The Fallen Ascending 01 -- Rebirth
At the Edge

It was dark in the tent when I awoke the next morning and the sound of rain still beat relentlessly on the top of the tent. Crystal was still laid under me with my head resting peacefully between her breasts and her arms wrapped gently around my shoulders. For several long moments, I simply enjoyed watching the rise and fall of her chest as she gently breathed in and out while sleeping peacefully.

Knowing my own limits, I nibbled on her breasts and sucked on her nipples gently, while I unwrapped her arms from around my neck. Slowly, and reluctantly, I finally eased up and pulled away from her. The road wasn’t any place to do what I was wanting to do, I reminded myself.

To cool my head, I slipped out of the white robe which Crystal had lent me and then I eased outside to simply stand naked and enjoy the rain. The water was cool coming down, not quite what I’d call cold, and quickly helped calm and soothe my fiery body. It was, in fact, a refreshing experience that I was enjoying quite a bit.

With a gentle trickle of power, I sensed inside the other tent and felt Dino and Jess lying close together. Neither of them was moving, and it didn’t seem as if either was awake yet. Smiling in silent satisfaction to myself, I eased back into our tents and dripped over to Crystal. Slowly, I leaned and gently kissed her several times while water dripped off my hair and softly dropped across her body. After a few moments, she sleepily returned my kiss as she started to wake up.

“Morning.” Gently, I tugged on her hand and pulled it upwards. “Come on. Get up, take off that robe, and join me. Life doesn’t have too many moments like this one, and I don’t want to miss sharing it with you. Who knows how long we have to enjoy it before the others wake up.”

“Huh?” Sleepily she rubbed at her eyes with one hand while letting me tug her upright with the other. Never resisting, she allowed me to unwrap the robe from around her shoulders and then lead it outside. It wasn’t until the cool rain first fell across her bare skin that I think she truly awakened and looked around with uncertainty.

“Shhh!” I hushed at her. “We don’t want to wake the others. Tell me, My Lady, have you ever danced naked in the morning rain before?”

“Uhh..” She blinked several times and simply stared around in bewilderment. “No,” was her soft and simple reply.

“Then allow me the honor of the first dance,” I told her cheerfully while curtsying and holding out my hand towards her.

“Certainty.” She returned the curtsy and then gently reached out and took my hands in hers.

I don’t know how long we danced and enjoyed the feeling of trying to match the rhythm of the rain, but was a Jess’s light laughter from the edge of her tent that brought us back to our surroundings. Blushing, I used my hands to cover myself and dashed back into our tent to hide my embarrassment. Crystal on the other hand simply laughed and waltzed over to Jess as if it was the most natural thing in the world and hugged her lightly before finally calmly entering our tent.

Neither of us said anything as we dried off and then got dressed. Breakfast was a cold mean of leftover bread and cheese, which we eat while simply staring and smiling at each other. Our moment together in the rain was a wonderful time while it lasted and neither of us spoke to disrupt the feeling. We let the warmth linger for as long as it could.

After breakfast, we finally packed up the supplies that we had and went outside to take down the tent. “Jess! You and Dino finish up in there and get out here and get your tents down. We’re going to be heading out soon. We’ll want to hit the forest while it’s daylight today, so I can try and replace whatever trail they might have traveled down.” I knew where we were going now, and I could replace my way to that old source of death easily enough; I just needed an excuse to explain to the others about how I managed to do it.

“In this rain?” Dino came out complaining this morning, but I was in a good mood and simply ignored it as Crystal helped me take down the tent we’d been staying in. Grumbling to himself, Dino started taking down his tent while no one paid any attention to him. Jess was in a cheerful mood and was singing some small ditty to herself about dancing butterflies trying to mate in the rain or something, so I tried to tune her out as well.

Before long, we were all packed up and traveling along the road heading westward once again. The day was wet and miserable, but peaceful. We didn’t see any sign of any other travelers from morning to lunch, and it was around noon when we diverted off the road and started working our way through the forest. Dino never asked how I knew the way; he was too miserable and grumpy over marching in the forest in the rain. Jess was too busy skipping along and gathering leaves, flowers, herbs, and who knows what all from the forest to even notice where we were going, and Crystal didn’t say anything as she had witnessed my magic last night which I’d used to replace the path.

As the afternoon slowly passed by, the woods got thicker and darker. Sometime mid afternoon, the rain finally started to lighten back up and small patches of sunlight feebly tried to sneak through the clouds. It was dark and gloomy where we were going, and traveling was slow and laborious even with me lightly feeling the path before us with my magic and choosing the best trail. I couldn’t imagine the difficulty the other team had had trying to replace a way through the forest to locate a lost graveyard. They probably spent a week or more just wandering the woods looking for the place.

It was several hours after Dino started complaining about wanting to stop and set up the tents for the evening, with me ignoring him before we finally came to the edge of the graveyard. Instantly, it was obvious to me that something was wrong with the place. The flows of death energy that surround such a place normally seep out slowly and dissipate into the surroundings as the corpses and such slowly decay and fade over time. This place wasn’t like that at all. The death here pulsed. It beat like a heartbeat, slowly pulling back from the edge of the graveyard, gathering inwards at some point I couldn’t see from here, and then returning a moment later with just a little more force and strength.

Cautiously, I held up my hand and motioned for everyone to stop. “We’re here,” I told them simply. “And there’s going to be no sleeping tonight without a watch. Darkness and trouble are thick all around us. I don’t know what all’s going on here, but the danger is all around. Be as cautious here as you’ve ever been anywhere in your life. Death is in the forest here.”

“And how do you know that!” Dino snorted and waved his hands dismissively. “This place doesn’t seem any different than anywhere else we’ve seen all day long!”

“Nuh uh.” Jess slowly shook her head and looked around nervously. “He’s right. I don’t like it here. There’s no birds, no bugs, no life near us! Something isn’t right here. I can feel it!”

I couldn’t help but be pleasantly surprised. I had thought that Jess was just as dense and hopeless as Dino, but after spending a little more time with her, I might have misjudged her somewhat. I would’ve thought that she’d agree with Dino no matter what. It was a nice surprise to see her think for herself.

Dino simply snorted while Crystal drew her sword. Nothing was immediately of danger to us, and trying to cause us harm, but I could tell we were at the edge of darkness.

Trouble and Death were no more than a few feet away and waiting for us to intrude on its domain…