Satinalia gifts

I get upstairs, more upset than I  want to admit. I don't really know which kind of gifts Kyle has got for  the rest of the group, but I doubt he's taking so long in getting them.  He was acting very weird, and I'm completely sure that for a moment he wasn't able to listen to us, so even if I'm not a religious person, I'm mumbling a prayer each step to beg the Maker he hasn't go away again, to  the Fade or wherever.

I  knock the door. “Kyle? Are you all right?” and I get no human reply, but I hear movement and at least, I sigh of relief. He's here. That's something. “Please, Kyle, come down. They're waiting for you”.

Still  no answer. The door is not locked, so I just enter and close it after me. And the very moment I heard the “click” of the door, I regret what I  did, because I what I see in front of me is not my beloved Kyle, but a big, majestic black panther. And it roars.

I  freeze, terrified, when I suddenly realize the big cat in front of me has only one bright green eye. The other one, the right one, is crossed by a scar. What are the chances that such a big animal has got into our room without nobody noticing it, and that it has the same scar Kyle has in his face?. It only takes me an instant to know that what I have in front of me is my warrior, in panther shape. I should be confused, but well... if Ambrose was a frog, this makes sense too. And my fear disappears, because it's Kyle. I can't be afraid of him, not even if he becomes a beast.

“Kyle... What has happened to...?”

Before  I finish my line, I see he's ready to jump. All my muscles are in tension. If he attacks me, if he doesn't recognize me, he can kill me easily, but I still have a chance. I'm good at dodging, and he only has one eye. From my time in the alienage, bothering Dorian, I've learnt one  eyed people have it hard to calculate distances. Usually their throwing  and jumping is too long or too short. So I definitely have a chance, and I prepare myself to jump to one side as soon as he starts his own attack.

He jumps, and almost at the same time I do too... and he falls just centimetres in front of me, as if he had already read my mind, as if he knew me like Kyle does. I only have a way to escape, the door behind me, and he moves  his head, like pointing at it, like saying: “Go away”. If I try to move  in a different direction, he growls. So I turn back to the door, and he  seems more relaxed.

I lock the door from inside, and turn back to stare at him. I am going nowhere.

His  ears get backwards and he shows his teeth, furious. That’s not what he wanted, but I don’t care. He approaches me, with a loud growl which makes my spine chill, but I don’t move, even when his breath is almost over my face.

Suddenly,  the sound changes into a mix of growl and roar, and he curls over himself, biting his front leg and claw. As in the very last moment he had recovered his sense and realized who he was going to attack. He roars in pain and walks backwards, his ears flat behind his head, his huge teeth showing in a menacing grimace, leaning back on the ground to lick his self-inflicted wound

I  haven't moved in all this moment. But I can't stay without doing anything, so I take a hesitant step ahead, my left hand in front of me, wanting to stroke him, to make him feel a bit better. He roars again, trying to scare me, but I'm not scared. It's you, my Kyle. You will never hurt me. Not in this way.

At  my second step the growl becomes louder, so I walk even slower. At the third one, he bites the air, like saying “Don't get closer”. I understand. He doesn't trust himself. So I sit on the ground to wait. I have all the time in the world. All I care for in my life is in front of  me.

I'm not sure how long do we stay like this, but probably not too long. I soon hear voices  in the corridor and I recognize Adrienne's as the closer one. I also hear Duke sniffing around the door, and whining, refusing to enter. He has noticed the panther scent.

“What by the ancestors is going on here??” shouts Tegnar.

I hear Adri’s voice, replying worried: “I don't know!!”

I glance at the panther in front of me. He raises his ears too, listening to the noises, and even if he has stayed calmed all this time, I know a sudden movement, a wrong action, can spoil it all again. So I shout aloud, without losing eye contact with the panther “Don't come!”, and wait for their reaction. The panther looks at me, as if understanding what I did. Seems some human reasoning is now in his mind and I'm grateful for that. He looks around, concerned, and slowly crawls under the bed.

After some knocks the voice of Tegnar asks again: “ARE YOU RIGHT?”, and then a loud thump. Someone has kicked the door.

Before  they try again and slam the door down, I shout “WAIT!”. I get up and, when I see the panther is out of sight, I open a bit the door and talk to the concerned group, headed by Adri and Tegnar.

“Mari, what the...?”… Asks the dwarf. “Are you okay?”

“Err... yes... yes... everything is all right”, I lie. “Sorry if we did scare you....”

“I heard a roar...”, insists Tegnar. “And Duke is barking a lot”

“Are you alright?”, asks Lauren concerned.

“Mieeerrrda”, swears Adri in Antivan. “What the fade, Mari?? That was weird and...Creepy!”

“It sounded like a wild animal”, agrees Gem.

“Ah...  eh... I know...” Damn, how am I going to explain this? I see Adri trying to peek into the room and when she can see nothing but chaos, she glares to me. “But it's all right now”, I add.

“What happened? Kyle turned into a werewolf?”, giggles Håkan, so close to the truth that I startle.

“What happens to Kyle?”, asks Adrienne, while stroking her knees. They probably hurt after the attempt to kick the door down.

“No. He didn't turn into a werewolf, Håkan. Very fun” I glare at the mage

“You know, whit Kyle...”,  insists the mage, and I’m starting to consider killing him.

“And ah...Kyle?”, stammers Lauen moving her hears. “Yeah”, add’s Gem, peering into the room. “Where’s Kyle?”

“He's aslept now”, I try to explain. “He didn't feel well”. But even I can hear the lie.

Adrienne  looks at me, confused, and Gem tries to help: “From... earlier...?”. Earlier, when I was sure he couldn’t hear us. I grab it, it seems a good  excuse.

“Err... that. Dizzy”

“And why was he screaming like that...?” Adrienne has a point.

I overhear Håkan whispering to Lauren "I still think the werewolf thing is not dismissed". Damn mage.

Lauren starts to reply "but ah...”

“Ah,  Lauren... Maybe... you can prepare some herbs for him...”, I try to drag the female mage’s attention. “To help him feel better”. I meant something soft, to help him sleeping or so, but Lauren glares at me and makes me stand like nailed to the ground.

"Oh, sure. If I KNEW what happens to him", she replies. And then gives me a little smile. "Of course..."

And then I feel him standing behind me, his breath in my nape when he chuckles “I'm fine”

“Shut  up, Kyle, and for once, Maker's breath let us help you!!”, scowls Adrienne, very angry at him. "If you don't tell us what's going on I'm going to kick that ass of yours"

“So...ah...”, Lauren can't help a giggle, “Then you don't need an aconitum potion? “

“I  said nothing, and by the way”, he says, opening completely the door, as  if nothing had happened, “This is for all of you, YES”, and offers them  a big dog all made in chocolate.

“WHAT? MORE CHOCOLATE?”, shouts Tegnar, echoed by Gem.

Adrienne  glares at the mabari, then at Kyle. I follow her glare and I wish I could hide in a deep, deep hole. He is smiling like an idiot, trying to avoid Adri’s stare.

“What is this, salroka?”, says Tegnar, clearly upset.

“So is this all about chocolate?”, asks Gem, astonished.

“Why  don’t you trust me?” Kyle asks, all innocence. “That's real chocolate, it hasn’t anything inside but chocolate. Are now you all happy?”

“Oh…”  starts Lauren, but she finally decides not to say anything. She seems lost and just keeps looking at Kyle and then to everyone else...and then  back to Kyle.

I don’t  know wheter to cry or to laugh, I just want to get out of there. Finally, I take his hand and beg him: “Now please go downstairs and get your gifts?”

Kyle shakes his head: “What??? Gifts what?”, he chuckles. “Nah, I don’t like”.

Adri  is still glaring at him: “You....youu....don't you think I'm going to be happy with this, you scared me!”, and she goes downstairs without looking back. We shortly hear the main door closing. She seems to have gone outside, to chop wood instead of punching her brother’s face. Lauren stares at us and blinks.

I  suddenly decide I prefer a third option, slapping him, and I don’t hesitate to do it. “Now. Kyle, please reason!”. He stares at me, rubbing  his cheek. “I... I can understand you had to come here to get that  gift… But now come down, accept the others gifts, and act like a normal  person again”. Now I look at him at the eye, almost begging. “Do it for  me, please!”

Duke starts to lick the chocolate, ignoring all that happens around him, and an obviously shocked Gem mumbles “Um... wow…All this for chocolate...?"

Kyle continues staring at me, still rubbing his cheek. “Please?”, I beg.

“A normal person? But I'm normal, nah”, he replies with a grin.

“Ah, then show it to us!”, I insist.

“Show what?”

“How normal you are”. This may be the weirdest conversation ever, but I know what I mean.

“Eh…  like any one else?”, he ventures. I want to slap him again, but instead  of it I grab him by the neck of his shirt and make him lean his head near to my face. Then I whisper to his ear “If you want, after that, we can get locked up in the bedroom again…”

Lauren  looks at us as if she didn’t understand anything, but then she just coughs and looks at her feet while we talk. Gem doesn't know what to think and goes downstairs. Kyle finally nods and starts walking, so I smile and him and take his hand to follow up. I see on the corner of my eye how Lauren takes also Haakan's hand and both go downstairs. Seems everything is in order again. For the moment.

___________________

His  hand in my waist, under the funny huge sweater Adrianne gave us, and his mouth nuzzling my ears, just make me want to come back to our bedroom as soon as possible, and seems he's on the mood to, because he says aloud: “I'm going to sleep, do you mind if Mari goes with me?”, and  without waiting for an answer he carries me on in his arms like a bride  and we go back to our personal shelter. I'm always grateful to be so light weighted in these cases.

Once  there, I slid off the sweater and look at the arm he hides under it, still bleeding for the panther's bites. He has licked the blood, in a catlike way, but if it isn't properly cleaned and healed, it can get worse. So I wash it carefully and then bandage it, without saying a word, and he just watches and makes a shy smile.

“You silly boy”, I finally say. “Why didn't you tell me earlier about this?”

He just mumbles an excuse and I can't help but smile at him.

“If  you had told me before, I'd have been prepared... Because you already knew this could happen, didn’t you? How long have you been… shape shifting this way?”

“Seven years. After that mage cursed me”… he explains, briefly.

I  look at him worried. Such a long past I haven’t shared with him… So many things I’d have liked to live by his side, to support him, to make them easier. I want to ask him more about that mage, but somehow, this is not the moment.

“Well. Now that I know it, I can help you to hide if this happens again...to hide with you, to find an excuse. Like today”.

“But if you stay with me, I can attack you…”

“I know you would never hurt me...”

He puts his hand over mine. “But I CAN hurt you... I... I did hurt Tahl once”

I stare at him. Tahl? Of course. Seven years. She surely was with him when he was cursed. “Did you? Much?”

“Ah... no... Only lightly... she ran away before it was worse... but anyway”

“Clever girl”, I nod. “But now... today you controlled it”. A part of me is proud that he didn’t do to me what he did to Tahl.

“But  look at what price. I... I can't risk this again… I can’t control it, I  never know when it is going to happen, or if I will be able to be myself under that shape. What if one night I wake up as a beast and I just kill you because you’re the first living thing I see by my side?”

“That’s why you never wanted me to sleep in your room, is it?”

“Part of it, yes”, he nods.

“We  both will learn about it...”, I promise to him, finishing the bandage in his arm. “I’ll learn to read the signs, to know when it is going to happen, so I can be prepared. You’ll learn to control it, to keep your human mind. And if you can't control, at least I can lock you so you don't hurt anyone”. I raise my hand to touch his face. “Don't worry. I will always be by your side, helping you. You know we can do it, together”...

He closes his eye and bows his head, touching my forehead with his, silently.

“And...”, I add... “I always wanted to have a big black cat as a pet”, I giggle.

He smiles, reluctantly. “Meow”, he teases, to try to make the problem lighter. “So I am your pet now?”

“I only want you to trust me better”, I tell him, sad.

“I'll do”, he whispers, kissing me. He strokes my shoulders, and smiles. “I still have to give you my Satinalia gift”.

“You've already done it”, I tease, meaning the kiss.

“Oh,  no”, he replies, with hoarse voice. “You're going to like this... much more”. He takes off the huge sweater, which makes it difficult for him to move, and turns back to take something from a bag behind him. Then he  hands me a beautiful package, wrapped in bright blue paper and with a silver bow, with a sweet smile and a bit of a blush. “I hope…”, he adds.

I  already like the package, so I unwrap it carefully, half because it is a  pity to take the bow away, half because I want to tease him, and when the package reveals a small velvet pouch, I can’t wait anymore and I empty it in my hands. A cascade of black lace and red satin ribbon falls  in it and I look at it astonished. What is this? Lingerie?

He’s  looking at me, waiting for my reaction. I don’t really know what to say, because this is beautiful, and also surprising, since I wouldn’t have expected a spicy gift from him. But how to tell him I never had something like that? I look at the pieces. The pants, brief and sexy, which make me want to try them just to see how he takes them off… and the upper part… A piece I never use, because I never needed it, but I’ve  seen others at the Pearl using it, and must be sexy and cute to try them too…

I look at him and smile impishly. “Do you like it?” he starts, but I don’t let him  finish. I push him out of the room saying “Get out! I’m going to try it!” and he goes away, not understanding it very well… He has seen me getting dressed lots of days lately. Why should he care?

But  I care. I close the door after me and take my clothes off. The night is  cold, it is Satinalia after all, but the room is warm because of the fireplace and the heaters placed here and there. And the bed is usually warm enough to sleep naked. Or… with these brief small pieces, I think while I test them in front of the mirror. At first the upper part makes me confused, but then I remember my old two pieces summer armor… it covered a bit more than these pieces… but just a bit. Of course, not as beautifully as these pieces do!

When  I’m ready, I call him. I wait for him just leaning on the bed, still up, trying to look sexy for him. And when he enters I just say: “Here’s your gift. Now… care to unwrap it?”