If there was one thing I learned during our first few days at sea, it was that I needed to find a way to avoid further sea journeys. While I could have simply opted out, logging out for the few days the week-long journey would take, there was a major problem with that. Or rather, there were two.

The first problem was that Lenore was incredibly susceptive to getting seasick. Maybe it was due to her avian nature, that she simply wasn’t built to endure these kinds of movement, the sort of isolation from our surroundings or something along those lines, but her sense of balance was utterly out of whack, leading to her moving around as if completely drunk and when she tried to fly around a little within the enclosed space, the results were…

She made me promise to never mention that attempt, ever.

The second, even bigger, problem was that Sigmir had an incredible dislike for sea travel. It wasn’t that she was getting seasick, though there was a bit of that, too, but that her mentality was that of a protector. She hated the idea that the safety of our group wasn’t in her hands, that she had to rely on others to let us reach our destination. She needed to know that she was protecting me, and the easiest way to give her that sensation was to calmly remain within her harm, letting her shield me from the world around us.

From what I could see, simply holding me in her arms reduced her anxiety by orders of magnitude, to the point that I tried to keep my times logged out as short as possible, even more so than I normally did.

And that led me to the question, what to do? While there was always the option of teasing Sigmir, enjoying the feelings her body could invoke in me and seeing just what sensations I could evoke in hers, we were in an open area, with incredibly limited privacy. Even without the uncertainty of just how far the emanations of our activities would be perceivable, potentially breaking the rule that nothing you did was allowed to be perceived outside the vessel, I wasn’t about to let a bunch of people watch the two of us going at it.

Due to the rule that nothing we did was allowed to be perceivable outside the ship, I also couldn’t delve freely into the Astral River, simply because I had no idea if my activities would disturb and disrupt the incredibly complicated enchantments of the vessel we were in. I had taken a bit of time to study them and realised that some of them were similar in nature to my Twilight Cloak, designed to avoid attention and facilitate hiding in plain sight.

Their enchantment had some additional properties, likely because it was made for water, not light and air, but the essence was the same. However, it certainly meant that magical experimentation was incredibly limited and had to be kept on the smallest scale, preferably internal.

The idea of internal experimentation joined together with the idea to soothe and comfort Sigmir, giving rise to a project I had considered for some time. A careful and subtle exploration of the connection between us. What was it, how deep could we see into the other, what could we actually do with it. All those interesting and deeply intimate questions that we could figure out together.

Given the intimate nature of the exploration, we had used some curtains to completely hide the space on her bed from the outside, giving us a relatively quiet and dark space. Out of everyone’s eyes, I straddled Sigmir’s lap, my head resting against her chest, while her chin rested on my head, closely embracing each other. as our breath started to slowly synchronize. With my head against her chest, I could hear Sigmir’s heartbeat, the slow and steady thrum, and felt my own heart slow down as if to match hers. At the same time, her heart slowly sped up and soon, they beat together.

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Letting my mind sink into the faint connection between us, trying to reach her, I felt a sensation of welcome, of comfort and intimacy. Her scent filled my nose and through my nose, my mind. She was right there and through our connection, she was within me and I, within her.

Behind my closed eyes, images started to appear, elusive and ethereal, as if the world was filled with a strange mist, or maybe akin to heat rising in the desert. There was a flurry of ice and snow, drifting around a massive mountain, imposing as it reached into the sky, the sheer rocks and cliffs a faint blue colour, akin to freshly frozen ice. Just like Sigmir’s skin. As my mind sunk deeper into our connection, the images started to fade and shift, as I was no longer seeing them within my mind but experiencing them with my body.

Where before, I could only see the mountain, now, I could feel myself wrap around it, the wind carrying me as my claws settled down. Within my mind, I could feel myself resting against Sigmir, just like I rested against her in the world around us. Only, in my mind, there was nothing but the two of us.

Beneath me, the mountain slowly shifted, glacially slow but inexorable, the movement already an established fact, reality only had to catch up to the certainty. In that shift, a cave opened up for me, the mountain giving me rest and shelter, a space for only me. Only us, a space where there was nothing but I, surrounded and protected by the mountain around me.

As I rested in my cave, my head supported by my claws, I could hear the howling of a wolf in the distance, echoed by the call of a raven. Our pack was out there, hunting near the mountain and the perpetual storm that marked my domain. The storm that would eternally surround the mountain, for only here, I could be myself, could be who I would always be.

My eyes started to close, my mind starting to get drowsy from the pure comfort, the knowledge that I would always be safe here, but before I could fall asleep and lose myself in the shelter my mountain had provided for me, the calls of the Raven became more and more urgent, drawing me back from my mountain.

With my mind slowly separating, I started to become aware of more than the reality within my mind, the world around Sigmir and me intruding into our realm. Lenore was urgently calling over our connection, panic filling her voice, asking me to respond.

“I can hear you,” I replied, my mind feeling strangely floaty as if I had yet to fully settle back within my body.

“Finally,” Lenore let out a great sigh of relief, “The two of you have been sitting there for an entire day.” she chided me and with her worlds, sensations started to intrude.

From sitting still for an entire day, my whole body felt stiff and rusty, the muscles protesting against the slightest movement. Beneath me, Sigmir started to move, a groan escaping her. Trying to push myself up, my legs started to cramp after remaining in an open, half-kneeling position for a far-too-long time and while the position of hugging Sigmir was one my arms were accustomed to, staying in it for that long wasn’t too pleasant.

Unable to keep my balance, I fell forward, fully planting against Sigmir and for once, she wasn’t able to remain sitting, her muscles in a similar, cramping and stiff, state as mine. With the addition of my weight, slight as it may be, I pushed her over the edge and she fell back, her head thudding against the wall behind us, causing her to let out a hiss of pain.

While I was unable to rise, I managed to roll to the side, still half-lying on Sigmir, but I wasn’t pressing against her upper body. She must have noticed my movement, as she followed me to the side and we came to rest lying on her bed, still hugging but in a different position than earlier.

“That was something,” she muttered, only audible thanks to the close distance between us.

“It was,” I agreed, whispering just as she did, while carefully trying to move my legs, the stiffness making it painful and awkward. And yet, that pain was so insignificant, in comparison to the indescribable feeling of comfort and completeness I had experienced earlier.

Instead of trying to get up, to move my stiff limbs and maybe even find some food, I only placed my head back against Sigmir’s chest and closed my eyes, a faint echo of the earlier feelings returning.

With Sigmir’s arms again wrapped around me, I quickly fell asleep, knowing that my mountain was sheltering me.