Hush | Willow

[Seren]

S U N S E T​

Location: Cularin - Surface
Tag: [member="Willow Fae"]

Time...seemed to never be on their side.

When the little spider decided to stay by the wolf's side, she had been warned that the future would be dangerous. However, to date...the sole danger she faced was the absence of her lover. Hunting down the Nine in the name of preserving an untold future was at the forefront of Seren's mind - and he always seemed to deem the operations too perilous for her to come along. The fact that he would stumble back into their Cularin home battered and bruised on some occasions lent credence to his words.

To say that she was not satisfied was an understatement.

It did not take a bond which breached the laws of time and space for Seren to realize this either. Though there was always concern when he returned, and elation, there was an edge to her smile. A longing in her kiss. And a small huff whenever he had to journey away again. It was not as if Willow were trapped on Cularin, mind. She had the freedom to move about the stars however she saw fit. But. Seren knew frustration when he saw it. And, though he was not an expert on relationships - he fancied himself adept in strength.

During one of his most recent returns, he had called for the young woman to join him on the surface of the world. Above the subterranean temple that he and Jenmae had wrought - and below the observation hall that the witch had gifted to the pair - ran a plain of endless grasses. Above, the heavens were a masterpiece of vibrant colors as if the gods themselves splashed countless brushes across the sky. There was time aplenty for what Seren had in mind. Atypical of his usual cloak and such, the man stood bare-chested before his partner.

He sat behind an ornate box of the purest black. A pair of pristine hilts upon his lap. As the fiery-haired woman entered his field of view, the wolf smiled and chucked one in her direction. She was as nimble as they came - so he had no delusions that she wouldn't catch the weapon. "That." he began. "Is a lightsaber. Training variety. Won't kill you...but it'll sting like Hell." He confidently tossed the remaining hilt from his offhand to his dominant hand before raising his chin. "You're good, but not enough that I'll bring you into the madness. So, I"ll just have to show you how to survive."

The deactivated hilt was raised as a challenge. A bloodshine blade burned into being. "Show me what you can do, little spider."

 

[Saraya Arenais]

[member=Seren]​

Rare was the chance to feel genuine excitement. It was fleeting, especially now that Seren had begun to chase his dark dreams with the White Witch. The brief times she caught a glimpse the fleeting emotion were the nights she sat by the window when his ship lights would flash against the stained glass. For those few seconds where she raced to the door to greet him, the excitement was bright on her face… until she saw what fresh wounds littered his body this time. The excitement was crushed and replaced with concern. Concern wasn’t washed away until she had sponged off the worst of the blood and dressed the deepest cuts.

It wasn’t like she’d had much excitement back in Hutt space. Plenty of adrenaline and danger, sure, but they were hardly the same. Perhaps it was different now because she had someone to be excited about? It had been the norm from the minute she’d accepted that Seren was the only person she had left in the Galaxy to care for, and who would care for her. Willow had grown to expect excitement and passion, and she was sorely disappointed each time it was stolen from her grasp.

But right now? Today? Excitement had finally found a home.

Seren had promised to spend the whole day with her, and he had stuck to that promise. Instead of waking up to the usual icy patch on the bed beside her, Willow had woken to the warmth of her lover. That was enough to set her up for the rest of the week, but he had gone further by inviting her to the grassy plains on top of their Cularian home. She had no idea what he had in mind, but she would have gone anywhere for him. Without question. When she finally arrived, the radiant skies above reflected their beauty on the man that stood before her. She rarely took the time to notice the intricacies of his features, but she did today.

Yet, it wasn’t his face that made her smile, but the simple action he opened their conversation with. Little warning came as the flash of silver cut through the air in her direction. It was pure instinct to catch it, and she was pleased she did.

‘Hmm…’ The blade rolled from one pale palm to the other, as if they were trying to decide where the weight felt best. ‘This is what I was trying to steal from you, back in Hutt Space?’ Some variety of it anyway. Willow recalled how the silver had glinted in the moonlight, how cool and inviting the metal cylinder had seemed. In her recent travels, she had noticed a few lightsabers, but she’d never had the chance to inspect one as closely as she had that night. It was a strange sensation staring down at the thing that had ultimately trapped her with the Wolf, but it was also a pleasant one. When she could push the horrors that came before aside, Willow could see that without the lightsaber she had tried to steal, she never would have bothered going into his room in the first place. She never would have ended up here.

Seren spoke further, and Willow found herself glancing at him with a bemused grin. Swordplay was very much beyond her abilities, but she had seen a few fights here and there around Hutt space. They weren’t as refined as the dances she had watched Seren perform with his blade, but she could grasp the concept from them. The bemusing part was that he wanted to spend the time teaching her all this, but she wasn’t one to complain. Her right hand finally clenched around the hilt, her thumb slid across the activation switch. When it burst to life in her palm Willow found herself sorely confused. She had expected it to feel heavier with the blade out, but it felt no different. It would take a while to grow used to that, but Willow could see that, ultimately, it would play into her strengths.

The little spider was incredibly light on her feet. Years of thieving in Hutt Space had forced her to be, and her Vahla heritage only helped. So, when Seren bid her to show him what she had, Willow did just that. Shooting across the space between them, with a bone structure so light it only served to help her speed, she attacked. The lightsaber did indeed feel strange to wield, but it felt even stranger still to swing through the air. There was no weight to it like there was to a bit of pipe or a fence post. As it bit through the air toward Seren’s left side, Willow almost lost grip of the hilt entirely, which misdirected her swing toward the top of his thigh instead of his waist as she had intended.

 

[Seren]

Duality.

Where there was certainly a Light and Dark Side of the Force, so too was there light and darkness in the Wolf's life. When it came to the ambitions which drove him and the Witch forward, there was indeed darkness. To attain their mutual goals of godhood, the path ahead was paved with blood. There was not a day spent working towards this path that did not involve pain - whether it was inflicted or withstood. Yet, where Seren would willingly dive into the abyss to elevate the pallid Witch higher, there was one who fretted over the roadmap of injuries upon his person. There was one who craved his presence more than air - and she was the lightness in his life.

Whenever he trudged home from chasing remnants of the path, he was greeted by the embrace of one who chose him over all of creation. When her home was lost. Despite how horrendous he had treated her at the outset. The fiery-haired woman had chosen him when all of the Galaxy was at her fingertips. She had decided that his side was where she wanted to remain. And, thus far, the road of darkness had been too dangerous for the Wolf to allow it. But. Things would change. Seren did not like the idea of putting his Spider in harm's way of course. Nor did he have any delusions that she would become a Master of all things overnight.

But, if it meant that she was where she belonged - even in their final moments - then it was worth doing. Thus did their time underneath the dazzling sky begin.

As anticipated, Willow easily plucked the saber out of the air when he had thrown it. Thoughtfully, she clutched the hilt and inspected its form. Her question...gave the man pause. It was indeed a lightsaber that she had attempted to pilfer from him on that fateful evening. And, were it not for her larceny, she would have tarried in Hutt Space. She would have never made the decision to stay with him. "...It sure was." he replied, before readying himself. After today, they would have time aplenty to muse over how a lightsaber brought them together. But, for the moment, the Wolf needed to observe.

Already he had begun a theory when it came to the woman. She was lithe. Quick on her feet. Flexible. She was the complete opposite of him in practically every way. Thus, he could not educate her to fight as a brute or a berserker. This little match of theirs would inform him where her tutelage would go. There were a few avenues he had in mind...but ultimately, he would tailor each lesson to suit her specifically. She deserved the best, after all. Thus, as she shot across the gap, the Wolf readied himself. He was a brick wall - an unmoveable object when it came to her assault. Though the weight of the saber had caused her strike to be misdirected, the weapon indeed hit its mark.

Seren fixed his jaw and let the blow hit. It burned. It stung. It was everything he had warned her of upfront. However, the test for the Spider came in his retaliation. His blade thundered downward in a blow that would have severed her arm off at the elbow. He wanted to see her instincts. Would she attempt to block? Would she dodge? Would she distract? The Wolf needed to know.

[member="Willow Fae"]​

 

[Saraya Arenais]

Seren​

When she felt the weight of his thigh push up against her blade, Willow was elated. Then, for a brief moment, concerned for Seren’s well-being. He had told her the training sabres wouldn’t hurt, much, but still, She had yet to feel what it was like. Then… she felt perplexed. How had she managed to land that? Seren was far more experienced in lightsabre combat than she was. The hilt had even slipped from her hand and knocked her intended aim way off. By the time she decided she’d better concentrate again, Seren was swinging his blade through the air in retaliation.

Time slowed.

There wasn’t a chance in anyone’s hell that Willow could have attempted to meet his blade. She knew first hand just how strong the arms that brought it down were. If she couldn’t fend them off without a blade, it was doubtless she could do it with one. Granted she was stronger now than when she had first attempted to fight them, but she was still nowhere near close to the strength she needed. Her only option was to dodge it. Though time had felt slow in passing to the little spider, the reality was it sped along just as it always had. By the time she made up her mind to dodge the blade was already dangerously close to finding its mark.

Reacting as best she could, her arm withdrew from its position, snapping like a whip toward her chest where she deemed it safest. Quick though she was… at that moment, Willow got her first taste of the training blade.

In an instant, the hum of her blade cut short and the silver hilt hit the soft ground with a thud. She cursed, clutching her arm at the elbow were the blade had grazed her skin. Pain cradled her entire being for what felt like an eternity, maybe more, but it wasn’t the pain that caused her brows to furrow. ‘You did that on purpose.’ The blazing red hair atop her head caught the breeze as she nodded her head toward his leg, where her own strike likely burned a similar pain through his muscles. Taking a couple of steps backwards to disengage she did her best to shake the pain from her arm, as though it were a cramp she could merely rid herself of.

When her fingers finally flexed on command again, Willow stormed the two steps forward to sweep her sabre up off the ground. With the dull silver clutched firmly in her hand, she set her feet to try again. ‘Don’t baby me… If you take me with you one day nobody else will. Teach me properly or don't bother at all.’ Adrenaline and pain should have been the reasons her heart was racing, but they weren’t. Willow had never used such a harsh tone with the Wolf before, not since her decision to stay by his side anyway. Part of her was unsure of how he would react. She didn’t expect him to be angry, she knew him better than that now, but the sharpness in her tone almost begged to differ.

Still, with those words lingering in the air, she brought the sabre up and wrapped her other hand round the hilt. Perhaps it would be easier to control with two hands rather than one, and this time… she would wait for him to strike.

 

[Seren]

Saraya Arenais​

Fight or Flight.

Clash or Evade. The question hung in the air as the wolf's blade thundered downwards. Though his pace was all the same, calculations occurred within the Spider at blinding speed. She ultimately decided that clashing with his blade directly was not the way she wanted to go. Her instincts demanded that she withdraw. She did so - quickly - but not without injury. T'was not Seren's own blade which thundered across her form, but she was stung nonetheless. Her own weapon lashed upon her flesh, and soon it tumbled to the ground. As the weapon settled upon the earth, the Wolf held his saber aloft.

Willow did not take long to collect herself. She quickly acclamated to the pain and regained command of her muscles once again. New confidence...or was it frustration...bubbled within her as she strode forward. Her advance was only punctuated with the descent required to procure her blade from the grass. Ah, she was a picture of perfection in that moment. The breeze wafted through her locks as her scowl commanded his attention. Were the circumstances any different - he might have kissed her. However, as the accusation fell from her lips, Seren allowed a chuckle to bubble forth.

"Of course I did." he began, pointing the blade towards her. "I needed to see how your instinct would guide you."

"I won't teach you to fight against your instincts. I'll teach you to use them as a weapon. You. You're quick. You avoid and evade. You...you're like a gust of wind."

He mused for a moment before giving his blade a flourish in his grasp. Per her request, he would not take it easy on her. Now he knew she preferred to evade. Now, he would teach her how to strike. "Listen carefully. Block only as you need. Find your opening and strike. Understand?" He did not wait for affirmation. He bounded across the gap and cleaved downward, as if he were cutting her clean in two. His follow-up strike was a quick adjustment. A step forward and a horizontal slash across the middle. As the move completed, his ribs would be exposed to her. The opening.

The question was...would she seize the moment?