The Aftermath

[Artemis Lux]

M Y R K R​

T H E F O R E S T W I L D S​

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Continued from​

Jurassic Chaos | Mandalorian Empire Dominion of Myrkr​

SPLASH!

Artemis removed the dome of her helmet and gave it a smart shake. Murky water poured out of its cavity as if from a drinking cup, muddying her boots as it splattered to the ground. She grimaced. So far, Myrkr had welcomed the Mandalorian emissaries with bone-splitting earthquakes, a horde of homicidal Taung and their ysalamiri chargers, one disgruntled Cathar, and now, a flood. The vengeful jungle-planet wouldn’t be receiving any best-vacation-spot nominations this year, nor was its inherent dysfunctionality the most romantic locale for reunifying lovers.

It suited her and [member="Kad Tor"] well.

“Why is it that – whenever I’m with you – I’m always getting drowned, chased, stranded, or nearly killed?”

Emerald eyes panned across the gnarled cathedral of trees that loomed down on them from all sides, then cut sharply over to the goran. As she fixed him with her withering stare, the Lioness made a concerted effort to appear as wry and unruffled as ever. One lingering glance at her face and Kad would know better. A kaleidoscope of emotion twisted and turned beneath her otherwise taut demeanor, expressing the relief, longing, adoration, and love that her acerbic words and feline gaze could not.

After all their time apart, with only the forest as the witness to their secret, they would have their proper reunion.
At last.

For a moment, Artemis was silent and simply looked Kad over, dignified brows knitting together to keep her brimming sentiments at bay. She reverently drank in the blue of his eyes and the burnished bronze of his hair, the square contour of his jawline and the rhythmic heave of his large shoulders and chest – a familiar and beloved landscape that, for the duration of Mandalore’s bloody Civil War, she feared she would neither see nor touch again. While he fought on one front, Artemis had fought across the stars on another. Amid the chaos, their comms had been crosslinked and jammed into flatlining static, and then into nothing at all. It had been so long, and so many had died, that pausing to absorb the sight of him now was akin to seeing a ghost.

Helmet rolled out from the grip of her palm and thudded to the earth. Without ceremony, Artemis crossed the space that separated her from Kad and kissed him mightily.

 

[Kad Tor]

The force of the water carried the two in a rush. Water, a force which could destroy even the strongest of structures, but a vital essence for life. Kad could not curse it, but he didn’t have to like it. Had it not been for the exit the two had been spit out from, they warriors could have found their death at the hands of a thing needed to live. It was a reminder that even the most essential things could be used to kill, used for war. Perhaps it had been the recent civil war, but Kad saw a weapon in everything.

Kad stood to his feet. Artemis was looking at him like it was his fault, then her comment came. She did her best to hide it, but the woman was teasing. A smile pulled at the right corner of Kad’s mouth. He turned his helmet to pour out the water which had collected in it.

”Everytime you are with me? I thought this was every time I was with you?”

Had [member="Artemis Lux"] already forgotten she could not beat Kad at this game. Her serious demeanor was one that balanced the playful spirit the goran had. Kad had never been as serious as the diplomat and fighter he loved. Even when she was teasing her face was set in a serious gaze which had the power to make any grown man tremble in his boots. The power which exuded from the Lioness was a wild one, it was meant to be feared because it was pure and honest. This was who she was, and this was the woman Kad had come to love.

Kad’s power to both tame and enrage the Lioness was a dangerous one, but it had given him the sole ability to see past what she projected to what lie underneath. He could see through her, the emotion, the conflict, the want, and the restraint. Kad watched as it all eventually washed away to one infallible and irrefutable truth. Artemis Lux loved Kad Tor.

She wasn’t alone in her desire to close the distance between them. Kad met her, and his lips welcomed hers with the same longing, might, and passion which she gave. This was not a romance for the pages of a child’s book. Myrkr was dank, murky, and everything about the place was designed to hunt and kill or survive. It was fitting for their reunion.

As the kiss broke, Kad set his forehead to hers. Of all the things he had missed, the feeling which came from the touch of their foreheads had been what he missed the most. As the stood their wet, hair dripping, and breathless from the washout, Kad could only smile.

”I have missed you.”

 

[Artemis Lux]

Artemis leaned her forehead into the mirshmure’cya and closed her eyes. For a moment, she simply breathed.
Slowly in.
Slowly out.
There it was. That earthen, woodsy aphrodisia that belonged to only one man, triggering something powerful and instinctive within her core. For animals, it was the simple act of recognizing the scent of one’s mate. For Artemis, it was the sensation of coming home. How long had she been gone? What in reality was only months, suddenly felt like a thousand years. She needed him closer – immediately.
Purposeful hands, as womanly and strong as their proprietor, lifted to cradle either side of his face. It was a simple gesture, but to Artemis, it felt akin to holding the world. With fitting reverence, her fingers pushed through the ochreous crop of his hair, caressing past each strand as if to make certain he was real. He was. Knowing him well, her thumb dropped down to find the special nook beneath his ear, brushing deliberately and with intention against the juncture of jawline and neck. She lingered there, savoring the warmth of his pulse as it beat vigorous and strong below her touch – a celebration of survival and life. Her own heart spiked in response, blood stirring deep within her veins.
All this time, Artemis remained silent, but the way she looked at Kad could have moved mountains. Her voice, when at last she spoke, was strained and hoarse.
“I’ve missed you.”
The corner of her mouth tugged downward as her lips pressed into the thin curve of a smile, hushed and almost pained. It was the last bastion between her composure and the tidal wave of emotion that threatened to sweep it all away. The slender cords in her neck tightened and released, only to tighten again. She searched his face as if she might find the words she needed there.
“When I heard what happened in Sundari – at MandalMotors, and the docks – I thought you might have . . . I feared you had . . .”
Artemis stopped short, refusing to lend her fears a voice. They had neither purpose nor utility – and they didn’t matter now. He was here. He was alive. As she drew a steadying breath, the churn of emotion cleared from her features, absorbed back inside her inexorable shield of Mandalorian strength. Elegant chin lifted. Both her brows and mouth set themselves into formidable lines. Dark head nodded in approval.
“You’ve done well,” The Lioness murmured. Her eyes were vivid with controlled emerald fire. “You’ve brought our enemies to heel and helped restore Mandalore to her glory. Our people have hope now because of you.”
Just as quickly as her strength returned, however, something else about her faltered. Artemis paused, lowering her hands back down to her sides, then averted her gaze to the ground.
“I wish I could say the same,” She said quietly, bitterness etched into the lines of her frown. “Dxun fell not long after you left – we had to evacuate the entire colony. Nearly everything we built there is gone.”
All of our memories.
Lashes lifted to regard him once more. He would likely see the regret, the tempered grief, and the mosaic of moments they had collected on the jungle-moon unraveling inside her mind – from the very first morning Artemis placed a hand on his shoulder to intervene in a drunken fight, to the very last morning she’d woken in his arms. And all of their adventures in-between. Artemis smiled in spite of herself. They’d had quite a time.
“I suppose Myrkr isn’t much different from Dxun, is it?” She remarked wryly, black curls falling behind her shoulders as she craned her neck to survey the perimeter. “What’s one vicious, deadly jungle from another? We ought to feel right at home.”
Feline attention cut back toward him, but this time, her eyes were challenging and coy – almost playful. The dimple emerged in her cheek.
“Shall we have a look around?”

[member="Kad Tor"]​

 

[Kad Tor]

Kad would allow the moment to linger just a while longer. They were alone, but that did not mean one of their people would not find them and discover the secret they kept from the rest. It was not the burden Kad wanted, but Artemis had requested it. In the end he would bear it because he would rather be with her than not. Their love for each other was worth the inconveinence of keeping a secret, and with the war, it was not all that inconvenient. The challenge had been not seeing each other, the fact war had come the moment they had decided to make their relationship intimate and separated them. In this moment, Kad did not care. Had he not had his wits about him he would have found a secluded place for them both, a cave, their cave, but knew better.

The diligent and purposeful touch of Artemis hands would have to be his solace. This shared kiss would enough to hold him over until the a more personal and private reunion could be shared. It was enough to see her, to breathe in the rose like fragrance that he had come to love. He smiled at her admission. The words would never be easy for Artemis to admit, for she was a proud woman. It was why Kad loved her so much.

His thumb went to her lips as she nearly gave voice to her fear.

"You will not say it. You will never say it," he commanded. They commanded each other. Had Kad been the one to break, Artemis would have done the same. They were Mandalorians, and this was their way.

"I heard of Dxun's fall, but you cannot say you failed. Were any lives lost? Did you relocate our people? Are the little ones safe? No, the instability and uncertainty of war caused those near us, those who once feard our invasion, to take what they wanted when our army left. You led our people home, Mandalore. I see nothing but a proud Lioness before me."

Kad loved her smile, and it was good to see it as she took in the jungle.

"This jungle is even more deadly. I would say it is more fitting."

He nodded as his eyes drifted from hers and took in their surroundings. It would be good to explore the jungle. Kad clipped his helmet to his belt as they progressed forward.

"Maybe we shall find a cave to occupy," he teased with a boyish sparkle in his eyes. She might hit him for the comment, but Kad could not resist.

[member="Artemis Lux"]​

 

[Artemis Lux]

It was less of a hit, and more of a meaningful shove aimed squarely at the nearest, brambliest patch of thorn bushes. Artemis knew better than to think that even her honed strength was capable of sending Kad – a blacksmith, soldier, and paradigm of male physical accomplishment – tumbling down into the prickly foliage as if he didn’t outsize her three to one. Still, she held out hope.
“You should be so lucky,” came her swift rejoinder. The words were dangerous and low, like the warning purr of a cat, but her underlying amusement was apparent. All the man had to do was catch her gaze as she strode smartly past him to take the lead, wry cheek dimpling and tapered green eyes flashing with subdued pleasure.
Artemis had almost forgotten how much she missed pretending not to enjoy his teasing. Only he could bait her and reap the reward of a small, secretive smile – only he could provoke her and walk away (relatively) unscathed.
He was Kad.
“— but with any luck, we won’t need a cave,” She continued, patrician features darkening as she drew her beskad. “We should be long gone from this death trap of a planet before sundown. Unless you’d like to spend the night with the Taung, but I don’t think they’d show you as much mercy or affection as I do.”
The whistle of her blade keened high as she swung low through the undergrowth, hacking off the rounded bloom of a bulbous plant as if to illustrate her point. The decapitated flower-head landed softly at her boots, still verdant and lovely even in death. She bent to run a slender finger down its velvety crimson petals, bringing one up to smell before swiftly tossing it aside. Gamine nose wrinkled.
“Poisonous.”
Artemis rose, grabbing her discarded helmet on the way up and snugly fastening it to the curve of her hip. For a moment, she stood still. Her sharp attention swept slowly and methodically over the colorful array of exotic flora that twisted and curled all around them, before she glanced back over her shoulder to Kad. A smile touched her lips.
“It’s an amazing place, isn’t it? – dangerous, horrible, but amazing. I remember reading about it when I was a girl.”
Her inner scholar was showing, and it compelled her to begin fervently climbing a steep, gnarled crag. Dark head nodded for him to follow.
“Did you know that part of the Mandalorian Wars were fought here? That was nearly five thousand years ago.” Artemis didn’t look at him while she spoke, but that telling dimple was present in her cheek as she cut her way through the brush that shaded their path. “And now we’re back – still fighting.”
She paused, lowering her beskad and venturing out a hand to bend back a large, medallion-shaped leaf. What lay beyond and below was a lush clearing, beguiling and somehow out-of-place. It sparkled innocently in the hazy afternoon light. Artemis drew a reverent breath.
“Oceans rise and empires fall . . . but even after all this time, Mandalore’s still here.”

[member="Kad Tor"]​

 

[Kad Tor]

Kad took a step back. Artemis may not have had the strength to push him over entirely, but she could move him. The woman was stronger than she would ever admit, and the strength she possessed ran deep into the core of who she was. There was a reason Kad had been drawn to the woman. With a steady hand to his shoulder she had calmed the storm which raged inside him once, and the strength to do such a thing was not common. Kad would always know that was the moment he first noticed her, truly noticed her. The goran had been smitten from that point forward, and now the woman was his. His lips pulled into a smirk.

"You cannot fault me for wanting you completely, and the Taung are no where near as tempting as you are. Your attention and affection is much more desirable."

There was always a dangerous game being played between the two of them, and it usally involved Kad walking close to the edge of Artemis' grace. He loved to tease her, to stir a reaction, and she allowed him to. It was the one sign Kad always held to that his pursuit would not be in vain. Artemis would not have allowed his teasing in the slightest had she not been inteterested in him.

His eyes follwed the path of her blade as she lopped the bulbed flower from its stem. It was poison. Kad nodded.

"We didn't read about such places except for the old stories that we were told. The north was much simpler. We farmed, we worked, and when Mand'alor called, we fought. The jungle is exotic, but to me nothing will outshine the beauty of Enceri. Even though it is barren and broken the memory is still alive."

Artemis had her books as a child, and Kad had the field. His calloused hands were the product of a much different life than the one Artemis had lived and trained for. They could not be anymore opposite in that regard. They were both warriors, but Artemis was a scholar and Kad a tradesman. In any other culture the match would not have seemed a good one. Kad thought it was a good thing this was not any other culture. It was his skill with war, his trade, and, most importantly, his heart which made him worthy of Artemis affection.

Kad stepped up behind her and placed a gloved hand on her plated shoulder.

"That is because we are an idea, and ideas never die. As long as there is still breath in anyone who will carry the banner of what we are, we will never die. Now... let's get a move on it before I really do drag you off to some cave and give into all the senitment you are creating."

He stepped passed her and off toward the landing zone. They had several kilometers to go before regrouping with the others, and as much as Kad knew they could survive on their own, he did not wish to repeat it. This was not the same planet, nor would any cave they found be their cave. At his moment Kad prefered the comfort of their bed to a stone floor.

"The sun will not stay in the sky all day, and I do not wish to prove myself against the predators of the night. Not here, not when the plants have the means to kill you."

[member="Artemis Lux"]​