f a r a w a y ||olivia||

[bryant]

Bryant wasn’t accustomed to feeling impatient. He had always been a patient man, even when young, and his long years of life had only increased his capacity for waiting. During the peak of his years as an assassin, Bryant had in some cases waited for days on end for the perfect opportunity to strike to present itself. His caution was part of the reason he had lived this long.

However, Bryant had found that recently his patience and ability to wait had been severely curtailed by his anticipation. He had begun to feel restless not long after arriving in the village of his people, which had not been the reaction he had been expecting upon finally returning to people who knew of his beliefs and shared them.

However, he had found that being away from Olivia had been too much. He was not used to dealing with guilt, having killed many throughout the years without considering their deaths to be on his conscience, but he felt intensely guilty for what he had done to Olivia. When he found out about the remnants of his people, he had decided to keep it to himself. Even with Olivia aiding him to become more invested in experiencing each day rather than simply letting them flow past, Bryant was still and intensely private man. He wasn't accustomed to sharing his personal life with anyone, and though he had told Olivia more of himself and his past than he had anyone in a long time, it was a hard habit to break. She still had to push him to tell her parts of his past that had been his alone for a very long time. So he hadn't told her about the rather shocking news of his culture's apparent survival.

In his mind, that was not necessarily a bad thing. It was, after all, his prerogative, and he had planned to tell her eventually. No, his real crime had been what he did next. Something for which there was excuse.

He had simply left. Departed in the middle of the night, leaving only a note to assure her that he did not intend his absence to be for very long. At the time, it had seemed like the right thing to do. He had not wanted to hurt her feelings by having to explain why she could not accompany him, at least at first. In retrospect, he had acknowledged his error. His actions had ended up hurting her more than he had intended. Proof positive that age was not enough to guarantee that one always knew the wisest course of action.

He had written a letter merely a week and a half after arriving in the village, though it had taken a very long time (by current standards, anyway) for the letter to reach Olivia. A couple of letters later and she was on her way to come and meet him. Since then, Bryant had hardly been able to stay still for long. It had been a very long time since his patience had waned so much. It had rained only yesterday, and having to remain in bed, joints locked tight by the stiffness the rain always brought with it, had been nearly unbearable.

And then, today, he had received word from their contacts in the nearest town that Olivia would arrive this very afternoon. Bryant had come as soon as he could, though his joints still ached from the day before. He did not want to miss her arrival. It was all he could do to wait in the clearing that she would be guided to, rather than going to meet her. The village elders had been more than willing to allow a visitor vouched for by Bryant, who was something of a legend among his people, but they had requested that he be very careful that no one else follow him back to the village. They still had enemies.

So instead he had climbed up into a tree with an excellent view of the entire clearing, so he would see instantly when Olivia arrived. Oddly, now that her arrival was imminent, Bryant no longer felt as restless as he had up until this point. He was more than ten thousand years old. He could wait a few more hours.

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Tagged: Olivia ;w;
Words: 716 $$ added

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[olivia]

Biting down on her lip to keep her thoughts from bubbling over, Olivia walked along the worn dirt road toward the marketplace. With her fists clenched in addition, she dug her bitten down nails into the heel of her hand. It wasn’t helping anymore. The closer she was to being there, the harder it was to contain herself. She forced her fingers to relax and examined the crescent indents in her skin. They made her think of the moon, with just the sliver of silvery-white light pouring down to the Earth. His hair, god it had been forever since she had seen him. Why had it been so long. Why had it taken so long to get here. It was agonizing to keep walking. She counted her steps over and over again until there were no longer distinguishable words in her head. How could time feel so slow now, but when she was with him such a distance would have felt so short?

She glimpsed the rooftops over the slight incline of the road. She was almost there. It wouldn’t be much longer now. Olivia broke into a run, stretching her legs as far as she could, soaring over the ground. Humans didn’t know what they were missing, how much faster they could go if they didn’t have to return to the ground so much. She only slowed when she was within the town limits. Now she just needed to find her way to the marketplace. That was never very hard: follow the smell of food and the drift of the people.

“Excuse me, Miss,” Olivia stopped a woman by a fruit stand, “where is the fur merchant?” The woman looked bothered, but gestured down the row a ways and to the right. “Thank you!” Olivia skipped off down the aisle. Isaiah, the faerie fur merchant whom Bryant told Olivia to meet in his last letter. She scanned the booths, looking for someone with any similarity to Bryant. She froze. The familiarity of the face shocked her and her heart ached. She knew this was not Bryant, but for a moment it was easy to see why Bryant had described him as a much older version of himself. Someday... they would grow old together, and this had to be how he would look. She approached him cautiously, but with an air of confidence. “Isaiah?” He looked at her with an expression that made her question whether he was the right person. It was both blank and very deep at the same time. “One moment please, I will get your order,” he told her. She tilted her head in confusion. He handed her a package wrapped in paper. “Thank you,” she said questioningly. Isaiah’s eyes sparkled for a moment and she thought she saw him wink, but she couldn’t be sure. She reached into the package as she walked away and felt around. Bryant had said he would give her a stone. It took her a moment, but she found it. It fit perfectly in the palm of her hand. With an eagerness unmatched, Olivia followed the stone.

She was practically bouncing out of her shoes as she left the marketplace. Isaiah did indeed remind her of an older version of Bryant. The idea brought an amused smile to her face as she thought of how very old Bryant himself was. She couldn’t make the smile leave her face, even if she had been trying; she was simply brimming with giddiness. It really wouldn’t be long now.

The clearing it led her to was rather insignificant. It looked like it was just any old clearing, but Olivia knew this was where she would see Bryant for the first time. He had told her to wait for him to come by a cluster of three stumps that were off to the side of the clearing. Sure enough, she could see them across the way. It was a perfect place -without other people- to see him again. All she’d have to do is wait. At this point, what was any amount of time less than a day to her?

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Tagged: Bryant
Words: 687 $$ added

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[bryant]

Bryant's trained senses alerted him instantly when the sound of soft footsteps became distinguishable from the background noise of the forest. Someone with less experience would not have heard the quiet, relatively rhythmic crunches beneath the sounds of birds and animals rustling through the brush, but Bryant had spent many years as a scout. He could hear the steps as clear as day, growing nearer to the clearing by the second. Not one of the few hikers who might be up in this area; there were no trails (at least, not visible ones) that led to this place. A hiker who wandered would not have such a lack of hesitance in their step. They would be looking around for a landmark, some way to tell where they were. These footsteps were sure, steady. The person knew where they were going. Which meant...

Bryant shifted, moving his back off of the tree trunk where he had settled in to wait. He was almost certain that the footsteps belonged to Olivia- some part of him recognized their cadence, even altered as it was by the terrain. Still, the ancient fae waited where he was; old instincts demanded that he see her first. Just to be sure. He did not want to endanger the village by being hasty when he had already waited so long. Bryant took a long, deep breath, controlling the urge to fidget as he had not had to in several millennia.

And then she was there, walking into the clearing with the guiding stone clasped in her hand. Bryant's crimson eyes looked her over carefully, even as his heart began to thump and a warmth spread through him. She did not seem injured or changed much at all by the journey, which was a relief. He had worried a bit for her safety, a young girl traveling so far alone. But he knew she was a good fighter, and was not stupid enough to take unnecessary risk (well, unless she was trying to help someone). That had not stopped him from occasionally worrying about her in the gaps between their letters. It was a considerable relief to see she had arrived safe and sound.

Somewhat oddly, Bryant felt no trepidation about the reunion that was about to occur between them. Olivia had been (rightfully) rather furious with him and his sudden departure. Her first response had left him in very little doubt of how much he had inadvertently hurt her by leaving so suddenly. Still, though she had told him to anticipate a thwack on the head at the very least, he knew already that he would be forgiven. Whether he deserved it or not, the multiple letters they had exchanged and the fact that she had come so far for his sake was proof enough of that.

He watched quietly as she walked across the clearing to the trio of stumps he had told her about. His chosen perch had a good view of both the direction she had come from and her destination, a deliberate tactical choice. As a result, she didn’t look his way as she proceeded across the clearing. Not that she probably would have seen him if she had; despite his shock of white hair, Bryant was supremely good at blending into his surroundings. He was well hidden, crouching there among the leaves, especially with the help of earth-toned clothing lent to him by those in the village. He had eons of practice; he would not be seen until he was ready to be.

But he was ready to be. So Bryant moved from his spot, swinging easily down from the branch and landing lightly on the ground at the base of the tree with little noise to betray his movement. He straightened slowly. Then, deliberately abandoning his instinct to move quietly through the brush, he pushed through the bushes around the edge of the clearing. As soon as he was into the open space, he paused, crimson eyes flickering up to try and find Olivia’s brown ones. After a moment, he spoke, his voice as calm and even as it ever was. ”Hello, Olivia,” he said quietly, waiting for her to make the first move. For the first time in a long time, he wasn’t sure what to do.

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Tagged: Olivia ;w;
Words: 716 $$ added

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[olivia]

The wind blew softly through Olivia’s hair and she felt, for just a moment of distinct clarity, that everything was going to be different from then on. She felt as if there was another presence in the air that surrounded her in its warmth. It was in the breeze and the sunshine, it was in the soft touch of her hair grazing past her upper arms as she walked.

Olivia stopped when she came to the stumps. In her pause, she closed her eyes and breathed in, trying to calm the fluttering going on in her stomach. She hated this feeling in her stomach when she was so eager and nervous and a whole tangle of emotions going on inside. Olivia felt like she might burst. She was hurt and upset that he had left her still. She felt that pain in her chest because he had just left her without even saying a word. He took the best part of her with him and she would have followed him to the ends of the earth if it meant she could have it back. He was the best parts of her. When she was with him, she cared more than anything. He made her smile and laugh until she hurt all over. But it was a good hurt. And she wanted to share that happiness with everyone.

People always said that love made you do stupid things, but it wasn’t really fair to judge it in such a way. Caring that much would never seem stupid to Olivia. “Olivia.” She heard her name float softly to her. Her eyes flickered open and they were met with the burning eyes of someone who truly did care beneath all of the layers and shields every person puts up around themselves.

In three seconds flat, Olivia’s energy spiked from its already heightened state to an uncontrollable flurry of feelings and motion and feathers. For all of the words Olivia had, she lost them entirely. She bounded over to Bryant in a flash, changing into golden-blonde feathers and fuzz on the way, slipping out of the cloth that surrounded her as she moved. With the force of her speed, she knocked Bryant back. With her front paws on his shoulders, she let loose a roar that ended in a hiss and gazed at him with piercing, icy eyes. She stayed like that for what felt like ages as time was passing slowly with the weight of her sorry hitting her fully. Olivia was good at ignoring hurt feelings towards others, but with Bryant, she couldn’t stop from feeling anything. Every thought was painfully present in her mind. She wanted to punch Bryant and kiss him all at the same time.

She lifted her paws up a bit before pressing them firmly back on his shoulders with much of her weight to indicate that he had to stay here, right with her. She would not stand to be hurt again. Olivia didn’t know what she would do if she lost him. It was unimaginable. She wouldn’t stop hunting him down for the rest of her life if she had to.

Finally she stepped back and sat on her haunches. She tilted her head and looked at him coyly. Clacking her beak together, her eyes softened quickly. After some time she slowly transformed back into her human form, still sitting on her haunches with her knees together, supporting her head in her hands as her elbows rested on her knees. Effectively, she kept her body as covered as she could with her limbs in a classy manner. Olivia looked at him with a smile playing on the corner of her lips. “Hello, Bryant.”

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Tagged: Bryant
Words: 618 $$ added

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[bryant]

For a split second, Bryant’s crimson eyes met Olivia’s warm brown ones, and he was struck again by the depth of her gaze. He had lived a very long time, had seen just about every possible eye color that had ever existed (including some truly one of a kind ones). In terms of their color alone, Olivia’s eyes were of a shade that he had seen plenty of times before. There was an old adage that seemed relevant, Bryant mused; the eyes were said to be the windows to the soul. The longer he was around, the more he believed that to be true. Though the shade of brown of Olivia’s eyes was a common one, the warmth and care and pure life that he could see brimming in them was so very uniquely Olivia that it nearly took his breath away. It sent a rush of warmth through his ancient body; far more than this village he had found, filled with ‘his’ people, those eyes had become home to Bryant.

And then Olivia was moving. She was fast, but even so, Bryant’s trained reflexes told him what was happening just as quickly. However, though he could have easily used his speed to dodge out of the way, he did not. He simply stood where he was until the gold blur that was Olivia’s gryphon form slammed into him, knocking him onto his back on the ground. He exhaled as he fell, so that when his narrow shoulders hit the ground, the pain was minimal and subsided quickly. He supposed it was good, he thought wryly, that he hadn’t been wearing his glasses for this particular reunion. Otherwise, they would have been sent flying by the impact.

He blinked as Olivia let loose a roar from just a few inches in front of his face, though his face remained in its usual calm, unperturbed expression out of habit. The roar petered off into a hiss, then silence, and Bryant was left staring into Olivia’s still-brown eyes from point-blank range. Much of her weight (considerable in this form, seeing as she was the size of a panther and her wings just about made up for the natural lightness of a winged species) rested on Bryant’s shoulders, pressing them firmly down into the ground. The old fae made no attempt to move out from underneath her, nor to free his shoulders from the slightly uncomfortable weight. In fact, he didn’t move much at all, simply lying still and returning her icy gaze with his own calm one.

The moment stretched on, neither of them moving from where they had landed. Bryant thought several times about saying something, but always ultimately decided against it. It did not seem like a moment for words, particularly since Olivia could hardly respond in kind in her current form. His gaze only flickered once as she raised some of her weight off of the large paws on his shoulders, then pressed back down again just as firmly, as if he were going to move and she was holding him in place. His head tilted to the side very slightly; the deliberate motion definitely meant something. It took him a moment before the probable meaning clicked; she didn’t want him to leave again. A hint of sorrow crept into Bryant’s eyes, his neutral expression turning slightly into a frown. He truly hadn’t meant to hurt her so much, but he resolved then and there to never do so again.

Eventually, Olivia moved off of him, backing up slightly to sit on her haunches on the ground. Bryant sat up slowly, hiding a wince at the persistent stiffness in his joints. When she did not immediately shift back to her human form, Bryant simply crossed his legs in front of him and sat quietly. After a moment, he leaned over and retrieved Olivia’s sweater from where it had fallen on the ground nearby, tucking it neatly in his lap for when she shifted back.

He didn’t have to wait long before her form began to change again, shrinking back down as feathers and fur disappeared. A minute later, Olivia crouched naked in front of him, covering her body with her limbs in a way that suggested she had had to do so before. A hint of amusement playing around Bryant’s lips, he shifted closer to her and reached out long enough to place the sweater around her shoulders, then sat back again. An eyebrow quirked ever so slightly, the corner of his mouth hinting at an amused smile, as he wondered if being tackled had counted as the promised smack upside the head. The moment didn’t seem to call for brevity, however, so after a moment, his face returned to its usual solemn expression.

Though an open display of affection was a rarity (to say the least) for Bryant, he found himself shifting forwards again, moving onto his knees so that he was right in front of Olivia. Rather than utilizing the many internal barriers he had built over the years, he let them fall, letting his emotions show through in the crease between his eyebrows, the regret and sorrow for the pain he had caused her in his eyes. He reached out again and touched her cheek, his fingers gently tucking a strand of loose hair behind her ear. ”I have missed you more than I can say,” he said softly, eyes flickering up to meet hers once more despite the feeling of shame that washed through him as he recalled once again the pain he had caused. ”I’m sorry.” He made no excuses, no explanations or justifications. It was a simple sentiment, but a deep felt one, laid bare for Olivia to accept or not as she chose.

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Tagged: Olivia ;w;
Words: 961 $$ added

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