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As a child, a shoebill would leave small gifts of pebbles, flowers, feathers and even scrap metal at Vee's window. She never thought much of these gifts, merely seeing it as a blessing from the forest, her child-like brain not even realizing that a Shoebill would never have flown an awful long way from the tropics into the mountains of the Skatay Range to deliver these gifts. Recalling this brought back fond memories, a reminder that she would make little trinkets out of these pretty items brought to her side.
It was no small surprise to her when she found a similar pebble and feather to the ones she'd seen before in Rak'tika. Perhaps they just had similar birds. She did recall the Shoebill itself landing on her window and staring at her as if baring into her very soul.
Shrugging her shoulders, she leaned down to pick the items up off the ground, before a familiar coat and hand slipped into her view.
"I never took you as the type to keep souvenirs from dying worlds, my dear." Came the curious voice of the Ascian that had been following her around since she had gotten here. Perhaps he had been out of sight, but he was definitely still around as she could feel the same burning stare on her as she wandered.
"I'm not," Vee responds, as he takes the pebble she had reached for, withdrawing it from her outstretched hand to examine it scrutinizingly.
Rolling his eyes and giving a half-shrug he smirks at her. "You can't fool me. You were rather quick to lean down to pick it up. Tell me, what use to do you have for a shiny smoothe stone and a feather?"
This earned him a rather disappointed look as she dropped the feather to the ground, almost immediately. He cocked brow and gave her a returned look that could only be read as disappointment.
"My, my, in a bad mood are we? Shall I leave and come back when you are in better spirits?"
It took everything in her to not lash out over such a dumb thing. He was right. She knew it, the habitual picking up of items from this world, it was pointless. They weren't hers to keep.
"No, you are right. I shouldn't have keep sakes from here. They just looked familiar." She admitted, feeling the anger starting to subside once she let go of the nostalgia she had toward finding something so familiar in a land that was unknown to her.
She took in a deep breath through her nose and let it out through her mouth, unballing her fists at her sides. He watched this with curiosity and when her form finally untensed, he gave her a half-smile.
"All better now? By all means, do not let me stop you." He offered the smoothed stone in his gloved hand back to her. "If you would prefer, however. I know of a place that has much prettier stones should that be your desire, hero."
Reaching her hand out for the stone he had rolled around in his palm, her molten gold hues widened with surprise, but that was not the only thing that brightened her features. The dimples in her cheeks and the wrinkles at the corner of her eyes that were the tell-tale signs of the bright grin that had spread across her features.
"Really, truly? You would take me there, no funny business?" There is a small pause as if she was reconsidering as her fingers touched his gloved palm.
"Like I told you before, hero, I do not lie." He responds, curtly, his lips forming a thin line almost as if he was displeased with her questions.
Emet Selch was unreadable, her golden hues searching his face for a sign of something more hidden deep within his own irises. Instead, she found herself lost and staring for way too long, examining the dark circles beneath his eyes and the way his lashes rested when he would blink.
"Keep staring like that and someone will think you are pining for your enemy." His tone snapped her back to reality with a quickness that gave her whiplash. Vee's fingertips brush against his palm as she takes the stone from within.
"Only if you promise we will get back before anyone notices my absence." She responds ignoring his earlier comment. She glanced around as if one of the Scions would come rushing out from behind the trees and catch her fraternizing with the enemy. Noticing her hesitancy, he takes a hold of her hand, tugging her into his arms.
Her chest was pressed against his, his arm resting against her lower back and the hand he had intertwined his fingers with held up above her head as if he was about to dance with her. Her heart was pounding hard against her ribcage, and she closed her eyes tightly, trying to steady her quickened heartbeat. She wasn't sure how long her eyes had been shut for, but it wasn't long before he released her from his arms.
"You can open your eyes now, we are here." His voice echoes off of the cave walls.
She paused a moment, looking around, her lips falling open in shock. The water was illuminated by bioluminescence. The cave itself shimmered with the blue color as if stained glass was reflecting the light onto them.
He watched her with amusement as she stepped away from him to go and examine some of the smooth stones and pebbles all of different oxidation levels all glimmering in the faint lighting. They could both just barely make each other out in the darkness, but he could still make out the happy expression on her face as she picked up a stone that looked exactly like she remembered from her childhood.
"Care to tell me what you are thinking about that makes you smile so?" He questions, stepping toward her, the crunch of shells and sand beneath his boots echoing throughout the dark.
"Home. There was actually a bird of considerable size, sort of like at the Pendants, I think it was a shoebill or something. It used to bring me stones like this, although now that I think of it... It wasn't really meant to be out that far from more tropical places." She admits, pausing a moment at his silence as he listens hanging off her every word.
"But when I was little, I loved it. I actually considered the creature my best friend as weird as that sounds. It would bring me feathers and all sorts of odd bits and I would make things out of them." The Viera woman's voice falters a moment as she thinks back to the simpler times and he lets out a sigh, shaking his head.
"Come now, we won't get anywhere dwelling on the past." He encourages, pausing a moment as he feels her eyes upon him, knowing he was being a hypocrite with his own words. "I believe it best to be forward with you. I brought you here with more than kindness in mind. I wanted you to myself."
"Come again?" Vee responded, her throat feeling dry as she uttered the response. Her voice cracking as if she hadn't drunk a sip of water in her life. He heard that change and laughed, sending a shiver down her spine.
"I am a man of course; did you completely ignore my earlier mention of you pining for the enemy. I aim to win your favor. Or did you think that me teleporting you to a cave away from your Scions was just a friendly gesture. No, I aim to get to know you, to sit with you. I am not one fond of wasting time."
"Would that not require me doing the same with you?" She croaked; the smile long gone from her face as the nervousness started to slip into her.
"Perhaps, however, should I deem a question too much or even should you. I give you rights not to answer so long as you allow me the same privacy." Emet Selch's voice was even closer than before. His words still echoed off of the walls, but this was far too close. It sounded like he was right next to her ear, but when she looked in his direction, he was just getting to her side and beginning to move to sit on the ground next to her.
Perhaps she should have felt more on guard, but despite the nature of the beast in question, she felt oddly comforted. Grimacing slightly as she tried to shake off the wrong feeling that had overtaken her, she practices her breathing again. A deep breath in through the nose, out through the mouth and repeat. He notices this again, bringing his gloved fingers up to her cheek to brush some hair away from her face.
"If this is too much for you, I can bring you back to your friends and get to know you another time."
"No!" The quick answer startled the both of them and he couldn't contain the smirk that once again spread over his features. She sat there shocked, that she had responded so passionately.
"No?" He mocks back, like a bird.
"No. I want to get to know you too." She responds, biting her lip.
"Good. We'll start slow. To whom do I owe the pleasure of conversing with hero?"
He asks, but her hand comes up to stop him before he can get the whole word 'hero' out of his mouth.
"Vee. If we are to do this, I am Vee. Not the hero, not the Warrior of Light. Vee. That is what the Scions call me, that is what you may call me."
A gentle smile replaces the smirk on his face. "Very well, Vee. Then when we are alone, you may call me Hades."
The moment the name slipped from his lips she knew there was no backing out. He had her hooked. It was then that they spent hours talking while he picked out stones he thought she would like, based off of information she was giving him.
By the end she had a tiny pearl and a few small stones, one in a purplish hue and a small amber one he said looked like her eyes. When they were done in the cave, he took her just within reach of the camp and watched from the shadows as she went back to her room, before sinking back into the dark portal he had carried them through as if he had never been there to begin with.