Foreign Feelings[Tadhg]

[Alysia]

Alysia was frustrated...no not even that, she was completely and utterly ready to rip out her hair and strangle someone with it. She hadn't been able to sleep for days on end without thinking of him! Her anger over her own confusion was completely apparent.

She had only met him...what once? She didn't understand why she felt warm inside, or the slight pang of regret (which kept her up in the night)...or even why she felt so relaxed around the sidhe! She didn't understand why he stood out in her mind or why now of all times! In all of her 322 years, she had never been fond of anything besides a friendship. She never, ever crushed on someone....ever!

Pacing the small clearing in the forest, the light from the eclipsed sun shining in sparse spots here and there. Her steps a fury of precise grace, never once making more than whisper of sound. Wearing a white tank top, tight blue jeans, and her favorite pair of brown thigh high medieval style boots, eyes glowing a stormy gold, her hair in furious waves whipping behind her as she paced in contemplation...despite wearing more modern clothing, if someone stumbled upon her, they would have saw the fury of the forest. The creature that had struck fear into the hearts of other!

Deciding that her anger really had no place in the situation. Her tiredness was apparent as was her befuddlement. Stopping and taking a few deep breaths to calm herself, Alysia slowly began to shed her anger. Okay, so what if she was a little out of her element? So what if she was confused at her emotional state? Finally deciding that the best way to discover what the heck was wrong with her was to find the source of confusion. Mabu's snorted from the treetop above her, as if agreeing with her decision.

"Now that that is decided, where the heck can I find him?" Deciding she'd have better luck finding him by looking for him than just standing there, she took off even deeper into the woods. Maybe if she was lucky she'd run into Tadhg.

[Tadhg]

Grey-green eyes scan unblinkingly across the wooded floor line, scanning for any signs of wayward movement and filling with a tense suspicion as nothing more then a rustle of a snake finding a more comfortable position can be picked from the day-dark air. It is too quiet, the forest having fallen under a blanket of held breath and cowering watch. Since the Imbolc attack, tension has run rampart in Alanor but never has he seen it's effects take hold of the woods as it is now.

He inhales once, twice through his nose, but there is no sign of anything being amiss in the musty damp. He works the knot of his cloak loose with idle fingers, his brow furrowed thoughtfully as he works out bigger tangles in his mind. He is too unversed in this world's history to feel completely prepared for what is happening. He needs to speak with the Queen, needs to gather his bearings before he can be of any aid to her and his fellow Seelie. He feels singular and outcast and there is a dangerous twinge of greater helplessness creeping into his chest. It's a sensation both foreign and unwanted and it has been 600 years since he's been on such a borderline. Tadhg has survived alone and self-dependent for centuries and it has become the only way of living he knows. But solitary as he is, he is not helpless. And to toe the line of such an emotion now puts a dark shadow of a frown on his rugged face and he scrubs at his light beard in an irritated fashion.

He has just shrugged the oiled cloak from his broad shoulders when a whisper of movement is caught from the corner of his sharp eye and his head whips round in a mimicked movement of a raptor bird. There! - a sliver of white between the cracked bark. The soft, dancing footstep of a woman, stealthy enough to go unnoticed by most others, but not from a seasoned hunter like himself.

He pursues, darting through trees that block him from any sight lines, but keep the lithe form clear in his own. There is something familiar in the way she rolls her ankle, but most of the sidhe he has met so far share a same patterned grace of step so he is forced to search for other clues as to her identity. She is moving deeper into the forest with a distant familiarity - as if she is no stranger to carving her own path through an unknown wilderness, but is smart enough to know when she is out of recognizable territory. This is after all his territory, and as good as a woodswoman she may be, there is no faerie in Alanor who knows this wild like Tadhg.

He keeps close watch, aware she is quickly approaching one of his veiled traps to the left. He increases his pace, ducking a few low branches and leaping nimbly over one downed completely as he stalks her, the gleam of dim light on the gold of her hair sparking something in his memory. Oh gods, he's thought of that gold for days. It's burned into his brain like a brand, along with the pale skin underneath it. A slight turn of her head and he's paralyzed for a moment as he confirms his own hopes. It is her. And she's about 20 seconds away from being skewed on a crossbow arrow from his deer trap.

He makes a final lunge, grabbing a hold of her upper arms and pulling her not quite back against his firm chest, but enough to halt any and all forward movement - it is a save within centimeters. He relaxes his fingers, not wanting to spur a panic in her with too tight of a grip. But he can feel his heart hammering on the inside of his ribs at how close she's come to harm and it's all he can to stop from crushing her against him, to reassure himself with her vibrancy. "Steady, lass!" he rumbles into her ear, his face close enough to the crook of her neck to feel the warmth of his own breath ricocheting off her skin. "Yer going to get yerself into trouble if yeh doon' watch yer step." With much effort, he lets his hands go lax, releasing her to bend down around her hip and cut the near invisible trip line strung at their feet with a dagger from his boot.

Once it's safely out of the way and the forest is still again, he peers up into her face for the first time, remaining in his crouch in the ground ferns.

"Now what's distracted yeh so that yeh nearly stumble into a hunter's trap no' meant for yeh?"

[Alysia]

Alysia froze when someone firmly grabbed her upper arms, halting her movement. She hadn't sensed any presence's nearby! Had she been more distracted and tired than she had originally thought?

Alysia's muscle's tensed and she was about hook her elbow backwards into her presumed attackers face when his grip lessened and that familiar Scottish accented voice rumbled next to her ear. Her muscles untensed and her heart beat rose, a deer struck look in her eyes. Even though she had been searching for him, she had not expected to meet him in such a manner.

She was confused as to why he had stopped her in such a way as she watched him cut a tripwire and suddenly the mortification replaced the confusion. Her face turned red and Alysia brought her hands up and covered her reddened face, silently counting to ten several times. She must have been more worse off than she had originally believed. Not only had she just nearly became a sidhe shish-ka-bob, she had been taken surprised by the man that made her feel...different, not herself.

Her embarrassment was apparent and it took a minute for her to reply. Uncovering her face, the mortification at her apparent lack of observation echoing in her tri colored orbs. She wanted to say, "I was looking for you Tadhg." However she said,"It seems trouble has followed my footsteps since my return. I have not been myself as of late and I am lucky it was you that happened upon me instead of an enemy, Tadhg." Her emotions were such a jumble. As the tomato color receded from her face, the tiredness was apparent as was the confusion at herself.

Smiling softly down at his crouched form a warmth in her eyes, Alysia resisted the confusing urge to run her fingers across his jaw and cheek. It seemed no matter how many times she stomped down on it, it returned later with a vengence."I am sorry if I disturbed your evening...and your hunting." Alysia glanced at the tripwire as she said the last three words. She also had to mentally stomp on the mortification that threatened to drown her being along with a thousand other emotions.