Keep an Eye on It

Xanadu Weyr - Deep Forest Waterfall

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"How could I have possibly missed this?" Anyone who frequently travels the deep woods between Xanadu Weyr and the mountains to the west might ask themselves that question upon stumbling onto this place for the first time. A waterfall, easily a hundred feet tall, dominates the immediate area, commanding attention. Like something from a storybook, it stands before you, flanked on either side by sentinel trees and mountain brush mired in stone-spotted soil. Water cascades over a beaten rock face at its peak, flowing down in a white-capped torrent to crash into a small, crystal clear pond below.

Not content to remain where it is, the pond appears to have carved a great trench into the earth, through which a stream now flows, traveling further west towards a massive rock wall in the distance. The stream bisects the area, and a narrow point some 30 feet away from the pond itself makes for an easy jump to the other side. The shore around the pond's immediate edge appears to be mostly soil and large slabs of rock, but that gives way to a grass field after only a few feet, a touch that gives the entire area an idyllic feel. The air is fresh and clean with the bite of cool mountain water and the tang of forest life. It is alive, this place.


The summer's weather around Xanadu is relentless with its persistance and smothering heat, neither of which is particularily bearable around the noon hour. There's not even a wisp of cloud in the baby blue sky as the sun shines down on the glade and waterfall that help make Stormhaven. The day mid-day heat scorches the already dry ground and causes the rocks farther away from the falls to sizzle whenever droplets of water land on them, waves of warmth distorting the air. And the noon-hour finds Phylicia in her swim suit, standing with a pair of shoes usually worn around the Weyr proper on her feet as she's holding her head under the stream of the waterfall while standing on the path leading to the cave. It seems that laying inside the cave taking a break from the heat wasn't quite enough for her.

The fresh tracks found far below Stormhaven by the ravine have put Tenebrous a bit more on alert than usual, and the morning after their trip to the ravine has seen him out and about early on, scouring the area around the descent for any other signs of incursion. It's only now that he's returning, hot and weary from his run, coat slung over one shoulder and undertunic opened down to his belt to let sweating skin breath. A few last hops down the trail find him quietly stepping through the foliage to Stormhaven proper, but as soon as he emerges, he stops, his eyes widening a little. His mouth actually opens just a bit.

Phylicia doesn't even register Tenebrous returning right away. The roar of the 'falls - being her head is underneath the rush of water - drowns out any noise that he might have made, and her eyes are closed as she just enjoys the coolness of the water. After a few minutes she finally withdraws her head, flicking her head back hard enough to get the hair out of her face, her hands wiping back any strands that refused to cooperate, as well as wicking away a few streams of water that dribble down from her hair. However, as she backs up out of the falls, this also means she opens her eyes and is able to spot her mentor which initially prompts a smile from her. "Ten!" She calls out over the roar of the waterfall, even as her smile fades a notch as she notes the condition he's in. Thankfully a few of her things - including drinkable water - are not far off, and she's scooping up the bladder and a towel before trotting over towards him, offering both. Well. She registered /most/ of his condition. The eyes and the partially open mouth have been overlooked, apparently.

Must…not…watch…the jiggly… It takes a supreme amount of effort to lift Tenebrous' eyes away from their almost scandalous examination of Phylicia's body to her eyes, and another amount of will to close his mouth. Thank God for loose pants. He smiles a little as Phy approaches, and for a moment, he just looks at her face. Then his brain shifts gears and he reaches out for the bladder, nodding to her once in thanks. He drinks deeply from it at first before emptying the rest of it over his upper torso with a quiet exhale of comfort. Only then does he speak. "Thank you." He eyes the towel before waving it away. "Why…in all of Pern would I want to dry off right now? I'm about to strip and fall into the water. Save the towel for later."

Phylicia lifts her shoulders in a shrug as she continues to smile, finally becoming a little more aware of the current situtation. But thankfully the very light shade of rose to her cheeks could be blamed on the oppressive heat instead of her blood rising to the surface of her skin. "Your welcome." She says in response as she takes the bladder back from him, leaving his hands free to start stripping like he said he was going to do. For the moment, she just holds onto them, portions of her skin already starting to dry off from the dripping of her hair. "And if that's what you're going to do…" She half-laughs as she turns her back to him, taking a few quick steps away to place the towel and bladder among her other things, giving him a chance to unrobe and slip into the water without her peeking even if the 'errand' won't last too very long.

Tenebrous just snorts as Phy turns away, and for just another moment, he allows himself a bit of enjoyment, his eyes tracking over the back of her body. "I was going to invite you to come along, given that you're already dressed for it, and that sort of demands just a small shred of clothing be left on my person for your comfort. But…" His shirt hits the ground near her, and a moment later, his coat and satchel follow suit. "Since you're already turned around, it'd be a shame to waste the opportunity." Boots and socks go next, and a moment later, the fasteners on his pants clink. But then he's next to her, murmuring, "All of that aside…how's your leg doing? In the rush of everything else, I forgot to check on it."

Phylicia, in the process of standing up from stowing the bladder in her satchel barely manages to control her surprise of finding him suddenly next to her and not jerk the rest of the way to a standing position. Now there's no way that she can blame the hue of her cheeks on the sun as one of her hands rests on her left hip, the skirt of the bottom managing to cover spectacular bruise well, though a little of it peeks out from the waistline of the bikini. She's very carefully keeping her eyes on his chest and above, not wanting to see if he's trying to accomadate her comfort level. "It's sore, but it's liveable." Comes her quiet answer though if he was watching her walk, she was favoring the leg just slightly. "Anyways, I was planning on joining you. It's too hot even to lay in the shade." So emersing oneself in water is a much better plan!

For a moment, Tenebrous almost looks like he's going to reach for the hem of that little skirt that she's got on, but then whatever semblence of boundaries that are still left in his head have him shaking it and he murmurs, "You're a big girl." He looks up at her face slowly. "Keep an eye on it." Then he's making his way towards the pond again, shucking his pants and revealing an ass that's just as tanned as the rest of him. And into the water he goes.

Phylicia pauses in complete stillness for a moment until he gathers himself and turns away. Without really meaning to, she turns to watch him enter the water which ends up giving her quite a view of his backside. For a very brief moment her head goes into one of her hands as she sucks in a breath and exhales before she turns and takes a few steps and hops into the water instead of diving, even though she proceeds to dunk herself. "What more can I do for it? It's a bruise." She says as they resurface eventually.

Tenebrous is already stroking his way towards the falls, calling, "There are actually a few different things that you can do to help a bruise heal, depending on how deep it is, and if the damage is tissue-based, versus bone. Bone bruises-" Then his voice dies off as he passes under the waterfall. Several moments later, he surfaces again. "-will take longer to heal, and ache more sharply than tissue." He makes a motion with his hand. "Certain kinds of tissue massage can help diffuse the bruise and aid the healing, and then there's numbweed."

Phylicia's lip curls in momentary annoyance. She had already rubbed sparse amounts of the ointment into the bruise. Enough to diffuse the pain, but keep some feeling in her hip so she could walk without wobbling or hobbling. But asking for a massage when the bruise is in such a place could prove just slightly awkward for the girl. There's no way with how well she smacked it against the rock that it isn't a bone-based bruise. "Lots, and lots of numbweed." She agrees as she moves away from the wall of the pool, taking up the easy position of floating on her back again as she lets her lower half just relax and float along after her. "How was it this morning?" She asks, hoping the news is at least somewhat good.

Tenebrous glances over at Phylicia for a moment with a sympathetic look as she mentions the numbweed. Pain knows its own, after all. But when she's floating, and he follows suit, simply enjoying the contrast of the water on his body and the sunlight on his skin. It's not quite as … PG as Phylicia's float, but hey. It's his house. "Well enough. I didn't see any signs of breakage around the trail, and that print in the ravine is the only one of its kind that I could readily find. I didn't spend long down there, so I'll probably go back later, possibly today or tomorrow. Either way, I'll need to make the run into the Weyr and let the appropriate people know…"

Phylicia is keeping her eyes to herself, although every few moments she has to jerk her eyes back to staring at the cloudless sky. It's such a habit to look at people when she talks to them, she wants to look, but one glimpse is enough to glue her eyes to the sky or the inside of her eyelids. "Do you want me to go in with you?" She asks after a few moments of merely floating. "I'm not exactly in prime shape for running through the forest anymore." Her tone is more curious as to what he would like her to do, since her own indecision is pretty clear by the lack of tone to her voice.

Tenebrous shrugs, sending little ripples of water from his shoulders. "Honestly, Phy, until you think you *can* make your way through the woods again, I'll probably ask you to stay closer to the Weyr. You can make the jaunt in with me to the Weyr, but after that, until you think you're good enough to move…" He leaves it hanging. "I don't want you to be in a position where you'll need to run, and can't. I don't want to put you in that place."

Phylicia pauses in her floating, letting her bottom half sink as she uses her arms to keep herself afloat. Opening her eyes she dares another glimpse at her mentor but looks away quickly enough again as she pulls herself over to the edge of the pool, and hoists herself up onto some of the rocks that are only warm due to their proximity to the falls. She proceeds to lay on her stomach, cushioning her cheek on her arms as she begins to watch the cascading water. "I don't want to be in that place, as much as I don't want to leave." She says, her irritation - mainly at herself - starting to seep through her usually pleasant attitude.

Tenebrous raises a brow, watching Phy move out of the water. He lets the lower half of his body sink down and then begins treading. "You don't waht to go to what place? The Weyr?" A pause. "Is…everything alright at home, as it were?"

Phylicia somehow shakes her head, even as its resting on her arms, her chocolate eyes slide back towards her mentor, able to keep her eyes on him now that his lower half is submerged. "No, the place where I might need to run, but can't." Even in the heat, she finds herself enjoying this position like a feline baking itself in a beam of sun, merely because she has moisture on her skin that's helping to keep her cooler longer, as it evaporates first. "Everything's fine at home." She supplies next with the traces of a smile. "You'd know if things weren't." Aka, she'd be a hell of a lot grumpier than she is currently. "I just … well. It's not exactly like I wanted a bruise this deep." Or a bruise at all.

Tenebrous looks at her for a long moment, his face serious. "Yeah," he offers quietly. He looks like he might say more, but there's nothing left TO say. Phylicia's words carry a weight of their own, and for the moment, Tenebrous isn't inclined to try and lift it. He's not even sure if he wants to. INstead, he simply studies her for a time longer before starting towards the waterfall again at an easy pace. Before he gets to it, he slips under the water, disappearing behind the impact zone, and into the cave itself.

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