Posted by: LoneMouseWolf Apr 24 2007, 05:27 PM
In the training area of the school, Jae Rin Tao, a tutor from the House of Eruditio, was practicing her martial arts strikes against a wooden training dummy, her normal robes substituted for a less clinging black tank top and shorts. If anyone else spotted her, she\'d probably be in a lot of trouble, but considering it was in the dark depths of night, it wasn\'t something she was worried about.
It was a common thing for Jae to come to this place when nobody else was around. Bring a part of the House of Eruditio, she found herself teaching more mental then practical skills, so keeping her athletic body and skills in check had been rather difficult until she began this regimen.
After a long while, she warmed her body down and patted her body down with a cloth, taking away the sweat from her body, her wings shaking themselves out to remove any sweat that had gathered on the feathers.
"Mmm... That was a good workout..." she muttered to herself. Sitting down, finishing off the cleansing, she began to meditate, focusing her mind and drifting off.
Posted by: Shadowstorm Apr 24 2007, 06:49 PM
One other haunted those training areas, although a wall was between the pair of them.
However, not soon after Jae finished up, the furious thumping noises travelled through the wood...whoever was on the other side of that wall was really going for it...in one of the moving courses.
Footfalls echoed hard on the floor, a yell lifting, presumably from missing a step or two, and the consequential laceration.
Whoever was there had been there when Jae arrived, and it didn\'t sound like he was near finishing, cranking the levels up and up and up, way beyond his capabilities.
Nitor ducked and rolled for perhaps the 500th time this evening; avoiding the wooden pole that was swinging toward him.
His ankle was bleeding, leaving trails across the floor, but adrenaline dulled the pain beyond recognition.
Dainty hands shot downward, catapulting himself upward to slice straight through one of those cloth dummies, although he hadn\'t noticed the wires - cutting harshly into his forearms.
Suddenly aware of the excrutiating pain, Nitor let out a loud yell of pain, choking it down into his throat....
This was the furthest he had ever reached - four levels above his recommendations, robes discarded to one side, leaving him with his tan skin and his loose trousers - bindings around knees and elbows to cushion the bruising, hands losing their protective coating of dust.
He really needed to stop soon.
Soon.
But not yet.
Not yet...
Not yet...
Posted by: LoneMouseWolf Apr 24 2007, 07:01 PM
Hearing the yell, Jae\'s concentration broke. Feeling her eye twitch in frustration, she got to her feet and hurriedly walked to where the noise was coming from.
\'I\'m normally the only one here, and whoever this person is, they\'re in a lot of trouble for disturbing my training.\'
Finding the switch for the training mechanism, she switched it off and opened the door. Going through the room, she found Nitor standing there, cut and bleeding. With a sigh, she leaned herself against a wall.
"So it\'s you, Nitor. Why are you training at this ungodly hour?" she spoke loudly, voice full of anger and frustration, hoping the student had a good reason for being here.
Posted by: Shadowstorm Apr 24 2007, 07:28 PM
Panting, with sweat glistening across his bare chest, beads clinking tinnily against his shoulders; and blood mixing with the streams of clear perspiration, Nitor looked up from beneath his dampened fringe, answering breathily...
"I work best in the night...this is the only time I can fit into the scheduling."
He smiled one of those charming little flashes of white teeth; tinted by his exhaustion...
With his ribcage showing beneath his skin, and his muscles tensed - the boy \'s figure could explain his speed; drenched trousers clinging a little too close for comfort.
Addressing the female master with a level tone, he added onto the end, "I DO have permission...usually, nobody else is here."
One hand found his hip, propping himself up in a pose, "And thus the question might be addressed to you, Master Rin-Tao."
Posted by: LoneMouseWolf Apr 24 2007, 07:32 PM
Jae smiled slightly, feeling the irony of the situation.
"It just so happens that your reasoning and mine are exactly the same. It must simply be coincidence that our timing has collided this time." she replied, looking at the body of the student.
"Although it seems you have been working past your limitations. You\'re wounded."
Softening a little, she moved closer. "Do those need tending to, or are they better then they look?"
She still wasn\'t pleased she was disturbed, but the situation could have been worse, and he was bleeding, after all...
Posted by: Shadowstorm Apr 24 2007, 08:48 PM
Nitor\'s head shook, and regretted it afterward, the blurred dark reaching the corners of his vision...
"I like to push my limits."
She was right, but he wouldn\'t admit it of course.
Not to this woman, so fair...with wings like an angel. Like his angel..
"I\'ll be fine," he replied stubbornly, pulling his robe loosely around his shoulders as he prepared for the brisk walk back up to his room in the cold...
That wire had cut deep, leaving thin lacerations and scrapes up his arms,..although he would see to them in a moment.
Not yet, he wouldn\'t admit any weakness in front of Jae.
A little too early to be thinking that as one foot was put out of place, half-stumbling...and regaining his footing not soon after.
He...felt like he was about to...faint.
Swallowing back the bitter taste of vomit, the dusky-haired youth stumbled onward through the night, "I\'ll be fine," he repeated...needing to convince himself.
Posted by: LoneMouseWolf Apr 26 2007, 03:15 PM
Jae started after him, going to the door as he stumbled out of it.
"Don\'t be so stubborn..." she replied, voice full of compassion, the initial anger subsiding, though a minor frustration lingering due to her body still being wound tightly after the training.
She watched the boy for a moment. She could tell his body was unmasking the truth behind Nitor\'s bravado, but she couldn\'t tell just how much it was affecting him. Taking a deep breath in preparation of whatever negative reaction her next move could provoke, she took Nitor\'s arm at an unwounded area and looked more closely at the wounds.
"You won\'t be fine if you don\'t see to these..." she sighed. "Though I have confidence in your abilities, I do not want you to hurt yourself further without need. Do you want me to accompany you to your room so you can tend to it yourself or should I just do it for you?"
Posted by: Shadowstorm Apr 28 2007, 06:09 PM
Glistening muscles tensed, one arm waving her off him rather rudely as she grabbed him; although he then coughed a beautiful crimson spray of blood across one of her shoes...
Nitor\'s hand hit the floor as he crouched down for a moment, breathing rather heavily to get the oxygen back into his system, bent over and supporting himself with one hand.
"Ha....looks like you\'re right," he admitted reluctantly before pushing himself back to his feet, staring upward to level his footing for a moment, looking down at her boot with a curt, short apology before he spat the remaining metallic-tasting blood from his mouth.
"Fine then, but...I\'ll be alright. It\'s not like I haven\'t had worse."
His delicate hand pushed a loop of hair across one shoulder, teeth clenching to force himself up that flight of stairs, his hand curling around Jae\'s arm.
As it did, his fingers curled a little, still weak on his feet...although Jae herself suddenly feels the exhaustion of her training hit her.
In fact, a lot harder than it should...
Her feet ache, a pain shoots through her arms from those repetitive blows, and for a moment - her head spins.
Although the heavy weight of Nitor lifts slightly, his balance returning...
Posted by: LoneMouseWolf May 2 2007, 01:18 PM
Although a little annoyed that he tried to pull away, Jae smiled a little as he apologised. It wasn\'t the first time blood had been sprayed across these boots, although admittedly it was her own actions that had caused it in the past.
As she walked him back to his room, Jae felt nauseous herself, trying to regain her balance.
\'Whoa... Maybe I pushed myself a little too hard myself... Ugh, I knew missing my meditation would have been a bad idea...\' she thought to herself, feeling her weight lean into Nitor, who seemed to be evening out and starting to recover.
Looking at him in a daze, a little gasp escaped her lips.
"N-Nitor... I don\'t feel too good..." she spoke, voice wavering as her head was spinning.
It wasn\'t normal, there was no way she should have been that tired, and she knew it, but her head was too clouded for her to figure out why she was hit that hard.
Using the last of her strength, they managed to arrive at his room. With no energy left to continue her journey with, she fell into a sitting position by his door, panting for breath, trying to focus and recover.
"Ugh... My head is splitting..." she muttered, massaging her temples before looking up at Nitor, who seemed to be faring much better.
Posted by: Shadowstorm May 7 2007, 08:33 AM
With one trail of claret betraying the corner of pouting primrose lips, Nitor\'s touch snaked further, coiling with further coertion around one slender form.
Evasion laced through his charmeuse utterance, a perfectly altruistic individual as he nursed the wounded back toward his chambers.
"Perhaps you should sit down for a bit, Master, " suggested that manipulative tone, tantalising fingertips teasing their way across skin...
Tan skin met the down of feathers, with the smallest of joyful gasps; restrained by clenched teeth.
A civil tongue curbed imagination, however... door unlocked with a single click.
As silver meets silver, the entry hurriedly opened - one sprawling, languid voice risen from a far wall of shadow, "Nitor, what have you brought back this time?"
Golden blonde spirals obscure that fleeting twist of a grin; settling his faint companion into a nearby chair before his own knees meet the floor in front of her.
Somewhere, so far in the distance for Jae\'s whirling thoughts, that metallic clink heralded the locking of the door.
Behind her lolling head, cherry red threads slinked across her line of vision - another student shadowing the little light of this room.
Patronisingly, this blur of a figure sweeps a hand over Jae\'s clammy forehead, whispering, "He\'ll take good care of you, sweetheart."
Posted by: LoneMouseWolf May 9 2007, 02:11 AM
Jae\'s head throbbed as she lumbered into the room with Nitor.
\'Perhaps I should lie down instead...\' she thought, barely even registering the sweep of fingers sending a pleasing shiver through her body.
Her hands fumbled around, holding onto whatever was nearest in an attempt to stop the room from spinning. In the end she dropped into the chair quite heavily, eyes defocused entirely, everything appearing as a blur to her.
\'W-was I poisoned...? No... I brought everything I\'ve eaten and drunk myself, and never let it out of my sight... Am I ill, then? Oh, I wish I knew...\' her thoughts continued to whirl.
Suddenly she felt someone touch her forehead, causing her to hiss. It felt like ice dropping onto her head with a thud. It was agony, but she didn\'t know why - the touch had no malice intended in the slightest.
"W-what\'s happening to me...?" she replied, voice choked and low, eyes boggling in the direction of the mysterious occupant of the room.
Posted by: Shadowstorm May 19 2007, 11:15 PM
Nitor\'s gentle cooing reassures her, a near-whisper as the boy leans in close. His moist breath encircling a muffled ear; he murmurs, "I\'m looking after you, for now."
Silken touches coax her into sleep, vision blurred and fading fast...
Light-fingered touches search their way around weak points, under the shadow of unconsciousness. A precise blade snakes it\'s way through those feathers, snicking one from between many - an unnoticable difference as it gets stored so meticulously..., along with a strand of those beautiful tresses. Why, she reminded him of Milo so...
Perhaps a few turns of the clock handle pass before she awakes again to gentle, all-encompassing sunlight from the high windows of the infirmary.
Empty vials lay beside her bed - possible tested antidotes, since a wave of nausea suddenly hits the young woman.
Rushing, quite nervously to her bed comes a slender young man - offering her a silver dish incase she succumbs to the curdling of her stomach. Curling a set of thin fingers over her back, his curly-haired head tilts curiously, "How do you feel now, Master? You were brought in but a few hours ago by a young man - he says you collapsed after late-night training and he brought you immediately."
A few hours ago...?
Ochre dawn kissed the shined bedposts long ago, now maturing into the routine of day; with spreading clouds and students beginning to bustle through the sprawling courtyards.
A single strand of cherry red remains across her shoulder, clinging persistantly; like that lingering coldness through her veins.
"He came back to check on you, although I believe he\'s left for classes. Quant, I think."
Posted by: LoneMouseWolf May 23 2007, 04:00 PM
Jae didn\'t feel right at all. Her eyes stared at the curly haired young man, declining the dish, taking a small, deep breath to calm her stomach, though it still felt painful. Her entire body was chilled to the bone, a slight throbbing to it.
"A few hours...?" she asked, practically in a whisper, head muddled and fuzzy.
\'But... Wasn\'t I in Nitor\'s room? I\'m confused... He was the one that collapsed, something happened to me on the way... Ugh, but what...\'
Her thoughts were interrupted by more pain, grimacing, massaging her temples.
"W-what... about my classes? Has anyone told you if another tutor has taken my group while I... recover?" she asked, voice a little raw, grating against her throat with a cringe.
She wanted to get up and take the class. Get over whatever happened physically, then go talk to Nitor once the evening came.
It was just a shame that her body wasn\'t co-operating with any of it.
[[Continued from the original Half-Light, and Reserved for Jae-Rin Tao]]
