Mornings on the Beach {Aras}

[Aras|Ofelia]

The vulture's shrill whistle was the only thing that prevented his left hand from becoming a giant lizard's new chewtoy. The komodo's jaws snapped on thin air where Aras' wrist had been moments before. Having failed its first attempt, it--definitely it, not she--lunged for his ankles. Aras scrambled backwards, his talisman's continued warnings completely unnecessary.

Fortunately for him, the komodo's agitated movements further entangled its limbs, preventing it from getting close enough to reach his foot. It opted for a menacing hiss instead, to which the vulture immediately responded with a challenging cry. Normally, the vulture would have left him to his own devices at this point, but it seemed to have set its mind on being excessively belligerent towards Aurelia. It knew she wasn't to be trusted. It had known for a long time, and yet he wouldn't listen--

The hiss was cut abruptly short. Aurelia had apparently wrested control back from her talisman; the lizard was relaxing, settling down with a calculated air of self-control.

Aras waited a few seconds after it had set its head down on the sand before approaching again. Ignoring his talisman's insistence that they leave her here to deal with her own problems, he placed a careful hand on the lizard's back. When it didn't react, he went back to work, though his eyes remained focused on its head.

Although the python was no longer alive, it was easy to imagine the power the supple body must once have held. The dead weight of the serpent's muscles was heavier than it looked; with the added weight of the unmoving komodo dragon, the seemingly simple task proved more strenuous than one would expect.

By the time he'd gotten to the point where Aurelia could wriggle loose, reptile blood caked his hands and forearms. He could not compare to Aurelia, however; though common sense told him that pythons were constrictors, it was difficult not to worry that some of the blood was hers. She had enough on her plate at the moment without adding blood loss into the mix.

[DesperateDark]

Aurelia felt Aras place a wary hand on her back, a few inches below the bottom of her skull. Her talisman nearly wrestled control and lunged at him again, but all she gave was a slight twitch of her tail. No, she was not allowing that to happen. She was growing to like Aras, and the last thing she needed was him dead.

She still didn’t move when Aras maneuvered the dead coils of the python around her and off her, she didn’t want him to mistake it for another attack. The woman waited patiently, staying stock still, until he finally unwound the coils enough for her to slide her way free. Aurelia dragged herself forward, out of the grasp of the python, and took a shallow breath. Now that she was in no danger of the snake reanimating itself and killing her, she felt herself ease up.

She spared Aras a glance, seeing that he was covered to his elbows in the blood of the python. She herself was covered in blood, and she figured she might as well get two jobs done rather then one. Taking the snake’s tail in her mouth, she dragged it out to the water and swam a short ways out before she released it. Hopefully, it would sink later. Aurelia rolled around in the water for a bit to wash the blood covering her own body off, before returning to shore.

Once she got herself back to shore, she noticed that the sky on the horizon was brightening quickly. The sun was coming up at last, and she had heard the sunrises in Canada were beautiful. Never really had the time to see them, especially since most of Canada’s seasons are comprised of winter and she got sleepy during that season.

But that aside, she turned back to Aras. Crawling up next to him, Aurelia transformed back into her human self. Her clothes were decently wet because of her two soaks in the ocean, and she once again felt exhausted. Thankfully, her ribs did not feel broken and probably weren’t. She could ride the motorcycle home without mishap unless the gods of irony decided then would be the best time to make her fall off and scrape off half her face on the road.

“Thanks, I owe you one.” Again. What the heck was it that every time she met Aras, she did something that would make him do something that would make her owe him? Stupid logic was stupid. Aurelia took a look around the beach, seeing the floating bumps in the water that were the hawks and the one not too far from the waterline on the sand. He had actually done a good job this time, without getting horribly mutilated, falling off the cliff or shooting himself in the foot.

She reached over and patted his knee with a sigh. “Nice shooting, Duval.”

[Aras|Ofelia]

Finally freeing itself from the sinewy coils, the komodo dragon took some time to recover both physically and mentally. From what Aras could tell, her breathing was shallower and quicker than was normal, but that she was breathing at all was no small relief. He didn't stop to consider why her well-being was of such import to him; all he knew was that he could have sworn his heart had stopped in that moment he believed Aurelia dead.

But she wasn't. In fact, she was industriously hauling the python towards the ocean. Aras kept an eye on her as she swam out and relinquished the snake to the waves, rinsing off his own hands as the water washed the komodo's scales clean.

It was getting easier to see. The sky was lightening, and a few wisps of cloud hanging low above the horizon flared orange-gold and coral pink. It wouldn't be long before the first rays peeked above the waves, followed closely by the glowing orb of the sun. Hopefully, they'd be on their way home shortly afterward.

While he waited for Aurelia to return to shore, he spread clean sand over the site of the recent struggle. Thankfully, the fight had been restricted to a fairly small area. By the time the komodo's feet were on dry land again, the bloodstained patches were blanketed with clean grains, and Aras was sitting on the sand a slight ways away. His recently-injured arm had begun to ache again--only now, after the rush of adrenaline had subsided, did he really notice--but besides a slight grimace, he showed no outward indication of the pain.

He watched her transformation closely. She reverted to her human form without much trouble, which meant she was not suffering from any serious injuries. Most of the blood had come off as well, and overall, she seemed to be fine but for the fact that she was cold, dripping wet, and exhausted.

Her hand was icy and her voice enervated. In her current state, Aras didn't trust her to get back to Noatak without going into some sort of reptilian hibernation while on the road. Wordlessly, he draped his jacket around her shoulders, and hoping to restore some life to her frozen fingers, took her hands in his own.

The vulture practically threw a fit.

[DesperateDark]

The sand around them had been cleaned up well, and it was unlikely that anybody would find out what had gone on during the early hours of the morning. Aras' rifle lay not too far away, and she was actually about to reach for it to give it back to him, when something dropped on her shoulders.

Aras hadn't said a thing when he placed his own coat over her shoulders. Aurelia was quite surprised by the unexpected gesture. She was about to tell him that she didn't need his coat, and that she had her own, even if it were soaked. She was about to point it out, but her hands were suddenly occupied when Aras closed his fingers around hers, shocking her into silence.

Meanwhile, in her mind, her talisman had a seizure. It instantly began berating her, telling her that this was so out of tradition, that she refused to even hold Phuc, her husband's hand, so why Aras? Immediately, she told her talisman that Phuc was not her husband, and hadn't seen or spoken to him in more then three years. The komodo was about to launch a counter-argument, but Aurelia then realized she must've been staring.

With her hands still in his, she turned her attention towards the sunrise. It was steadily getting brighter, with the clouds above it turning pleasant hues and shades of yellow and pink. She would hopefully be able to get home in one piece afterwards, and she hoped Aras would be okay too. He didn't have any signs, whether they be scratches or cuts, of being attacked at all. He really did do a good job of shooting the hawks down before they got to him.

Aurelia decided to just calm down and enjoy the day, even though it didn't start off so well. The sun was about a quarter of it's way up now, and she was putting a disproportionate amount of energy into watching it. Yes, Aurelia was still slightly uncomfortable having somebody hold her hands, but they were cold and she figured it might as well be now rather then never. And anyways, she was decently acquainted with Aras and his hands were warm.

"It's nice, huh?" Aurelia continued to watch the sunrise and all it's pretty colours. She was paying vague attention to Aras out of the corner of her eye, but she tried to ignore her hands in his and his smell on the jacket he had given her. Even though her sight was shot, her sense of smell was unusually sharp. Aras smelled like Aras, despite how stupid that sounded. It was the same way Reyes smelled like Reyes and a flower smelled like a flower.

"You smell like an Aras," she finally said after a few more minutes of watching the rapidly rising sun. That sounded extremely stupid, but it was early and she was tired, so she didn't care.

[Aras|Ofelia]

Aurelia's shocked silence lay in direct contrast to the clamorous fit his talisman was currently throwing inside his head. Since telling the vulture to shut it would probably only provoke it further, Aras just ignored it to the best of his ability. (Since when had it become so vehement about, well, anything? For some reason, it had become dead set on butting ethereal heads with Aurelia and her talisman. Certainly, it was less forgiving than he was, but this was just a tad ridiculous.)

The initial surprise subsiding, Aurelia turned her head to watch the sunrise. The sun's measured upward crawl illuminated the waves, their white caps drowned out by the light brilliantly reflected in the water. Though the resplendence made one's eyes sting if stared at for too long, the sunrise's effect was soothing.

It probably had something to do with the deeply-ingrained, symbolic association the sun had with renewal and resurrection. Or perhaps that had little do with his peculiarly tranquil state of mind; for some reason, Aras felt that the sunrise wasn't the only thing calming him down.

He didn't think on it too much, however. He and Aurelia stayed as they were for a while, blissfully deaf to the vocalized outrage carried on by the other's talismans.

"You smell like an Aras," she said after several minutes, and the look the vulture shot her a look that indicated that it thought her utterly daft as well as irrevocably insane. Aras, on the other hand, just gave her a quizzical look accompanied by a slight smile. "I suppose I should take that as a compliment?"

Now that her fingers no longer felt completely lifeless, he released her hands and got to his feet. There were still a couple things to take care of--namely, that there were still dead Harris' hawks on the sand. "I'll be back in a moment," he said, then set off toward the cliff at a brisk pace.

It didn't take long. All he had to do was impassively fling them as far out into the water as he could.

Returning to where Aurelia sat, he extended a hand to help her up. "You'll be fine getting back on your own?"

[DesperateDark]

"I suppose I should take that as a compliment?" A small grin turned the corners of his lips up as he gave her a questioning look. Aurelia didn't answer him, just gazed back at the sunrise. This was nearly as cliché as watching a sunset with a guy, but whatever.

After a length of time, Aras released her hands. She first glanced them into fists, then released them, looking down at her hands. They were feeling okay now, if still not a bit stiff. Aras told her that he'd be back in a second before heading off towards the hawks still littering the beach. She only watched as he flung the hawks far out over the water, each one hitting the waves with the sound of a large stone hitting the water.

He returned to where she sat a moment later, extending his hand to help her up. Looking at his hand for a moment, she took it and was on her feet in good time. "Yeah, I'll be okay." Aurelia wasn't sure how true her words were; her head still felt weird and she was still drowsy, but she'd probably be able to get back to Noatak without too much trouble.

Taking a last glance at the sunrise, they both began to walk down the stretch of sand to where their vehicles were parked. The sand muffled their footsteps, making their walk completely devoid of sound. It was a nice day, sort of warm now that the sun was coming up. Parting is such sweet sorrow, she remembered the line from one of Reyes' many books on Shakespeare.

It was nice to have Aras around. He was rare company these days, ever since people have become so suspicious of the odd injuries showing up. They believed the rumours that it was a gang war, and that was a relief. Normal people getting mixed up into talisman politics would not help anybody. Aurelia sighed deeply as the orange and black Yamaha motorcycle came into view.

"Well, thanks for keeping me company." She nodded at Aras, her mouth in a flat line. He hit her on the head with a dead hawk, but it was to be forgiven, if not by her talisman then by herself.

[Aras|Ofelia]

Her grasp on his hand was firm, but she felt a little unsteady getting to her feet. Despite her assurance that she would be fine, Aras found himself questioning the wisdom of her traveling back alone. There was no-one else around for miles; those who thought Noatak was middle-of-nowhere had obviously never been here before.

The fact that she'd gotten here on a motorcycle did not help matters. Aurelia evidently knew how to ride one, but that was not going to prevent her from freezing to the seat on her way back. And in her current cold, wet, half-asleep state, something told him that she was more likely than not going to end up face-first on the ground somewhere between here and Noatak.

"Are you sure?" he asked, looking skeptically at the motorcycle. How she managed not to freeze on her way here, in the dark with the wind whipping at her face and clothing, was beyond him. And that had been before she'd stepped into the icy ocean, wrestled a python, and had the air squeezed out of her lungs. Perhaps she might be fortunate enough to get hope in one piece, but Aras didn't want to leave that up to chance. "It's a long way. I can drive you back."

She can take care of herself, his talisman grunted. It had finally begun to calm down, though it still glared daggers at Aurelia. It hoped that she, out of pride and a sense of independence, would refuse. Though didn't make him change his mind, the vulture's remark made Aras realize that his offer could have come off as a bit patronizing. Call it concern or protectiveness or anything else, but he would rather her be slightly offended than to have her risk breaking her neck on some abandoned road.

[DesperateDark]

Aurelia caught his dubious glance at the black and orange Yamaha. It wasn’t hers; she could never afford anything like that. Reyes worked as a freelance musician and artist, and in a little town like this, he was probably one of the only sources of entertainment among some of the residents, so he made decent enough money.

"It's a long way. I can drive you back."

She narrowed her eyes slightly, hearing his condescending tone. That didn’t sit too well with her, and her flat mouth bent down in a frown. Her talisman quipped something rather rude that involved a donkey, his mother and a four legged chicken. Aurelia went quiet for a while, contemplating whether she should go with Aras or not. The day was early, she was wet and the air was still cool; the sun had yet to warm the air enough for her liking.

Despite what her talisman was telling her, Aurelia thought it’d be best to go with Aras. She wasn’t completely awake and still freezing, and if anything happened to her while she was on the road she was sure nobody would find her. This beach was truly in the middle of nowhere. With a little nod of her head, she went up to his car with her hands in her pockets. This would be an awkward ride, probably like the rest of their acquaintance. There was the click of the locks and she swung herself into the passenger side of the car, a quiet apology for dripping all over his seats.

[Aras|Ofelia]

After a few moments' consideration, Aurelia finally nodded and climbed into the passenger seat of his car. Aras was glad she hadn't tried to argue; from what he could tell, once she'd set her mind on something, it would take an enormous amount of effort to convince her otherwise. He was also glad that she hadn't tried to slap him for his unintentionally patronizing tone. One bruise on his face at a time was enough--he'd already gotten a few derisive snickers and one or two snide comments for the last one.

The vulture, obviously disappointed that she had been able to put aside her pride, grumbled something to the effect of 'stubborn ass,' pointed out that she was pooling water all over the seat and floor, and fell into a disgruntled silence. Besides glaring at him for mentally heaving a thankful sigh for the long-awaited quiet, it pointedly ignored him for a while.

As they'd both predicted, the car ride was saturated with silences--or more accurately, one long silence with only occasional interruptions. Oddly, it wasn't as awkward as they'd expected, though that might have been because they were both too worn out to think that efforts at conversation were necessary. Aurelia in particular seemed more than content to just huddle in her seat, keeping as warm as possible.

During a particularly prolonged lull, Aras glanced over at her. Her face was turned away from him, and he couldn't tell whether she was asleep or watching the scenery flash by the window. Despite her bedraggled appearance, she looked more relaxed than he'd ever seen her--which wasn't saying much, but at least it was something.

The sun was high in the sky by the time they got to Reyes' house. Stopping alongside the curb, Aras stared at the lawn. Was it just him, or had the man added something new since he last came? In all likelihood it was the latter, but Aras didn't exactly feel up to figuring out which bizarre sculptures he'd seen before and which ones he hadn't.

He bid Aurelia goodbye. "Take care."