Written Wonderland

Evan felt unnerved when the goddess laughed, though he hoped he could take that as a yes. He narrowed his eyes in a sort of bored frustration when she clarified that she had no interest in healing him now, but he was relieved to hear that yes, she could.

That matter settled, she wasted little time in snapping and tugging at Evan's next stitch with her teeth since he held her hand at bay, and he drew in a sharp, pained breath that exhaled as a groan. His gut was alive with panic, urging him to protect his wound, but now that he had the assurance that she could heal him, the rest of his body relaxed a little, much to his gut's dismay.

"I suppose you better stay on my good side," the goddess said with a laugh, and Evan gave her a fresh glare. The gravity had left his eyes, though, leaving only sharpness and presence. Much as fear still circulated in his blood, it was manageable; whatever the goddess may put him through, she wouldn't let him die. Hell, he had a feeling that the way she'd roared and left him at the hot pools may have proven as much, though thinking back to that sank a heavy melancholy through his chest.

The goddess cut through it with her tongue burning into his wound, pulling a cry from Evan as she collected blood to then pour out in a line on his stomach. A shudder rippled through his body as his hips bucked up despite the pain, his cock entirely too aware of how close the goddess' tongue was to touching it. A breathy fuck fell from Evan's lips as he craned his neck to watch her, equal parts curious what precisely she planned to do with that blood and calculating what precisely he wanted to do with the position he was in.

The goddess smiled maliciously at Evan, her teeth hiding the blood rolling around in her mouth. She knew how she probably looked right now--deranged, wild, and undeniable. She was thrilled to have Evan essentially give her permission to make him bleed, let him bleed, even if he was still holding one of her hands captive. She could pull out of his grip, but that seemed far too simple.

The goddess briefly thought about changing her tongue into a claw--it was surely within her capacity--but that didn't sound satisfying.

While she thought about it, she took another stitch out with her teeth, sharp and precise. Sliding one edge of the stitch out slowly so Evan could feel it for several long seconds before she removed from his skin.

The thread, even thinly made from animal sinew, was foreign to Evan's body, and the goddess wanted it out.

Turning her head to spit it out onto the floor, her black hair cascading over one shoulder, she gripped other side with her teeth and pulled just as slowly.

Gods, it was absurd just how much she was enjoying this.

The goddess grinned up to Evan wickedly, trickles of red lining her teeth. He could have sworn he'd imagined that very expression on her as a boy, and a strange sense of relief flooded through his body, a memory echoing forward in time. His head sank back down onto the cushion with a sigh that practically turned to a laugh--how absurd, the vicious things he found comfort in. The sound was interrupted by a fresh groan as the goddess pulled another stitch out with her teeth, slowly, drawing out the sensation so that Evan had time to really feel it, the thread dragging through and tugging at flesh.

A new anxiety started to bubble up alongside the lingering visceral panic at a wound being re-opened. His body started to tense again, and he gripped the goddess' wrist more tightly, enough so that it likely hurt, though he wasn't necessarily thinking about that. He was just laying there, letting her do this. Not only was his gut writhing in discomfort that he wasn't protecting his wound, but his chest also clenched fearfully, that the goddess would find him boring if he didn't act soon. So--though some oddly nostalgic, blissful part of him lamented--the captain groaned and threw his effort into digging his heels into the cushion and lifting his hips despite the burning of his wound, his core and shoulders following suit to try to wrench the goddess off of him and roll her to the side. He knew she was stronger than him, but he could always hope to catch her by surprise, or simply playing to lose. He had to try.

The goddess had been reaching down with her teeth to grab at another stitch, and they had just snagged on it when Evan decided to try to roll her off him, his hips thrusting deliciously into the air and threatening to push her off balance, incidentally pulling the stitch directly out through Evan's skin. While she did momentarily let go of his left hand, she unconsciously dug her claw into the back of Evan's hand--hard enough to make that bleed as well given how sharp it was--but overall managed to recenter herself around Evan's knees and keep him flat on his back.

She really wanted the rest of the stitches out. Then he could do whatever he wanted to her.

Once she had him steadied, the goddess ran her tongue along the edge of the wound where the flow of blood had increased from a trickle to a small stream and cupped enough of it into her mouth that she could draw another line. This time, she began in the center of the previous line she had drawn and slowly worked her way downward such that her tongue soon reached the base of Evan's cock, wasting no time to deposit the blood up the length of him, spending a moment to circle his tip with her tongue. Mmmm, she had the beginnings of a sigil across his body in his own blood.

Hoping that a little action might weaken the too-tight grip Evan had around her wrist, the goddess twisted her arm such that the thinnest part met the opening between Evan's fingers and pulled, repurposing that momentum once she was free to loop her claw under three more of Evan's stitches at once and cutting them all, her teeth a flurry as they pulled out each of the cut threads.

She knew she had his blood all over her chin and mouth now. The time for being graceful and clean about this had long since passed, and every drop of his blood that entered her mouth reinvigorated her. Each one carried within it the gravity of his desire, the weight of his offering of his next climax, and the ever-present awe that he once dreamed of this as a desperate teenager and had all of it now.

Evan's attempt to throw the goddess off didn't accomplish much more than heightened anguish. It was bad enough how his open wound burned and throbbed especially as he shifted, but the goddess had also snagged another of his stitches with her teeth, and his effort and hers collided to tear the stitch through his skin, pulling a sharp cry from the captain's throat. It only grew louder and more panicked as her claw sank into his hand, and he continued to thrash as he could, in part just to move the pain through him. The goddess managed to recenter her weight on his legs, pinning his knees, but she'd released his left hand, and he clawed at her thigh with a feral growl.

Then, the goddess' tongue trailed blood up his length, and he shivered, his growl melting to a gasp. His cock swelled, begging for more contact, and the captain moaned loudly when she circled over his tip, sending elated warmth splashing through him.

It was over all too soon, and Evan gasped--almost whimpered--as his cock twitched desperately in the air, abandoned by the goddess' tongue. He was helpless as she wrenched her hand free from his, and he cried out as she cut several of his stitches at once, cascading a terrible sensation through him of falling. He clawed another moment at the goddess' thigh, his eyes wild with a feral disoriented fear, until finally he moved his hand to scratch his nails across his own chest, deep and steady. It pulled a languorous groan from his throat, and his eyes slid shut as he melted into it, finally feeling himself land, if only for the moment.

Evan thrashed and gripped her thigh painfully, his nails digging in and finding purchase wherever he could. The goddess hummed deeply in her throat, the energy from Evan's anguish pulsating through the air around her. This is what she needed--this is what would replenish her, and at least now that she had taken the harshest edge off, she believed he could handle it. He could give exactly this to her.

Every growl, moan, and gasping breath collected within her like water after excessive thirst. She needed this, and it was so thoroughly difficult to continue to wonder why. She was very nearly beyond caring, the ache too powerful to deny.

She leaned into the deep punctures of Evan's nails, craving more of what he might do to her if she let him. The goddess liked feeling more direct effects of Evan's actions in her body, better even than the immediate echoes of his pain.

But, Dehaljadrun was growing impatient--she wanted Evan's wound to be fully and completely hers again the way it had been when Evan first gave it to himself. She ached for her own cut, which had healed as soon as she had forgotten to keep it open, but giving it to herself again now wouldn't feel the same.

She thought potently of that moment when she asked him to mark her with the sword they had jointly manifested. He was so certain when he walked forward, and she had been prepared for whatever he would do to her, but she never expected he would choose to share the wound. The goddess sat up, a small trickle of blood dripping down her chin and throat, and brushed the back of her right hand across the place where Evan marked her, ensuring that she allowed the scar to return. They would mirror each other, whenever Evan's wound healed.

The goddess then brought her fingers to her lips, running them across the blood on her mouth and tasting it off them. She had done all this to him, but he had also done this to himself for her. Gods, she... she...

...was ready to have the rest of the stitches out.

Bending back over Evan's wound, the goddess used her claw to cut the rest of them open, then allowed the claw to dissipate so she had a human index finger again. Using her fingers, she gently pulled out the remaining threads.

When it was finally open and free of any external intervention, the goddess breathed a heavy sigh of relief. The blood continued seeping out of the wound, a sizable splotch forming below Evan. With every beat of his adrenaline-fueled heart, more blood poured out, and yet the goddess had a deep sense that Evan still had a ways to go before the blood loss would become a problem. But, it would sooner or later, even if she closed the wound.

The goddess tenderly ran a finger down the length of the cut, and though it was somewhat marred by the stitches and their removal, Dehaljadrun could easily see how deeply the sword had sliced into him. It was, by no means, a shallow cut. He had not gone easy on himself.

The goddess moaned as her finger reached the end of the cut, sending some of her own energetic pulses into the air. Even if Evan could not feel them or collect them, she enjoyed the thought that they affected him, weaving some tapestry of their pleasure and pain and devotion together.

Dehaljadrun, in one fluid motion, then pressed the length of her body on top of his, her scar and his wound touching as her breasts, hips, legs, and arms tangled on top and around him. One arm slipped under his neck, the other wrapped behind and down the back of one shoulder. And then she kissed the part of his jaw near his ear, her breath warm and seductive. She kissed that place several times and then pressed the bridge of her nose to the inner edge of his ear, wanting to experience every surface of his skin.

((OOC: She's going to be very pliant for a few moments here if Evan decides to make a move.))

In the newfound bliss of his own nails across his chest, Evan felt the goddess tug the last of his stitches out with a strange sense of relief. The burning ache of the open wound throbbed through his body in time with his heartbeat, and a shudder rippled through him, pushing out a deep, satisfied groan as he felt something cascade out of him, and he could swear he caught a glimpse of that river. Then there was pressure, pulling a long moan from him as it caressed along the edge of his wound, the hot sharp pain of it in this moment utterly sublime.

At last Evan opened his eyes again with a deep, thick breath, his body heavy but still pulsing. The longing in his cock bloomed again in his awareness, bright and burning, and then a joyous sob escaped him as the goddess pressed her weight against his entire body, her arms tangling around him as his own instinctively wrapped around her to hug her close. She kissed his neck and his jaw, joy blooming in the wake of her lips, and he sobbed again--and again, and again, and again, his body trembling and pressing against her in every way it could find, his arms holding onto her as tightly as they could muster.

He caught himself after a moment, his eyes blinking with panic into the air above them as he drew in a shaky but determined breath, his core tensing to restrict the flow of what could escape him. Shame and fear and embarrassment swirled wildly in his stomach and his chest, and panic started to cut into him, but, with some reticence, he let words from the crone echo through him.

Don't hide anything from the goddess tonight.

"I was so scared," he let the words tumble from his lips along with the breath he'd held in, though his eyes were still full of the panic that still buzzed in his chest. He could feel the impulse to seize up, force himself to stillness like a stone, but he resisted it as best he could. He re-tightened his arms around the goddess and pushed out a purposeful, deep sigh before pressing kisses to the goddess' neck, his eyes relieved to close and invite darkness back into his vision. It helped him refocus on his ache, his yearning, his elation that the goddess was in his arms. He told that panic in his chest that his best chance at regaining favor in the goddess' eyes--if he'd truly lost any as he feared--was simply to allow himself to move on, to not cut off his desires from here and trap them both in that moment of fear and panic and shame.

Following that flow, Evan found the strength to push towards a desire that undulated deep within him, to roll them both over and press himself into her, the languorous chant of her name falling easily from his lips as he gave this impulse to her freely. It was terrifying to give himself over to this flow, to lay himself so bare to the goddess, but in some ways, the experience at the hot pool made it easier. The fear that buzzed in his chest now seemed so trite next to the way his lungs had burned underwater. He was grateful they were both here, and he wanted to just fucking celebrate that.

((OOC: I feel like I struggled with how to convey this properly, but basically, we didn't want to assume that Evan would be successful at rolling Dehaljadrun over and entering her, but his desire to do so is quite palpable, and I think he'd start chanting her name regardless of what happens next, unless maybe she specifically tries to interrupt him.))

The goddess pressed her skin heavily against Evan's, pushed the bridge of her nose against Evan's stubbled cheek, and kissed his jaw, her body shuddering as he responded not just with elation and relief but with a divine, pulsing bliss that shook her to her core. The remaining ache she had kept in check long enough to remove Evan's stitches came pouring out in time with his wracking sobs, every clutch of his limbs against her a knock on the doors of her memory--memories of before she was ever in this place.

Some part of her ached to tease and chastise him for his vulnerability, for being so afraid on her behalf, but whatever was happening to her and to him so thoroughly overwhelmed the impulse, now a distant star in the landscape of her mind. Experiences of the day they spent apart flowed between the two of them effortlessly--she watched him visit the crone to ask about her well-being, heard his commander give him instructions, felt his indignation at the soldier running through the portal in his tent--and she felt her own experience of cleansing the waters enter more fully into his consciousness, the wonder of it all, the flurry of her magic and strength.

The goddess leaned into all the touch Evan gave her, relishing in his hungry ache, his need for her that so readily matched her need for him. In this moment--with him bleeding underneath and around her, with his fears and memories laid bare--she wondered if he could have handled the full force of her desperation while she held him furiously under the hot water.

His shaky breaths pulled at the goddess' chest, the ache in their two bodies palpable in every place their skin was not touching. How could she possibly control the depth of what she felt for him, what she wanted from him? With a choked sound of her own and hot, fast tears, the goddess stared furiously at Evan's neck, her rage suddenly a burning fire behind her eyes. It was insufferable having to pull back, pull away, control herself at every turn and pivot. Why the fuck was she made this way?

But, as she felt Evan's body attempting to roll her onto her back, a glimmer of an idea shot through her spine, shocking her system such that she could not help but look at Evan's face with a terrified and tentative hope, her lips open and parted, eyebrows raised.

She let him.

She let their bodies tumble together and felt the warm, blood-soaked cloth beneath her cradle the curves of her back as he pulled himself on top of her again. Maybe, just maybe, if she lost herself in him, in the swift and aching way he slipped into her swollen and flooded vulva, she wouldn't need to hold herself back. Maybe she could protect him this way if she just let him in.

De...

He moved within her with a sensual urgency--eager and demanding but opening such a tremendously wide channel between them that the goddess could not have closed herself off to him if she wanted to. Unable to control her body and barely able to fight the urge to go completely limp underneath him, the goddess threw her head back, closed her eyes, and brought her hands up around Evan's neck, running through his hair, over his ears, down his shoulders in an effort to pull him closer, further in. Her fingers ran over his skin without bothering with her nails and finally pressed into the flesh between his shoulder blades, craving yet more of this openness, and she could not help but imagine that her fingers were the beginnings of wings sprouting from Evan's back.

Dehal...

He felt close already, close to giving her the orgasm he promised to keep for her, and she had no desire to stave it off. She wanted everything he had to offer. As his blood streamed across her hips and pelvis, the goddess raised her head briefly to look at the man atop her, the chiseled muscles of his core pulsing and revealing the lines of blood she had drawn on him. With an airy chuckle, the goddess laid her head back and grinned with an open mouth, a moan escaping her as she reached down to retrieve some of Evan's fallen blood and extended the vertical line she had drawn such that it spanned up and across Evan's stomach and up toward the center of his chest. Not daring to look him in the eye, the goddess lifted her fingers off his skin and brought them back down again, sending a jolt of lightning down the trail of blood, across his pelvis, down his length, and around the tip of his cock.

Dehaljadrun...

"De..."

He said the first syllable as almost a plea, desperately hopeful that she would want what he did. Pleasure and relief and elation flooded through Evan's body as she moved with him and allowed his entrance, and finally accepted the ache he'd been stoking for her as she enveloped him. He let his hips move against her as they wished, indifferent to or even playing with the pain at his side, and he delighted in the bright cascade of feeling that her fingers brought with them as they traveled through his hair, over his ears, down his back as he kissed and bit hungrily at her neck, her collar bone, her breast. Her fingers pressed into his shoulder blades, opening them and reminding him of the harmonic circles inked into his skin, and the dragon's wing that swung through them.

"Dehal..."

He thought of her dragon, of the joyous static that had radiated from her as they'd soared through the air, and wondered amidst the tumbles of pleasure that broke with every movement whether it was mad to think that he really had always been meant to find his way here. That day he'd nearly died in the woods seemed like such an absurd prelude now, to have so long ago been approaching the gates of the Underworld with a foolhardy wound at his side and a terrible longing for the goddess who now opened to him and welcomed him so completely. Tears wet his cheeks and moans filled the space between chants, his own pleasure swirling through his body with echoes of hers.

Some part of him couldn't fathom how she had the dexterity at present to run her finger over his stomach, but he certainly wasn't complaining. Oh, perhaps the skin that she wasn't touching was, but that sensation was ever-present, an eternal lament that their bodies were not simply one. An excitement swelled in his gut as he pushed into her yet faster, hope alighting that they'd meet at that river soon.

"Dehaljadrun--"

Her name bled into the scream that followed, his body trembling with pleasure and pain as a shock scathed across his stomach and through his wound and down the length of his cock inside of her. The sharp white stabs of it danced with the hot flowing elation of his climax, all of it gifts to his goddess which he gave to her gladly. He lingered in that dance for a long time, spending his muscles thoroughly to draw all the pleasure they could bear, until finally he collapsed in exhaustion and bliss and joy, unbothered by the darkness he briefly surrendered to.

((OOC: I do feel like Evan is passing out here, or something like... like, I doubt the blood loss did it on its own, but between the exertion and the intensity of the emotions and sensations, it seems kind of reasonable that he might lol. I guess, up to you or for discussion how that might impact merger possibilities...))

The lightning ran the line down across his stomach, flared as it reached to both of Evan's hips, and sang downward into and around the two of them and their enjoined bodies. Dehaljadrun's back arched to press Evan further inside her, her own cock awash with Evan's sensations of the lightning as it arced between their skin. With all her ability to siphon and receive, Dehaljadrun opened to him, pulled him in, claimed him, his offering, his consciousness, his glory within her.

And, he flowed into her. It wasn't so much a climax as it was a becoming. Evan felt unearthed within her, naked as though skin itself were clothing. She was holding at least some small portion of his soul within herself. It was bright, and it was beautiful. The goddess felt the two of them slipping from their bodies, the bliss so thorough that they momentarily did not need consciousness at all.

The goddess felt only one spike of fear through her bliss before she allowed herself to sink fully into the blinding, static-inducing light of it all. There was no telling how long until they returned, and Evan was bleeding. With the last shred of her physical awareness, the goddess reached up to Evan's side and pressed her hand along the length of the wound he had given himself for her. Closing her eyes at last, she allowed an infinitesimal amount of the light they had generated together to gently heat and knit the flesh back together, leaving a thin but pronounced scar.

With tears streaming from her closed eyes, the goddess opened another layer of inner tissue, widening to Evan's cock even further, and invited all of his offering in.

The weight of it all slammed into her chest like wind during flight, a thousand images rushing through in a split instant. Somewhere distantly, her body, her favorite form, thrashed and shivered against Evan, but here, in the light of their combined bliss, she saw and felt Evan's frustrations, his expletives when he touched himself after waking, only to remember his promise. She watched the ways he preened in front of Idel, a fellow captain, and the ways he commanded attention in the eating hall. She felt his anger and confusion at reliving memories with the soldier, Philip, but Evan's present bliss overwhelmed and embraced that, too. The parts of him that had enjoyed--or would have enjoyed--enduring such a thing for her united with his hatred for it having happened, and the light overwhelmed it all. The goddess watched as Evan pulled his lieutenant away from the group and took him back to Evan's own tent, caressing and exploring the younger man and well aware of the similarities to having interacted with the goddess while she was in Xavier's form. She felt the two men's naked bodies against each other as Evan thrust inside the younger man in short, staccato movements--all Evan could do from preventing what he had promised to her. And, Dehaljadrun heard the music they had made with their bodies, Evan pulling the younger man down onto his chest such that they were both staring at that tented ceiling.

There was a tug at her chest as jealousy bloomed, but the blush color of the bloom could not withstand the brightness of the light and was soon also swallowed into their shared bliss. It was, at least for these moments, impossible for her to believe that Evan had any intentions of giving up any of this light by being with Xavier, and that was enough.

The goddess reached for Evan mentally, knowing that the sensation of being inside her would feel different to Evan, here in the center of her being, than it had when she had fully merged into his body.

Dehaljadrun, strictly speaking, didn't have a body. She was energy and desire herself, so there was only this blinding light and an enveloping sensation of her holding all of him within her, not unlike a womb.

The goddess tried not to cringe at the thought but the light of her pulsed when she did, coloring before settling again into white. She could feel something about her being, no, maybe the landscape--or both--coalescing. She could suddenly see a glittering river, shining so brightly as to burn the essence of her, emerging in her inner vision, a lush and equally glittering green on either side its winding banks. Closing her inward gaze, Dehaljadrun gently willed the light toward evening, asking for a graying and deepening of the sky, of the bliss, before the pinpricks of stars appeared above them.

Once she could open her eyes in the darkness, the scene stabilized, and the goddess could hear the gentle rushing of a river and a waterfall in the distance. She knew where she was now.

Giddy, the goddess looked around for Evan and found him at the banks of the river, she herself fully naked and eager to show Evan around. Her eyes were wide with bliss and happiness, and a lavender sheen appeared as a semblance of her body as she reached down to clasp Evan's hand and pull him up toward touching her here, in this miraculous place. When he did, she laughed with a sacred glee that echoed gently around both of them.

"Come," she said with a wide, reassuring smile as she urged him onward, "come with me," reaching with a hand to cradle his left cheek.