Our Revelries, ii.

[Kala Leukos]

.

The twins were only too glad to leave the year-long winter behind. The winter of an equatorial desert was summer by their standards.

Kaus' flying was fancy and free, but when he realized his sister had Raithen's attention, he stopped showing off and just communed with the Air. For her part, Kala took the dux's instruction in stride—or in wing beat—as she was keen to learn. She had two decades of catching up to do. She also attempted to support what conversation the winds allowed with bits of hand sign they had been taught by their father and continued to use when flying with Aquilios. They might be immune to cold and the buffeting air, but their voices were puny things compared to aught but the calmest of skies.

There was a Fire within her now that she conflated with her growing divinity, a furnace that burned hotter than anything when required, and gave the impression of something ancient and unceasing. It allowed her to keep up with their unflagging energy, and it felt good in a way that made her feel vulnerable, to be able to keep up with the boys as she had always felt she was meant to do.

Her senses were spread wide, as well, and she felt the coolness of water. Once she knew it, Kaus knew it, and once they were overhead, she began a lazy downward spiral toward the oasis. Kaus buzzed Raithen, his laughter a quick rush, there and gone again, after tagging him. Once he had the dux's attention, he began to spiral downward as well, quickly catching up to Kala and dancing about her in his descent like some falling leaf or feather while she was still as an albatross.

Kala landed gently, stretching and mantling her wings in the sun. Kaus had caught himself near the top of a swaying palm, looking for the head-sized nuts that grew on some of them. He liked their water, their milk, their flesh. His sister didn't have the heart to tell him it wasn't the right sort of palm, and he was too intent to notice her noticing. When he landed finally upon the ground, agile as a monkey from Ecith, he immediately began to strip his clothes away.

"I don't know if you ought to swim in there," she warned, glancing toward Raithen for confirmation. "The nomads use it for drinking water. And Sentinels, too, I would imagine. When traveling."

.

[Raithen]

Love of the sun did not mean that Raithen didn't sweat and grow overheated as easily as any other, at least, any other as native to Solunarium as he. When they all three came to land in the oasis, once close enough to the city that he knew it well, he saw Kaus' intent and without hesitation pulled from his garments the two pins that were all that held them to his body. As the fabric fell to the sands he grinned at Kala's genuine concern, an expression that begged indulgence.

"They do, both, but we won't be putting in anything that the animals don't." Stepping up close he said, more softly, "Surely nothing a kindly, passing Elementalist couldn't cleanse with ease."

It was cheeky, but so was Raithen, most of the time. Turning to observe the other twin's pale body as it appeared he added, at a normal volume,

"Keep an eye out for snakes. They don't often come out in the heat of the day but if they do it will be here by the water." With that he plunged into the wide, deep pool, turning immediately to send a spray of the icy water, drawn from deep under ground, over Kaus' overheated skin. None of it landed on Kala, though there was obvious aether involved in her protection and the dux winked chivalrously before dropping down to submerge his whole being.

While the water might not register as 'cold' to him, it leeched the heat from his body pleasantly. His nipples grew hard as his pores all drew tight and he shivered in delight as he stood again in the waist deep water. What return attack might be in store for him he fully accepted. From his earliest memories he had loved the splash and wrestle games of the palace pools and adulthood had not stolen the joy of it from him. Nothing could he imagine more to his liking than spending an hour swimming and struggling, skin to skin, with the younger Lord Leukos, unless it was the younger Lady Leukos joining them.

[Kala Leukos]

.

Kala nodded thoughtfully, loosening her attire. Kaus glanced at her and they nodded at each other. The serpents she sembled were sleeping and unlikely to molest them if they didn't molest first. With a whimsical smile, Kaus looked back to admire Raithen's dive and if he spluttered about the water, it was playacting before he doffed the last of his and launched himself at Raithen, his lithe whipcord muscles bunching under skin pale as smooth-sculptured stone.

He didn't hold back, knowing Raithen was strong. His skin reminded him of clouds pregnant with lightning. Their mock battle was as much distraction as anything else, however. The goddess let fall her clothing on a sun-baked boulder and stepped more carefully into the palm-shaded waters. She was likely waist-deep when the dux would notice her, unbothered by being naked.

While not as athletic as her brother, she was still shaped by blade and dance. Her eyes promised nothing, though she didn't hide her admiration for Raithen. Perhaps she enjoyed his bold admiration, as well. In Kalzasi, those who stared were more concerned with making a wife of the first winged Avialae woman in living memory. There was none of that with the foreign dux, and for all that he was foreign, at least to them, he was the most familiar person they had found in Solunarium.

Then she disappeared under the water, and if Fire was her element, the Water didn't hate her. There were proverbs setting fish and birds apart, and yet she swam as well as any aquatic bird, appearing again nearby, platinum hair hardly darker for the water. It seemed to wash away her courtly mien and her hands came up to push wet hair out of her eyes. She laughed at herself.

"Much better than the polar bear dives in the Astralars," she assured him, blinking away the water. "I don't know how chivalry works in Solunarium, Raithen, but if you go easy on me because I'm a woman, well..." She used Kaus' bent knee to push up and off, tackling the handsome dux back into the water.

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[Raithen]

If Raithen realized that the masculine of the twins was trying to distract him from the revealing of his sister's flesh, he didn't mind overly. Kala was beautiful with her clothes on and he wasn't in a rush to demand the sight of her without. Besides, if the playful but intent tussling Kaus offered was intended as a distraction, it was an excellent one.

The slide of his own muscles against their equal, perhaps their superior, was exactly the sort of thing Raithen enjoyed most and while it was all in fun, it was a workout no less. If the panting, straining coupling put him in mind of other things, well, there were parts of his anatomy that he could not control and they were not foremost in his mind just then.

By the time he had a moment to notice that the Lady had joined them in the shaded water his grin was one of admiration that was almost entirely without lecherous intent. She was like a mirror of her brother, smaller in all ways but still strength and agility capable of violence or art. He could not help but smile when he saw beautiful things and he was surrounded by it now.

For a moment her comments confused him but as she came crashing into him he laughed again in delight. This caused him to get water in his mouth and nose both, but so long as he could feel the sand beneath him he was not afraid of the water. Only deep water terrified him, and there was none here. Contending with both of the twins he was certain to lose unless he used his runes, which he had no intention of doing.

He held his own at times, but mostly he could only fend them off and often, not even that. Eventually, after an hour or more of swimming and play, he held up both his hands in surrender.

"Mercy," He said, still smiling. His body tired in the best way, he crawled out of the water to the shore and flopped down on his back just at the edge of the water.

"You have conquered, as I am now sure you always do when you work together. Demands your forfeits for I am yours to do with as you will."

The sun sparkled off all the places the water clung to him in droplets and he closed his eyes so he could turn his face into the warmth.

[Kala Leukos]

.

Nobody was truly disappointed when Raithen sought safety ashore, although he did evade some half-formed plans in their flaxen-locked heads.

Kaus emerged, shaking himself like a bird, and leaving his feathers and his hair in a bit of disarray. He was all grins as he plopped down on his derrière next to Raithen, one cross-legged thigh flush with his new friend's torso. There remained something a bit coltish about his movements. Squinting upward, he was glad for the dappling effect of the palm fronds. He enjoyed the sunlight on his bare skin, but it would burn him if he wasn't careful.

Kala came second, and there was that dancer's grace to her, though her sodden wings were held out a bit awkwardly. She shook them, then eyed the boys in the wet sand and laughed, letting go the thought of returning to the city as neat as she had left it. When she stopped thinking about her newest limbs, instinct took over and she lost much of her awkwardness as she draped herself across Raithen.

While amused, her smile was a bit tremulous. Neither she nor Kaus were rakes by any means, but neither were they intentionally platonic in their relations. There were the exigencies of their family, and now she carried the weight of Naori's expectations as well as the future of her race. So many of their emotional needs were met. And yet...

"You are a treasure, Gaius Val'Aværyan Raithen," she said, her fingers coming up slowly to touch his lips as though they were the petals of some exotic flower. Slow again, offering him time to opt out, she took one of his callused hands and guided it to slide down her side and rest upon the modest curve of her hip.

"Would the vanquished yield unto me a kiss?"

.

[Raithen]

The young Solunarian's lips still smiled when they were touched but it was a softer expression than the exuberant grins he had worn as they wrestled. It was as though they kept still for her, as the rest of him did, letting her move him as she would for a time. Her skin was cool against his, where the sun that he had basked in now embraced her and this felt right. All things should embrace her, should it be her wish. Yet, it was not a goddess he saw, unaware of her divinity as he was, it was a woman that his eyes beheld. As young and strong as she was noble and beautiful, all the things he had learned to admire as a child and desire as an adult.

When his hand was resting on her hip, cupping it with confidence but not possession he nodded. Following the pace as she set it he leaned up slowly, grey eyes open, giving her time to hesitate or change her mind before their lips met. When she did neither he gave as she asked, soft and sweet and skilled. After a long moment of this his hand came up in a slow stripe from her hip over the whole length of her spine to cup the back of her head.

When, without haste, the kiss broke he said, quietly,

"You're thirsty." Then, glancing back over his shoulder to Kaus, "You both must be."

With a flicker of thought and aether he opened a small portal, about a foot per side, into the kitchens of his mother's palace. It was not an unusual thing for them, though not an everyday occurrence either, so he knew where to put it that would be safe and the servi were not startled. He gave a few quick commands in his native language and, after a minute or so, someone passed through three large green coconuts with thin reeds in them so that one might drink their water. Handing one to each of the twins he took the last for himself before closing the portal. They were chilled to the touched.

"I saw you looking before, I hope that means you like them." If not he could get them something else, and, indeed, he'd ordered that a meal for them be ready when he called for it but that could wait.

When they had each drunk enough to sate their initial thirst, and without taking his arm from where it was comfortably still draped around Lady Kala he turned to her brother and said,

"You also are victor, what would you have of me? Or did you have all that you desired last night?"

[Kala Leukos]

.

This kiss was sweet. She didn't know whether she wanted much more than kisses in that moment, but also, she felt no pressure, which was strange and strangely nice. Raithan was a bit of a rake, but he was more than that, more complex than that, and while much of what she knew of him came filtered through Kaus' experiences—not that he had shared every intimate detail—and she rather liked how he was familiar but also a product of this far away elven oligarchy. She touched his ears—delicately pointed, albeit less so than some elves' ears—caressed his golden brow and his sharp jawline. It was a gentle exploration, and she liked how his white teeth flashed into such smiles, a contrast to his sunkissed visage.

"Another mind-reader," Kaus grumped when he was handed a coconut, but he smiled to their guide in the desert. He sipped at his refreshment and smiled, toes curling in the gritty sand.

Kala drank too, as Kaus curled down to kiss softer skin of Raithen's neck. He had, after all, had more time to explore the bright man. His answer was poetic, extemporaneous. His sister the dancer, his artistic bent had been with words. When he slowed down, surprising insight and imagery would tumble out of him.

"...once more into my arid days like dew,
Like wind from an oasis, or the sound
Of cold sweet water bubbling underground,
A treacherous messenger, the thought of you
Comes to destroy me..."

His sister's smile was admiring and a touch melancholy. There was no flare of lust between the twinned souls who knew each other deeper than any lover might, but neither were they uncomfortable here, skin to skin with the same beautiful man. The melancholy didn't stick. If matters with this foreign dux became bittersweet, well, the world was only so big and the Solunarian court only a portal away. But the privacy of the oasis was a soap bubble that would eventually burst. Best to enjoy it.

"Has the prisoner a last request?" she asked, an impish smile pierced by the reed straw.

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[Raithen]

While the twins enjoyed the tastes and sights of his homeland, Raithen was still full of questions about their own. After the long flight and then the play fight it felt like an afternoon to be lazy though. Hopefully they could sup together, nights were always better for questions and tales told.

He did not understand the poetic answer to his question, but he understood the kisses and arched his neck into them. Words were not his forte and poetry was particularly difficult for him to grasp at the best of times, but Kaus' voice was lovely and sure and maybe the tone was enough to let him understand a little.

When Kala drew his attention back to her with a wicked expression that he wouldn't have imagined her capable of he first grinned but then put it away to don a considering expression. Tilting his head back, making a show of it he blew air through his lips and then made a little humming sound.

"Hmm...no." Lifting his head back he met her eyes again, a glint of wickedness of his own flashing in his eyes, "I have two."

With this he rolled over on top of her and began to bombard her with a combination of tickling fingers and sensual caresses that, he hoped, might render her into a helpless state somewhere between giggles and sighs for a few moments at least. Kaus might come to her rescue, but that too would be good.

~~~
Some time later; after more of the sort of play that children did not understand and then a great deal of lunch for him and plenty, though not as much, for the twins, the sun was dipping towards the West and leaving longer shadows. They had found their way back into their clothing at some point, and Raithen had answered questions about the plants and animals of the desert, pointing out what few allowed themselves to be seen.

Languid and almost sleepy as the heat of noon faded toward the cool of evening, in a quiet moment Raithen was staring at nothing in particular. Then he said,

"What's snow like? Is it like sand that turns to water?"

[Kala Leukos]

.

The time passed deliciously, and while things might not have gone so far as some might have hoped, everyone seemed immensely pleased. Having slept so little the night previous, Kaus had been dozing with his head resting upon Raithen's flat belly, but his eyes cracked at the last question and he grinned blearily.

"Imagine Mount Sorokyn belching forth clouds on the coldest day you can imagine. Ash falls, floating down gently or eddying in the wind. It doesn't smell of fire and earth, though. It's air and water, all the fire taken out of it. It falls against your skin like down feathers, the tiniest bit of cold, but colder than coconut water. It disappears against the heat of you, leaving perhaps a bit of dampness, but mostly memory..."

His poetry was less structured coming out of the lightest of dreams, but it worked a bit of enchantment. While he had Raithen's attention, Kala provided the rest. At her request, water rose up out of the oasis. Air made it roil above them, from water to mist to cloud, and then she called all its fire to her until it began to glitter in the golden hour sunlight like diamond dust. At last, she let it fall as the air around them cooled at her command. Several hands pulled Raithen's clothes aside so he might experience the gentle touch of snow for himself and see whether he agreed with Kaus' description.

Her hooked finger gently slid over Raithen's sharpening nipple, a marvel at anatomy in action more than anything else.

"It can fall, light as anything, and leave nothing upon the ground. Or it can gather over night, through a storm, loading down branches until they snap from weight and winter cold. The roofs of houses are built steepled so it will slide down rather than crush underneath. In the mountains, it can gather higher than you are tall... it can gather until there is too much and it comes tumbling down, an unstoppable force of nature."

Raithen had been so solicitous. They wanted to share with him as well. There was magic, dry and nearly scientific, and then there was magic mysterious and awful—that is, rendering one full of awe. Nature was like that, and had its own magic.

.

[Raithen]

Raithen tried hard to imagine the things Kaus was spinning for him. The ash was easy, for it had ever been a part of his life, but the mountain without fire...

Mount Sorokyn was Fire. It felt sacrilegious to imagine it another way. There were other mountains though, so the golden Avialae switched to one of those, closed his eyes and tried his hardest to make the vision felt in all his senses. All at once, he could feel it, soft on his skin light the lightest kiss, tiny and wet and as cold as anything he'd felt. Opening his eyes he realized he could see it took and looked up in wonder. Snowflakes caught in his eyelashes and made everything seem to glitter like glass. Arching a little, up onto his elbows his bared-again skin wanting to feel all of it without dislodging those who rested on him.

"It's so light," Was all he said for a moment as he struggled to believe that the minute sharps of ice could ever weigh enough to break trees, houses, though he knew that they were water and water was heavy.

"Does he weigh down your wings?" A hand reached out to caress one of the long feathers on the farthest outside of Kaus' where it brushed at Raithen's side. It rarely rained in the desert nation but he had flown in a few storms. The rain didn't stick to his wings but with the greater structure of snow he could imagine it clinging between the big feathers. While his mind was on these things the hand not playing over Kaus' wing reached up to run a thumb over Kala's wrist where he finger played with his chilled flesh. Being able to touch both of them was already instinctive, like he'd always belonged between. Perhaps it was foolish to waste his time with them with such things but it didn't feel that way, it felt full of wonder.