[OOM: On the Road]

[mnt_raph]

It's less than a day's ride from the Designated Tortoise to Corus, so Abigail and Raph saddled up Cloud and a loaner horse by the name of Colin and set out after just after lunch. They crossed into the city proper just as the shadows began to lengthen announcing the approach of night. Raph, who had spent his first few years in Tortall doing odd jobs in and about the city, had more than a few favors at his disposal. The best barn was open to the horses, while their people dined on the best fare at the best table, and later slept in the best bed the inn had to offer. Pretty damn auspicious way to start an Adventure, if Raph says so himself.

The following morning all travellers awoke refreshed and prepared for anything the day had to offer, which apparently a whole lot given the beautiful weather and overall quiet of the countryside. The group had only been travelling for a few hours when they reached that point in the journey where pleasant conversation falls by the wayside leaving only silence in its wake. The silence wasn't welcome. Making conversation was the only thing keeping Raph's mind from focusing on the any number of things he'd rather not be thinking about. Foremost on that particular list is the paranoia that at any moment he's going to fall off Colin.

In the nearly ten years that he has spent on this side of the door, Raph has only successfully ridden on Cloud for any extended duration. Horses, you see, make him nervous. So nervous that the horses, sensing this apprehension, can do nothing but react in kind. More than one has been guilty of throwing him from the saddle, and as such Raph has stuck close to Cloud and Cloud alone as much as possible. Cloud was there though out his seemingly endless Kane-like wandering of Tortall, and there was no way Raph was going to repay the poor pony's loyalty by making his cart his sorry ass around on another long journey. It just wouldn't be fair. Which is why during the four day trek towards the Swoop it will be Abigail riding Cloud, what with her being so much lighter than the bald Shang warrior riding to her left.

So far so good though, right? Colin seems to be behaving in spite of Raph's white knuckled death grip on the reins.

Comments

[tortallan_npc]

Another nod.

Abigail won't say he doesn't need to apologize, even if she doesn't really want to hear it. He does: for lying to her, not trusting her, occasionally making her think things were worse than the truth he's just shared.

But he recognized the need for an apology, even supplied one without threat of bodily harm, which is more than a lot of males she knows would have done. And more than he would have done before, she thinks.

She's not mad, but the wariness in her eyes will take a while to fade.

"You won't hear me arguin'. You do what has to be done."

[mnt_raph]

It's that wariness that worries Raph, and convinces him that she knows he's not telling her the whole truth. In his anxiety, he babbles on.

"It was a security measure. There're things back home that...well, they'd turn this place on its ear, is what they'd do. An' too much had happened before. Just...a bad idea."

[tortallan_npc]

His nerves are showing. Abigail looks at him askance, wondering why he's justifying his actions in quite this way.

"You sound as if you're not expectin' me to understand the need for security. You should've told me," she admonishes. "But not 'til recently."

She shrugs.

"You should've told me all of it together."

[mnt_raph]

He takes another drink. Maybe it's the wine, or maybe it's the relief to finally get some of this out in the open, but what ever it is, it goes straight to his head and he can't help but laugh.

"Aye, I should've at that. But that weren't the plan, an' it ain't what we all agreed on. You."

Raph turns towards her, eyes scanning her face but stopping to look her in the eye. He sighs.

"You weren't part of the plan. The door comin' back weren't part of the plan. Spiders with freakin' faces weren't part of the plan. We been kind of makin' this shit up as we go."

[tortallan_npc]

His laugh makes her smile, but it only reaches her eyes when he says she wasn't part of the plan. Curiously, being told she's a disruptive force in his life makes her feel kind of good.

There's a long moment when she appears to be seriously considering her response, then:

"Me'n Cloud could head back north, if we're gettin' in the way," she suggests, brushing crumbs from her lap.

Don't worry, Raph. She's teasing. She'd take Colin.

[mnt_raph]

He looks at her, brow furrowed in disbelief.

"Don't make me break your legs."

[tortallan_npc]

Abigail raises her eyebrows, affecting shock.

"But that'd be like shootin' an arrow in your own foot!" she exclaims, smiling brazenly. "Time and again you've made mention of how you like my legs wrapped 'round you."

Hard to do when they're broken, Raph.

[mnt_raph]

Raph looks up and to the left as he considers her words. As they're not in mixed company, there's no trip to his hair trigger blush reflex. He sighs happily as his mind replays some truly happy memories he has of the two of them together. So happy that he can't help but raise the bottle to them before taking a drink.

"Aye, that I do," he says passing her the bottle. "But considering I'll not have you at all if I allow you to leave? I think I'll take suffer the losses and keep you around just the same."

[tortallan_npc]

Taking the bottle, Abigail throws her head back in a rich, unselfconscious laugh.

"And considerin' I'd rather put my legs to such good use, I'll stay by your side and keep playin' merry havoc with your plans."

Amusement flickers in her eyes as she lifts the bottle for a drink.

[mnt_raph]

"I can't say I don't like the sound of that," he admits in an uncharacteristically shameless tone to his voice. "I'll take your brand o' havoc any day."

[tortallan_npc]

Now, he can't go saying something like that and not expect Abigail to suddenly get a whole lot closer.

"Mmmm," is her reply, from very near his ear. Smiling, she touches his cheek, turns his head a bit, and leans in for a slow, very distracting kiss.

"The wine's gone to our heads," she laughs. "Any more and we'd need rope to tie ourselves up in the saddles."

[mnt_raph]

During the kiss his arms wind their way around her waist again, pulling her towards him and onto his lap.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to sleep this off then, unless you'd prefer to use rope. A good ninja never travels without rope."

All this talk of home has him reverting to old job titles.

[tortallan_npc]

Ninja?

Abigail pulls back enough to give him a quizzical look, while also settling herself over his legs. "And what's a ninja?" she asks into his neck, just before kissing it.

[mnt_raph]

A hissing breath escapes him as she shifts her weight and gets comfortable.

"Ancient order of shadow warriors. Hide in shadows. Move without sound. Lethal."

This adventure? Much better than every previous adventure to date.

[tortallan_npc]

"That's why you were allowed to come late to Shang," she guesses, kissing up to his ear. Then she whispers: "Move without sound?"

Abigail flicks her eyes up in a playful look and, almost as if she's experimenting, runs her hands under his tunic.

Playing fair isn't something that concerns her much.

[mnt_raph]

There's not playing fair, and there not playing fair.
This is the italicized one.

He nods twice to answer her questions.

Slow and steady breathing is a wonderful thing. If he ever gets home, he's totally going to thank his sensei for teaching him...on second thought, maybe now isn't the best time to be thinking of one's father.

Especially not when one is using one's highly trained ninjitsu to maneuver one's lover onto her back. Though, he is true to his word, he doesn't make a sound.

[tortallan_npc]

Oh, he's good.

And Abigail, of course, isn't one to back down from a challenge, not when it promises to be so very entertaining. Before, she'd been amused at disrupting his plans; now she's going to have a fantastic time wreaking havoc on his control.

"Well done," she murmurs approvingly, by all signs perfectly willing to have him lower her to the ground. Once there, she even wriggles to get comfortable and shifts her legs so he can get closer; isn't she considerate?

"Mayhap we should test that will of yours."

With a sultry sort of smile, she lets her hands go exploring.

[mnt_raph]

His measured breathing is starting to become unmeasured really fast.
"There's something you ought to know about ninjas," he manages to whisper, after much effort on his part. "We cheat whenever possible."

[tortallan_npc]

"Not above it myself," Abigail says, attention elsewhere, then seems to better process his words. She look up at him, eyebrow arched. "Oh?"

[mnt_raph]

He nods, holding her gaze. He then smirks as he begins to kiss his way down her neck. "Real dishonorable lot, us." Then across her shoulder collar bone, and down her midline.

[tortallan_npc]

Abigail sucks in a breath and makes a noise that is part laugh, part Oh Gods, do not stop doing that.

No one said anything about her staying quiet, after all.

"Lucky for me, I've plenty experience with the sort. Tavern raised don't scare easy. Pick up some things, too."

[mnt_raph]

He chuckles as he slowly hitches up the hem of her skirt. "I think you mean lucky for me."

[tortallan_npc]

"Yes."

That's agreement and encouragement.

"'Tis true," she adds, shifting, lifting her head to smile at him as her nails lightly scrape his skin. "You're a lucky bastard."

Modesty doesn't concern her much, either.

[mnt_raph]

Raph was much more modest with his human body before he spent a year in a coma, and then another year in a wheel chair. It's kind of hard to maintain a puritan sense of modesty when you can't take care of your own basic needs.

Which explains why the fact that they're out in the open, by the side of a major roadway, being shielded only by the shade provided by the the small copse of trees doesn't appear to bother him all that much.

One could say they're out there in front of God and everyone, if one were to say such things.

[tortallan_npc]

Abigail might say it, then laugh about it, but she's entirely too occupied removing Raph's breeches. Truth is, she thinks she's rather lucky, too.

Superstitious Tortallan that she is, she should know better than to have such thoughts at a moment like this.

The breeches are kicked off, her skirts pushed out of the way, and she's kissing him again when something rips through the branches of a tree across the road; and laughs, the sound somehow grotesque.