusing, in fact.

"Say," said Wilhelm to a viking who looked to be drunk enough to talk but not so terribly so that he was unintelligible, "We're pilgrims headed for the nearest temple. Where would be the best place to take our offerings of mead to the Aesir?"

The man mumbled some directions and pointed, and Wilhelm nodded his thanks, squeezing Tati around the waste and heading out of the mead hall in the direction that the viking had indicated in his instructions. Gazing over to the princess, he gave her a tender kiss and stroked her feathers. "Technically the vikings worship the Aesir," he remarked, "But dragon cults are also fairly common. To find a cultist in the temple is... not as unusual as you might think."

[PendragonXeno94]

Letting Wilhelm speak to the drunk viking, Tati kept herself close to him. As she returned his kiss, she looked at him with a puzzled expression. "I thought we were looking for a priestess," she said, before nodding at the fact that the Aesir was worshiped... whoever that was. "Why can't they just worship The One Phoenix? I don't understand." It made more sense to her to have just one thing to worship and knowing that it only took one to create everything.

Walking in the direction they were pointed toward, she wrapped her feathers around Wilhelm as she felt a little chilled. Hopefully it would keep him warm as it had for her. "How do humans keep themselves warm? Besides each other."

[Holeypaladin]

"Where better to find a priestess than in a temple?" the knight asked as if it were obvious. "That's where they tend to live and worship, is it not?" He squeezed her close to him, chuckling somewhat at her words. "They're humans," he said the obvious answer, "So it makes sense that they wouldn't worship a phoenix. Humans have their own pantheons of deities, which vary from region to region. I imagine that phoenixes living in different parts of the world would have their own deities as well, as religion is tied in to culture, and culture differs vastly from place to place."

Snuggling up to the princess as she wrapped her feathers around him, Wilhelm said, "You've seen those furs that the vikings wear, haven't you? That's how humans tend to keep warm... by wrapping themselves up in the furs of animals. Of course, all the sexing they do helps keep them warm too, which is why vikings have such a huge problem of overpopulation and have to rely on piracy and banditry in order to survive."

He continued along the rode for awhile, squeezing Tati and holding her close, and eventually the temple came into view up on the top of a hill. "Maybe we should have waited until daylight to travel," he remarked, realizing how incredibly cold it was at night this far north. "Want to use some of your fire magic to keep us warm?"

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati huffed a little. "That's true..." She didn't want to say more as she already felt like an idiot for asking an obvious question. Pressing herself against him more, she looked at him with her silver eyes. Humans wore furs? As in killing the animal and taking it to wear. "But why?" The princess was hardly surprised about vikings sleeping together. They didn't seem to take the necessary precautions to prevent pregnancies, but then again who really did? At least among her people.

Lighting her hand up, she held it close to them, the flames licking at her feathers. "They won't hurt us," she said. "There's something in the flames that prevents it from burning anything unless I conjure it for that intent." Deciding that a small flame wasn't enough, her body began to brighten and heat permeated itself in and around her. "Is that better?" she asked, looking up at the temple briefly.

[Holeypaladin]

Chuckling at the phoenix's words, Wilhelm gave her a tender kiss. "Because they work, silly," he responded to her question. "In a harsh climate like this, people are forced to use whatever works." Caressing her, he soon felt the warmth of her flames as they enveloped him, yet didn't burn him. "It is better, yes," he remarked with a nod. It was actually quite similar to a spell he knew, but it was nice to rely on her flames from time to time.

Now that he warm warm, he squeezed the phoenix close as he approached the gates of the temple. He wasn't sure if the priestess would be awake, but perhaps they'd be able to at least provide the couple with a place to rest for the night until they would have a chance to speak to her. This harsh climate would make camping outside rather uncomfortable, after all.

[PendragonXeno94]

"Oh." Well, she suppose humans couldn't warm themselves up like phoenixes could. As they made their way to the gates, she looked up at the temple and pressed herself close to him, feeling the wind hit her face. Spotting an opening at the bottom of the temple, she pulled him along and ducked under, holding onto him tightly.

She curled up next to him as she stroked his hair. "Would this work?" she asked. "We would at least be somewhat protected from the weather." All she knew was that unlike lighting a fire, she could resonate her body heat for long as she wanted before she was overheated, which was still for not another twelve hours. Yawing a little, she nuzzled into his chest and waited for her to lay down so she could sleep.

[Holeypaladin]

Wilhelm allowed the phoenix to show him into a small secluded location where her warm fire would provide protection from the weather. The idea of camping out in that location for the night was definitely appealing, and so the knight nodded, kissing the princess tenderly as he stroked her hair. "This spot will work, I think," he remarked. "I can create a barrier to contain our heat... but it's still cold. Let's huddle for warmth."

Caressing her, he slowly slid her clothes off. "It's always best to have skin to skin contact when huddling for warmth," he said with a nod, continuing to strip her until she was naked before pressing his body against hers and holding her close. Of course, caressing her in this manner might have other side effects on the girl's mood, but he wasn't sure if she was too tired or not.

[PendragonXeno94]

As he undressed her, she pressed herself to him, holding him and nuzzling his neck. He exhausted her from before they left the village and she wanted to wait until at least morning before she was ready again. She yawned slightly as she slowly drifted to sleep, her feathers fanning over their bodies. As she slipped into her dream state, she found herself wandering around the cemetery where her father's mausoleum was.

"Tatiana," she heard someone call. Her father's ghost stood in place when she turned around. "Is there something bothering you?"

"No, Father," she said. "It's just that-"

"You're afraid." He chuckled as Tati cast her silver eyes down. "I know you. You care for the lad."

Tati drew in her bottom lip.

"I can see why. Your mother might tried to pounce on him if circumstances weren't different."

"She tried to kill him, though."

"I know." Pulling her close to him, he stroked her hair as his feathers sprawled at his feet. "The both of you will probably face a danger far greater than you've ever known. But you have to keep him safe. He can't do it alone, and you might have to sacrifice yourself to..." Sighing, he took a step back and rubbed her shoulders.

"He wouldn't let me do that..." Before she could say more, her father and the cemetery began to fade away. "No! Father wait!" Her eyes opened as she brought herself up to a sitting position. "Wait!"

[Holeypaladin]

Awaken by her dream, Wilhelm spent some time comforting the princess and calming her down, soothing her back to sleep. He allowed the girl to wake him in the morning in her usual style, spending quite a bit of time preparing her for the day before eventually getting dressed and taking her hand.

"We can head on in to the temple now," he said to her, squeezing her hand and leading her out of their cozy secluded area and back into the harsh cold of the northern climate. Approaching the temple, he noted the way some of the men were talking about how busy the priestesses of Freya were so early in the morning.

"Hello," he said to some Viking guy, "We're looking for a dragon-worshiping priestess who used to have sex with a Viking named Vilkas a lot. We're hunting dragons and dragon cultists, you see, so we're looking to learn more about them so we can kill them all."

The Viking looked at Wilhelm for a moment before bursting into laughter and giving him a hearty smack on the back. Apparently, his 100% truthful statement was quite the epitome of Viking humor and wasn't taken at all seriously. "I'll go get her," he said, continuing to laugh heartily as he went off into the temple.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati quietly followed Wilhelm as they left their spot and went up to the temple. She wrapped her arms around him before quickly retracting them when they approached one of the men. She watched their interaction, flinching as he was slapped on the back. "Are you alright?" she asked him, rubbing his back and wrapping her arms around him once more.

She didn't have time to check his back when the priestess came out a short time later.

"What do you want?" she asked, clutching onto her robe.

"My lady," one of the priests said, letting his robe expose his marked up chest. "Do be polite."

Sighing to herself, she rolled her eyes and glanced at the two, continuing in a flat tone. "Would you like to come in? It's rather cold out."

"Yes, we would! Thank you!" exclaimed Tati, pulling Wilhelm along into the warmth of the temple's interior.

[Holeypaladin]

Squeezing Tati close to him, Wilhelm chuckled and held her tightly. "I'm fine," he remarked. "That's just a thing guys do." Her concern was amusing, but Wilhelm was tough enough to take a friendly blow like that rather easily. Waiting for a moment, it wasn't that long until the dragon priestess came out, though she didn't seem all that happy to see him. Or perhaps it was just the cold.

Wilhelm soon found himself pulled into the temple by the phoenix who was obviously eager to escape from the cold. Once there was no imminent threat of freezing to death, he decided to go ahead and tell the priestess what they want. "We're here to figure out everything about your dragon cult and the dragons you serve," he said.

"Srica munthrek," he incanted a compulsive charm spell under his breath. Should it work, it would have the effect of making the priestess consider them friends and be more forthcoming with information. "So why not tell us what you know?" he remarked as he held Tati closer.

[PendragonXeno94]

Staying close to Wilhelm, Tati watched him closely as he simply told the priestess what they wanted and put some kind of spell on her. She glanced at the priestess curiously as she had no clue what he did to her.

"Yes... the dragons," the priestess said, sounding warmer toward the pair. "I haven't heard from them in some time, and I remember their leader coming to see me after they invade the phoenix kingdom.

Tati froze in place, hoping she would be spared the details.

"He said something about making a deal with Abjorn after Vilkas was killed. He's not far from here, maybe a few miles down the mountain. I'm not sure where the dragons went or where their leader is. But he sometimes comes by but it won;t be for another six months..."

[Holeypaladin]

Squeezing Tati a bit closer to him, Wilhelm listened as the priestess said what she knew about the dragons and their leader. It wasn't a whole lot to go off of, but it was another lead. "Yes..." he said with a nod, "Good old Abjorn. Of course they'd go to him." Smiling slightly, he said, "Thanks for letting me know. I might be back if I have any more questions."

He considered killing the priestess now that she had told him what she knew... but thought better of it. Spilling blood on holy ground tended to tick off deities, and they may have use for her at some point in the future. While the priestess herself was a heretic, many of the Aesir worshiped in this particular temple were aligned with the good guys, and it was better not to anger them unnecessarily.

Squeezing the phoenix princess, Wilhem asked, "So are you ready to head off say hi to Abjorn?"

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati kept to Wilhelm's side as the priestess nodded and made her way back into the halls with her priest frantically following behind. She never heard of this Abjorn, but she was certain that he would know more about the dragons than the priestess would. But why would she have two religions instead to sticking to her original one? Of course, that was never heard of in her kingdom, but then again, humans were far more complicated than phoenixes were.

She simply nodded, though she wasn't keen on going back into the cold. She activated the spell of letting her body heat brighten her aura as she pressed herself closer to him. "I don't want to see you getting cold," she said, resting her cheek on his arm.

[Holeypaladin]

Squeezing and holding the phoenix close in his arms, Wilhelm shrugged. "I'm cold," he remarked, "But I don't like to show weakness." Noting the way she began to heat herself up, he stroked her hair and caressed her. "Mind strengthening that so that it warms us both up?" he remarked as he kissed her tenderly.

He didn't know much about phoenix religion, but it wasn't unusual to see cults among human religions, especially polytheistic religions like that of the Vikings. There was no denying the fact that some dragons were more powerful than deities, so for mortals to worship them as deities wasn't really much of a surprise. Holding the princess close, Wilhelm continued to make his way down the hill in the direction of this Abjorn character.

[PendragonXeno94]

At his request, Tati strengthened her heating spell so she could keep both of them warm. "Better?" she asked, pressing herself closer to him. "Where would Abjorn be?" She didn't know where they should go, but she hoped that they were going back to the village where it was warmer. She continued to keep herself close to Wilhelm, even burying her face in his chest.

"Wilhelm... what if something bad happens?" She, of course, always assumed the worst knowing that the mission they had was potentially dangerous.

[Holeypaladin]

"Better, yes," the knight said, holding the phoenix close to him and pressing against her. "A few miles down the mountain," the knight said with a shrug. The priestess wasn't all that specific in her description of where Abjorn would be, but Wilhelm figured he'd see something eventually in "a few miles" that would indicate the presence of Abjorn. Be it a village, a cave, or some weird Viking guy standing in the middle of nowhere.

"You're always worried about that," he said teasingly. "But I'll protect you, remember? We'll be fine... I doubt most people would know how to actually kill you. Chances are if anyone dies, it'll be me, and you'll just reincarnate as always." Kissing her neck, he squeezed her close to him, enjoying her warmth.

[PendragonXeno94]

While Tati hoped that "a few miles down" wouldn't be too far to walk, she remained close to Wilhelm to keep him warm on their trek down the mountain. When he mentioned that if anything should happen to anyone that it would be him, she held him more tightly. "Don't say that," she said. "I still need you." Of course, she wasn't about to let him die for her.

As the winds picked up, she fanned her feathers over them to prevent the winds from hitting them. Spotting one or two lights down the road, she pulled him along as she tried to keep them as warm as she could.

[Holeypaladin]

Squeezing and holding the phoenix princess in his arms, Wilhelm gave her a nod, caressing her and stroking her feathers. "Alright," he said, kissing her tenderly. "I'll stay alive so long as you need me, then." Well, he didn't exactly have any intention of dying, but he figured he'd reassure the phoenix as much as necessary. She often became quite worried over things, and more than once he had been woken by her anxious dreams and calmed her down.

The lights in the distance indicated they were approaching something. A village, perhaps, or at least a roadside inn. He began to pick up the pace, holding Tati close to him in order to share in her warmth and also because he liked feeling her in his arms. "Think that's our destination," he nodded to the building that was slowly becoming visible in the cold morning mist.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati kept pressing herself close to him as he tenderly kissed her. She couldn't help that she worried over things and she didn't want to lose Wilhelm so soon. As the building became more visible, she squeezed him more as they made their way to it. She had peeked inside the window when they got close enough, only to see that there was a rather large woman kindling the fire. As much as she didn't want to bother her, she knew that the woman might know of Abjorn's whereabouts.

Pulling her knight along, she knocked on the door, keeping herself as close to Wilhelm as possible.

"Yes?" the woman asked, looking at the pair. "Oh, it's too cold for you to be outside! Please come in." She nudged them along to the fireplace where she pulled a few blankets out for them.

[Holeypaladin]

While the weather wasn't bad so long as Wilhelm could enjoy Tati's warmth by his side, it was no surprise than an outside observer would think they were freezing to death, as they quite obviously weren't dressed for the incredibly cold weather. Therefore, when the woman answered Tati's knocking, Wilhelm gave her a grateful nod and led the phoenix in to the building.

"My thanks for your hospitality," he said to the woman. "My fiancee and I are grateful." Leading Tati over to the blankets, he took a seat near the fire, holding the phoenix princess close in his lap. Gazing at the woman, he remarked, "We've actually come to speak to Abjorn... is he here, at the moment?" He figured this woman was likely Abjorn's wife, or possibly daughter, depending on how old the Viking was.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati glanced at him when he called her his fiancee. Well, it was nice but she didn't remember agreeing to marry him. Though now wasn't the time to discuss it as she curled up in his lap.

"He won't be back until this evening," the woman replied. "He's away on business at the moment."

While Tati believed that it might have meant him going to meet with the dragons, she decided to ask, "What kind of business does he do?"

"Oh, he owns a small fishing business. He usually goes to various villages to sell his catch."

The princess nodded, doing her best to conceal her feathers underneath the blanket.

[Holeypaladin]

Squeezing the girl close to him, Wilhelm frowned somewhat. He was hoping to take care of this as soon as possible, but if the Viking wouldn't return until the evening, it slowed them down somewhat. "I see..." he remarked. "I guess we'll have to return this evening, then." He caressed the feathers of the phoenix princess under the blankets, holding her close to him.

"Oh, there's no need for that!" the woman said. "Why don't you make yourselves at home until he comes back? I wouldn't send you back into the cold like that... you'll freeze! You can make yourselves at home in the guest room..." Thinking for a moment, Wilhelm gazed at Tati in order to see how she would react. Perhaps a chance to snoop around the house for awhile would be a good opportunity to dig up any documents the "fisherman" might have regarding his dragon cult...

[PendragonXeno94]

When they were offered to stay until Abjorn returned, Tati nodded in thanks as the woman said that they could use the spare guest room. Looking to Wilhelm, she shrugged. She supposed that while they looked for anything that tied Abjorn to the dragon cult, she could discuss something with him that had recently come to her attention.

When the woman stepped out of the room for a moment, she turned to him. "Fiancee? Really? We could have talked about this before..."

[Holeypaladin]

As the woman left the room, Wilhelm chuckled somewhat as the first thing the phoenix mentioned was the word "fiancee." Pulling her closer, he settled her down in his lap and kissed her tenderly. "It makes for a good cover," he said, "And gives us a reason to travel together. I was saying we were engaged in order to keep her from becoming suspicious but..."

Stroking her feathers, he kissed her more, picking her up and carrying her to the guest room as they spoke. "If you want to be engaged for real... I wouldn't be against the idea. I don't have any jewelry for you at the moment, but we're bound to find something once we kill a dragon and loot its treasure." He began to scan the guest room for sign of any documents that might link Abjorn to the cult, but he figured most of those would be in a different room entirely, such as his own bedroom.

[PendragonXeno94]

"Oh..." Returning his kiss, she blushed slightly as he said that he wouldn't mind if they were actually engaged. "Well..." She pinned her hair behind her ears as she tried to think it over. "I... I wouldn't mind that, either." While it came sooner than she thought it would, but she hoped he would want to eventually marry her anyway. "I don't need that to say I'm marrying you," she said, giving him a soft kiss.

As they went through the guest room to find whatever they could on Abjorn, she looked at him as he made his way to what looked like the man's bedroom. "Should we ask first?" she said, keeping herself in the guest room.

[Holeypaladin]

Giving the princess a kiss, Wilhelm nodded. "Alright then..." he said. "Let's get married sometime. I can be more formal about it later but... right now we have a cover to keep." Making his way over towards the other bedroom, he thought for a moment. "It would be too suspicious for us to poke around without permission, or ask to enter a room where we clearly have no business..."

Turning to see the phoenix still in her room, he thought for a moment. "Stay here," he said with a nod. "I'll be back soon... this is infiltration business." With that, he incanted, "Rifstejarwim, jennuilt," and faded from sight. Now invisible to the human eye, he made his way in where he didn't belong in order to browse through suspicious looking documents. He doubted the Viking really knew how to read, but it was at least worth a try. Any document of any kind was suspicious in a land of illiterate people, after all.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati happily returned his kiss. "Well, you don't have to, but you can if you want to," she said. It didn't really matter to her one way or another as she did want to spend her life with him. Waiting in the guestroom, she began to walk around, spotting a tapestry on the wall; what she assumed was Abjorn sat in the middle of the tapestry with with woman on his left and a younger woman on his right. It appeared that they were a normal Viking family and that Abjorn would have nothing to do with the dragon cult.

But the woman to his right looked almost identical to the one woman they came across in the previous village where they were looking into Vilkas' death. Perhaps they needed to return and speak to her.

[Holeypaladin]

Rummaging through the bedroom of this Abjorn, Wilhelm wasn't able to find and documents. This wasn't a surprise, as the viking was most likely illiterate. He did, however, find several draconic religious items... an idol of a white dragon, along with several other things. Proof at least that he was, in fact, connected in some way with the cult, especially considering that the traditional holy items of the Viking religion were suspiciously absent.

Making his way back to the guest room, he noted the way Tatianna was examining one of the paintings. Realizing that he was still invisible, he decided to surprise her, walking up behind her and wrapping his invisible arms around her behind, kissing her neck and bending her forward while lifting the back of her dress.

[PendragonXeno94]

After Wilhelm surprised her, Tati found herself not feeling well on and off and then laying next to him. "I'm sorry I'm not feeling well," she said, resting her head on his chest. She cuddled up closer to him, not exactly feeling better but thankful that the woman seemed to have stayed on the other side of the house while he "surprised" her. As she went to look at the document Wilhelm found, she peeked out of the doorway, curious to see if the woman had made her way over to them.

"So, you think she knows about..." she asked, closing the door and sitting on the floor. Putting a hand to her head, she tried to keep a brave face while her head began to throb.

[Holeypaladin]

After satisfying the phoenix princess' demands, Wilhelm gave her somewhat of a funny look when she seemed to be scanning nonexistent documents. "Uh..." he said, trying to figure out what she was asking. "Well, I'm pretty sure she knows we're together... as for whether or not she knows about Abjorn's cult affiliation, I don't know." Noting the way she didn't seem to be feeling well, he reached out to hold her, stroking her close. "Are you alright?"

As he asked, however, he heard the sound of a door opening and a man announcing in a loud bellow that he was home. "Oh there you are," said the woman who had welcomed them inside. "Abjorn, you have some guests. I'm not sure if they're done sexing yet, though... let's give them some time to finish, shall we?"

Wilhelm smirked as he overheard these words, stroking the phoenix girl's feathers. "Sounds like he's home," he remarked, kissing her neck tenderly.

[PendragonXeno94]

Well, not feeling well seemed to have affected Tati as she thought she was looking at documents, though she scooted closer to Wilhelm as he checked on her. "I'll be fine," she said.When she heard someone else enter the house, she stayed in place as she overheard the woman tell Abjorn that there were guests.

"I wasn't expecting anyone," Abjorn said. "Were they lost or somethin'?"

"They looked like they were cold..."

He chuckled. "You've always had a soft spot for travelers." Giving her a kiss on the cheek, he glanced around to see where the couple that had come in earlier went to.

"They're in one of the guest rooms, I believe," she said.

Tati pulled her knight closer to her as her head kept throbbing.

[Holeypaladin]

Holding Tati close, Wilhelm stroked her hair, caressing her as he held her. "You can wait here if you're not feeling well," he said, placing a soft kiss on her cheek and getting up. He headed out to the living room to see the viking man who they had come to find. He gave a brief wave and a "Yo," to the couple as he saw them.

"Oh, there's one of them," he heard the woman say. "Is your companion still tired?"

"She's not feeling well," said the knight as he turned his attention to Abjorn and incanted, "Srica munthrek," using the same charm spell on Abjorn as he has used on the priestess in order to make him cooperate and view him as a friend and ally.

"Pardon?" he heard the woman ask in confusion, unsure why he had said such a seemingly random combination of syllables.

"I was clearing my throat," said Wilhelm. "Anyway... what's up, Abjorn, my main man? When are we getting together with all our fellow dragon cult buddies? And where were those dragon lairs located, again? I lost my map," he said sheepishly.

[PendragonXeno94]

Abjorn looked at the knight with a perplexed expression as he heard him say something in what sounded like draconic. "What in blazes are you-?" he asked him. "Oh... The dragon cult. You might to speak to the priestess up the road at the temple."

Tati pressed her ear to the door as she placed a hand to her head.

"I haven't been involved with the cult for some years. I don't really remember much, but maybe some coin will help me remember." He paused, trying to recall something. "Although come to think of it, I still have the maps to the dragon lairs behind the tapestry in the room you were just in. Feel free to take that."

[Holeypaladin]

The knight listened to the Viking as he contradicted himself three times. It seemed the compulsive spell was a bit more slow-acting on him than it had been on the priestess, but still had somewhat of the desired effect, eventually. He wondered why the man would direct him back to the priestess who had told him to speak to him, but he eventually caught on to the maps.

"Thanks, Abjorn," the knight said to him. "That's helpful." He decided not to kill the Viking in front of his wife and simply returned to his room, locating the maps behind the tapestry and retrieving them. Dragons didn't often move to new lairs, as they tended to have so much treasure that it was extremely difficult to do so. Gazing over to Tatianna, Wilhelm wrapped an arm around her waist. "Looks like we're done here," he said, kissing her and leading her out of the house.

He studied the maps for awhile, trying to locate his own position in order to find the nearest dragon. They weren't very well drawn maps, but hopefully there was enough information in them to find the dragons through terrain association. "Our first target is a white dragon named Frostface," he said. "At least, that's what the Draconic translates to. Your fire should be quite effective against him."

[PendragonXeno94]

Looking up at Wilhelm as he came back into the room and looked behind the tapestry, she gave him a puzzled expression as he pulled out the maps. She followed him out but not before thanking the woman for letting them stay as she felt her face being hit by the brisk cold air while Wilhelm studied the maps. As she was informed of the first dragon they were going to locate, she pressed herself close to him, letting her body heat up in order to keep them warm.

"Would the dragon be there is the big question," she said, hugging him tightly as she glanced down at the maps.

[Holeypaladin]

Squeezing and holding the phoenix in his arms, Wilhelm enjoyed her warmth. "Wrap your wings around me," he whispered into her ear, fairly certain that the warm wings of the fire elemental creature would be more comfortable than even the warmest of fur cloaks in this situation, as the frozen north was indeed quite uncomfortable.

"Even if the dragon isn't home," he remarked, "We'll be able to lure it home. They're very protective of their treasure, and if they sense it is in danger... they'll come home to defend it." White dragons had the weakest magic of all true dragons, however, so there was no guarantee that this particular opponent would have an alert system in place... but it was even less likely that the lair would be heavily trapped, as well. It was a good starting place, at least.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati wrapped her wings around him as they continued to walk in the blizzard. Although she wasn't too keen on luring a dragon to its home, she had Wilhelm at her side, and she knew that he wouldn't let anything happen to her. But what if one of the dragons decided to invade her home? She didn't want to put her family ahead of Wilhelm if she could help it.

"How did you want to lure it?" she inquired.

[Holeypaladin]

Wilhelm held the phoenix close, enjoying the warmth provided the fire spirit as it warded off the cold weather. He squeezed her close, stroking her hair and caressing her as he kissed her tenderly, making his way towards the icy lair of the nearby white dragon.

Caressing and holding her, he merely shrugged at the mention of luring it. "Dragons guard their treasure jealously," he remarked, squeezing her closer and enjoying her warmth. "Simply by threatening their treasure... it should lure them home if they're not in their lair. So if we pocket some of their coins... well, they'll have means of detecting this, and quickly rush home to stop us."

[PendragonXeno94]

"I see," she said, happily kissing him back. She then looked at him as she heard him say how he wanted to lure the dragon back. "But... But why would we do that? Isn't that mean?" She was raised that stealing anything was wrong unless they did it under dire circumstances. She didn't know how the dragon would know if their treasure was being stolen, but she had no choice to follow along with Wilhelm, though she herself wouldn't exactly partake in taking a few coins. Tati pressed herself closer to him as they made their way into the cave.

"Wilhelm, do you think that the dragon could be convinced to join us?" she asked. She would hate to see it end violently, but she also understood that the dragon might not listen to reason.

[Holeypaladin]

Laughing as the phoenix princess seemed to be more concerned about being mean to the dragon than the fact that they were hunting it. "We're going to kill it, remember?" he remarked as he stroked her feathers. "Compared to killing it... I don't think stealing some of its treasure in order to lure it is much of a problem at all." He squeezed her closer, kissing her tenderly.

"Dragons are greedy," he remarked, "But we don't really have anything with which to bribe it. And they most definitely won't help for no reason. Chromatic dragons are evil... they're born that way, and they don't have the free will to choose to be anything else." Squeezing and stroking her feathers, he said, "Seems like the wyverns have noticed us... looks like you'll need to fry some." He used his Foundry circuit to conjure forth a dragonbane polearm as the flapping of wings signaled the approach of the dragon's lair guardians.

[PendragonXeno94]

Returning his kiss, Tati quickly looked over to see the wyverns approaching. She began to concentrate her aura as she let off a silver glow, her tail feathers growing longer and her flames turning white. As one wyvern closed in on them, she released a white light, engulfing its wings in flames. She began to chant in tongues as she released another burst of light to take out the other wyvern's leg.

As she continued to rebuild her aura, her eyes became silver orbs as she allowed Wilhelm some time to finish the wyverns off.

[Holeypaladin]

Allowing the phoenix to begin her assault on the wyverns, Wilhelm noted how she amassed her elemental power, condensing it into bursts of light which began to fry the creatures, dropping them with extreme force. He winced at the raw power behind such attacks... he knew she was among the most powerful of her kind, but to see such power firsthand was... impressive.

Of course, he had amplified her powers quite a bit due to their... spirit melding. So in a sense, he was partly to blame for this impressive display of power. He himself waited until the wyverns came close, before thrusting the blade of his polearm through the throat of one. Twisting it free, he swung it forcefully, decapitating another as it came close. He placed himself between Tatianna and the wyverns, using the lengthy blade to keep them at bay in order to allow her high energy attacks to bring them down, striking out at those who came close to his phoenix princess.

[PendragonXeno94]

While Wilhelm stood in front of her to finish off any wyverns that came near her, Tati released another burst of high energy that caused another wyvern to completely disintegrate. A few were only singed in her next energy burst, doing nothing to prevent her rapid depletion before she collapsed to her knees with her aura waning.

It was then that she felt her arm getting punctured by a wyvern that managed to evade her attacks, a scream of pain escaping her.

[Holeypaladin]

As Wilhelm stood between the princess and the wyverns, he noticed something... odd. The phoenix was releasing powerful bursts of condensed fire energy... but they were entirely too powerful. They didn't simply kill the wyverns, they overkilled them to the point of reducing them into ash. "Tati..." he remarked, taking down a wyvern with a swift stroke, "Tone it down a bit." When he heard no response, he glanced back towards her. "Tati?"

Sure enough, the phoenix had collapsed from using far too much power too quickly. The knight quickly rushed to her side, thrusting his polearm into the neck of a wyvern that managed to draw its claws across the girl's arm. "We need to get you out of here," he growled, picking up the girl in his arms and incanting, "Svern." The knight made a magically powered jump to put some distance between himself and the remaining wyverns, setting the phoenix down by a tree before turning to fight off the ones who had chased him.

After a few precise strikes, there were no wyverns left, and the knight focused his attention on the girl. "Tatianna...." he remarked. "You used too much energy too quickly... you'll need to use lower powered blasts against the wyverns, and save those massive ones for the big dragons.." He made his way to her side, stroking her hair and kissing her tenderly. "Are you alright? We're gonna need to recharge your powers before we head back... but now the dragon is alerted to our presence."

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati felt everything happening so quickly from Wilhelm picking her up to jumping to a tree and watching him take down whatever wyverns had chased them. She looked down at her arm, wiping the blood pooling up in her gashes. "I'm sorry," she said, taking quick, shallow breaths. "I don't know-" She paused, briefly returning his kiss before a bellow could be heard in the distance.

She knew she wouldn't have enough time to recharge in time to be ready for when the dragon appeared. But she could at least try to in order to fight properly, even if it meant her attacks depleted her energy.

[Holeypaladin]

Squeezing and holding the phoenix in his arms, William shook his head, stroking her hair. "Don't worry..." he remarked. "I'll handle it." He frowned somewhat as he heard the bellow of a dragon's roar, chuckling somewhat at the creature's rage. "I told you white dragons were stupid, right?" he remarked. "Well it looks like this one is easily drawn out of his lair... who knew? Anyway... just relax. Hide in the tree. I'll take care of this."

He patted the girl's feathers before jumping down in an open area. It wasn't long until the dragon revealed itself, flying across the sky and landing with a thud before them. "Human... wake... Olaf up. Olaf mad... Olaf hungry... human... tasty. Bird tasty too. Where bird?"

"You don't need to worry about the bird, you stupid dragon. You'll have to get through me first."

"Human call... Olaf stupid? Olaf really mad now!" The dragon roared out in rage before directing a frosty breath weapon attack at Wilhelm. The knight, however, was easily able to predict this breath weapon, and had prepared himself accordingly.

"Ixen fethos, morne," incanted the knight, causing a field of hot flames to appear around him, warding off the frost attack and preventing it from touching him. He watched as the angry dragon charged at him, ducking out of the way of a massive claw attack from the creature's front leg.

"Olaf not stupid, human way more stupider!" the dragon continued to shout, releasing more harmless frost breath against the knight which was repelled by his protective field of fire. Eventually attempting to bite Wilhelm in half, the knight thrust the blade of his polearm into the creature's mouth instead. With a mighty chomp, the dragon bit off the blade of the polearm and swalled it, but in doing so, ended up slicing apart the inside of its throat.

Gurgling a coughing up blood, the dragon fall forward. "Olaf... owie... very owie..." These were the dragon's last words as Wilhelm conjured forth a dragonbane sword with his Foundry circuit and plunged it hilt deep in the dragon's eye, piercing through his brain to finish off the dragon Olaf once and for all.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati stayed in the tree as the dragon, Olaf, arrived. The poor thing seemed to be upset that he was trying to take a nap and now he felt the need to kill. While Wilhelm began to battle Olaf, she backed herself in the tree more, gripping the branches as she watched the fight unfold. She wanted to just throw herself between them as her lip quivered from the dragon biting off the polearm and swallowing it. She turned away just as Wilhelm was finishing him off. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she buried her face into her knees.

"Why?" she asked, not even looking up, her feathers sprawling out and covering her.

[Holeypaladin]

Battered and bruised up from the fight with the dragon, Wilhelm turned his attention to the phoenix who had helped with the wyverns but provided no assistance against the real enemy. After finishing off an extremely dangerous dragon that had tried to eat him and the phoenix both, all the knight saw in the princess' eyes was... tears? Pity? Sadness for the brute that tried to kill them both?

A flash of rage hit the knight's face, and he struggled heavily to prevent himself from exploding into a fit of anger directed at this behavior. "Stop that," he growled in the direction of the phoenix, turning his back to her and taking a deep breath, focusing on containing himself so that he wouldn't do or say anything that would make things worse.

"I suppose you'd be happier if I just let the dragon eat me next time," he remarked as he began to walk off. "Along with you and the rest of the phoenixes in your kingdom." He had no idea where he was heading, but he just felt a need to get away from her before he made things even worse.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati quickly wiped her tears away, watching Wilhelm turn his back to her and walk away. "That's not-" Her eyes widening, she slid out of the tree, landing on her ankle wrong and crying out in pain. She began to hop after him on one foot before shifting to her bird form. She kept her distance for some time before she descended and shifted back.

"Wilhelm, please," she said, putting pressure on her bad ankle and whimpering. "I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me." Grabbing his arm, she tugged on it until she could get him to stop, looking at him as she reached down to rub her ankle.

[Holeypaladin]

Wilhelm wasn't trying to actually leave the phoenix... he just had to put some distance between them before he lashed out at her and said something that he would later regret. The icy weather didn't seem so cold compared to his barely contained rage, and he crushed the snow underfoot with each step away from the phoenix princess who was so upset at him for saving her life.

Eventually, the bird descended near him, and the knight finally realized that she was limping. With her apology, it was difficult to remain upset, and he gave a deep breath and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Irisv ezoukeic, mitne," he incanted, sending a restorative energy just strong enough to heal her ankle through her. Gazing at her for a moment, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer.

"In war, people die," he said as he held her closer and stroked her hair. "I'd sooner kill a thousand evil dragons than let them eat you..." Finally feeling the cold, he began to shiver a bit, holding her closer for warmth. With her magic expended, he wasn't sure how much fire she'd be able to evoke... but there were ways of restoring her magic, as well.

[PendragonXeno94]

Tati looked at Wilhelm as he incanted a spell to heal her ankle. She moved it around some to feel the pain subsiding. She wrapped her arms around him, resting her head on his shoulder and hardly able to emit any heat for either of them. As the air grew colder, she pulled him along, keeping her feathers fanned over them, though some air still slipped through.

Her teeth began to chatter, and she pressed herself closer to Wilhelm. "There," she shivered, gesturing to a cave. She pulled him along further, almost falling to her knees once they were far enough into the cave. She sat down, mustering a small flame on her fingertips and placing it on some dried leaves and brush close by. "I hope that's enough," she remarked.

[Holeypaladin]

Holding the phoenix in his arms, Wilhelm frowned as she didn't seem to conjure forth even enough heat to keep herself warm, much less him as well. He noted the cave that she led him towards, giving a nod as he joined her, trying not to laugh at the nearly nonexistent flame that she was able to ignore in some sort of futile attempt to keep them warm.

"That flame won't last long in this cold..." he remarked, "Let's warm ourselves up in other ways... and recharge your own magical energy so that you can burn a more brighter flame." He reached out to stroke her and remove her clothing, quickly pressing his own flesh against hers in order to keep her warm, lowering her down onto the ground and kissing her tenderly.