Chase away the pain (Tivquil)

[Cait]

3075.09.11 - Middle of the night - Weyr of T'vax and Slinesteth

The Life Wings had saved Davquil's life, there was no contesting that. However, the mystical healers with their mending songs could only do so much. The once bubbly and vivacious young woman who had bounced around was silent and still...except at night. Since the night of her release from the healing wing and no longer heavily sedated, the night terrors came. They hurled her into a pit of terror and hopelessness and torment. Sometimes she relived her own torture or being set ablaze but this night was different, this night she watched as T'vax was the one set on fire, beaten and cut open and she woke screaming and flailing as if invisible hands were holding her down.

Niekolgoth stirred from his vigil and immediately hauled himself up. He was in poor shape and more grey than purple these days. Hesitantly he reached out to reassure his rider that she was not alone though she continued to flail until she'd untangled herself from her covers and scrubbed at her face before paused at the feel of the raised, scabbed over line on her left cheek. She traced her fingertips over it lightly then let out a shaky sigh. Still a bit fuzzy minded from the ordeal and the sedation she had trouble telling how long she'd been free and even the methods of their escape having been half dead from fever and pain. Where was T'vax?

Nieko, I need to see him.

Even her mindvoice was small as she slipped out of bed and padded out, mindless of the chilled stone.She joined her dragon in the cavern of the weyr and fumbled her way onto his neck. The purple-gray slipped out onto the ledge then made the short trip to Slinesteth's ledge. Davquil was covered in goosebumps and dressed in an overlarge tunic. She sway slightly when her feet hit the ground and Niekolgoth crooned uncertainly. Gaining her balance, Dav shuffled forward almost mechanically then hesitated as her eyes filled with tears and her entire being with fear. What if he wasn't there?

Finally she stepped out of the frigid wind and into the weyr and the sight of the slumbering Chrome had tears spilling over and spurred her back into her stiff, awkward shuffle towards Tiv's room. Looking and feeling something like a frightened child, she paused at the doorway and whispered in a hoarse voice with a hint of uncertainty. "Tiv?"

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

It had been Turns, many Turns, since T’vax had lain awake, plagued by nightmares that rendered sleep an unobtainable goal. At least, it had been Turns since the last time. He would have loved to sleep, but the issue with doing such was that no sooner would he drop into sleep then not only would he be waking up, gasping for breath which in that half-asleep moment seemed to be heavy with the ugly stench of burned flesh and hair, but so would at least half a dozen of the closest dragons. Either that, or the nightmare would be inescapable.

Thus it was that, as Slinesteth slumbered, T’vax curled into a tighter ball in his sleeping furs, trying to, somehow, fall asleep while remaining enough aware of his surroundings that he didn’t wake up with his teeth clamped together on a scream.

Blinking, T’vax started to sit up. There was another dragon coming, in fact…

Nieko, that you? he asked. He was pretty sure it was, and that would mean that Dav…

“Tiv?”

Turning, Tiv glanced over at the door that connected his room to the main one, where Slinesteth slept. There was a shadowed form in the doorway, but it had definitely been Dav who’d called him.

“Dav?” he queried softly, not certain, yet sure that it was indeed Davquil. “You having trouble sleeping too?”

[Cait]

Niekolgoth slid into the weyr and sprawled in his typical fashion, brushing Tiv's mind in affirmation. Tryth be told the poor dragon was exhausted as well. In the young man's doorway, however, Davquil hovered and when he spoke she lurched forward with a sniffle and stumbled into the edge of the bed. Her addled mind caused her to pause as she shadows cast across Tiv's face obscured his scar and for a moment he bacame Taver. The light shifted, though, and she drew in a shaky breath.Letting her breath how she finally whispered though there wasn't a need.

"Everything is all jumbled in my head and it's dark and I couldn't remember anything after..." she lifted a hand to her face and her tears started anew. "I...can I..." her eyes were huge and sparkled in the faint light cast from outside the room and it was easy to see that she shook like a leaf on a tree in the autumn wind.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

T’vax had let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding upon receiving Nieko’s affirmation of identity. His ability to hear all the dragons around him had become more of a curse now, in the aftermath of the kidnapping and the damage done. Sometimes all it took was a brush against a dragon’s mind to set off nightmares, and frequently, the Healers had to resort to giving him a diluted mix of drugs that numbed both his ability to hear the dragons, and his ability to process things in his mind. He hadn’t had any of those drugs tonight, but he’d learned to keep his ability to hear the dragons so muffled and trapped behind mental shields that it was nearly impossible to hear any dragon that he didn’t know extremely well.

He didn’t say anything in response to Dav, just nodded and pulled himself up onto all fours to flop next to where she’d hit the edge of his bed.

He opened his mouth, then closed it again. He kept his eyes fixed on her face. Even seeing the scar on her left cheek was better than what his mind would show him if he looked away, a raging inferno with Dav’s head in the center.

“Hold on.” Taking a deep breath, T’vax leaned over the edge of his bed and pulled up another bundle of sleeping furs. “Here, bundle up?” he asked, opening them slightly and holding them out to Dav. He didn’t say anything more, but his eyes begged her to stay, to remain where he could see her face and know that she was not on fire.

[Cait]

Davquil watched mutely as Tiv leaned over the edge of the bed and as she did, three pale firelizards winked in. Glimmer immediately becgan to scold, her hide fairly glowing in the dim light. T'ruk was still watching the pups and helped when he could with T'vax and Dav's flitts as both were still disoriented and groggy from mild sedation. Snowball and Snowflake perched on the back of the chair at Tiv's desk but otherwise remained calm despite the distress they felt.

When Tiv held out the bed furs, Dav stared at the for a moment then reached out to take them. They hung limp in her hand until she gathered them up to her chest and hugged them. She looked a mess; her fire ravaged hair had been shorn quite short and now stood out in a frizzy halo rather than a tangled, riotous mess that went to her waist. There were dark circles beneath her eyes and she looked a bit pale despite her exotic olive-tinged skintone. She looked dow at Tiv, her eyes like liquid pools of pitch black and saw a fear to answer her own in his pale eyes. With a faint whimper she crawled onto the bed and curled up next to T'vax, still clinging to the furs. Glimmer crooned and fussed a bit more before Snowflake hissed softly and the Neon Silver settled.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

Upon the arrival of Glimmer, Snowflake, and Snowball, two shadows stirred in a corner of the bed on the far side of Tiv. One of the shadows raised a Pink head. Ninarwa chirped a greeting to Snowflake and Snowball. Tyavra, the Aurora, merely opened one eye before silently standing and watching Glimmer.

“Shoo,” T’vax said, picking up Tyavra and setting her down at the edge of his reach, on his desk. He repeated the procedure with Ninarwa, so that Dav would have room to lay down. He was glad that T’ruk was watching the puppies tonight, or there would have been no way for him to get enough room on his bed for a second person. Somehow, having Dav in the same room helped. Maybe it was because, excepting that single, terrible day, their captivity had been spent isolated from each other. Maybe it was because, being able to see her, he was able to remind himself with every glance that she was alive, and well, and not a captive or being tortured in front of his eyes.

Curling around Dav, Tiv felt a sudden bone-deep tiredness, as if he’d been holding himself on guard without realizing it and now, finally, could relax.

Ninarwa looked around, then, satisfied that all was well, curled up on the desktop. Within moments, the little firelizard was asleep.

[Cait]

Glimmer joined Tiv's flitts on the desk and with a bit of crooning convinced Snowball and Snowflake to join. When all four firelizards were settled in something of a pile, the neon silver settled over them, wings partially unfurled like a roosting wheery. Sensing the settling of emotions in her two favorite people, she herself settled as well though she remained awake and watchful, crooning every now and then almost compulsively.

On the bed, when T'vax curled himself around her, Davquil's shaking slowly began to subside and she began to realize how cold she really was. Stirring, wadded up bedfurs left forgotten on the far side of the bed, she wriggled her way under Tiv's bed furs and settled herself back into the curve of his body once more. After a moment of silence she reach behind her to find his hand and once capturing it, pulled his arm around her and laced thei fingers. "Tiv?"

Her voice was soft and still hoarse; she'd lost it from all the screaming she'd done and it was only just recovering. She waited for him to respond then drew in a shaky breath and pressed back against his chest as she drew her knees up a bit more. "I can't...I thought you were...if you had..."

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

Tyavra and Ninarwa both gave sleepy blinks as Snowball and Snowflake curled up with them, but they settled quickly as T’vax and Dav calmed down. Didn’t just calm down, in fact, but calmed further down then they had since that awful kidnapping. Tyavra was already asleep when Glimmer settled down over the other firelizards, and Ninarwa wasn’t far behind.

Outside, Slinesteth wrapped his neck over Niekolgoth’s back, then went back to sleep, drawing comfort from his friend’s nearness. Their riders were odd creatures.

“Yes,” T’vax whispered in response to his name, squeezing Dav’s hand as well as he could with his fingers laced through hers.

He held her tighter as she pressed back into his chest, combating his own memories of that day with the physical reality of Dav’s living, uninjured (at least physically), presence. “I know,” he whispered, though he wasn’t really sure what she would have added. “I know.”

[Cait]

Closing her eyes, Davquil took several deep, slow breaths and though it was still dark, for the first time in days found herself able to relax in the darkness. The smell and feel of T'vax surrounded her and settled her nerves and as she calmed so too did Niekolgoth, drawing comfort from both Slinesteth and his rider's improved state.

"If they had...you're the best friend I've ever had." When she finally spoke, her voice was barely above a whisper. Her fingers almost compulsively stroked Tiv's hand, being able to touch him bringing her comfort. If she'd lost him she would have lost a part of herself as surely as if she'd lost Niekolgoth. How T'vax had become such an important part of her life over the past year or so was hard to determine but he had. If she'd never met him she might never have been subjected to such horrors, but she couldn't imagine never having met Tiv and still remembered that first day she met him; their day in the snow back when they were Candidates.