Perhaps revealing his nature so soon had been a bad move.

Eyes wide, Madison rushed over to catch Stefany before she could hit the ground, the quiet sound of her pulse drumming in his ears. “Miss Raterfell?” He asked. “Stefany?” Unconscious. She had fainted. Lips sealed into a tight, pressed line, Madison gently lifted Stefany into the nearby booth, pillowing his jacket beneath her legs. Several heads had turned in their direction after the fall, but no one had come over as of yet.

This certainly hadn’t been what he was expecting upon meeting his soulmate.

Fingers moving deftly, Madison lifted his purse, drew the phone, and held it, staring anxiously down at Stefany. Perhaps it was just something minor, and his reaction had been a bit much, but if not...He ran his thumb against the screen, waiting to see if she would stir. If not, he’d call. That was that.

@ineffable

"Hi." Nik smiled as the woman abandoned her perch on the branch and gracefully dropped onto the ground in front of her. "This is so unusual." She rose from her sitting position, but did not try to approach Aaliyah. The woman had trusted her enough to come down from the tree, but that did not mean she trusted her enough to let her within her personal space. "I'm not sure what I'm supposed to say." Sara shook her head dismayed. "I mean... What just happened... It... It's never happened to me before." She looked at Aaliyah again.

Who was this woman if she weren't a vila? What person, besides someone like her, would sit in trees in the woods? She'd felt her power through the tree when she'd touched it, but she didn't feel threatened by her. Rather she felt kind of safe, comfortable. Which was unusual for her, as she was not the most social of people. True, she had her friends, but those were few and very carefully selected and vetted. This woman she didn't know. She was positive of that. She would have remembered her. She could never forget her now, with the amount of impact her presence had on Sara.

"So, Aaliyah, what brought you to this corner of the woods?" Nik asked with bright eyes and a crooked grin. What she'd really wanted to ask her was what she was doing, sitting in a tree in the middle of the less visited parts of Pelham Bay Park. Of course she couldn't do that. Firstly, it would be plain rude. And secondly, it would be prying and she didn't like to pry. It opened the door for the others to feel free to pry in return. And she definitely didn't like it when people pried into her business. Not with a secret like hers. Still, she was curious. Plus she felt like the two of them were supposed to get to know each other and this seemed like a good a start as any.

As an afterthought she grabbed her wrist and started rubbing it. The pain and throbbing was a constant now and Sara couldn't deny the connection between the sensations and Aaliyah's proximity. After all the blasted thing had never done anything like this. Suddenly she meets this woman in the most ridiculous of circumstances and this tattoo starts pulsing and burning and glowing. It was a sign, for sure. But of what she had no idea. She looked expectantly at this new person in her life, still massaging her wrist gently with her fingers.

@KahleenCuthald

Aaliyah watched the woman carefully as she kept talking to her. She listened to her words and let them sink in slowly. She was right. Whatever happened was strange. And she could tell that the woman was calculating her just as much as she was calculating Kosara. And for some reason she didn't mind. It still made her feel uneasy, like it had always done, because she knew that someone calculating her, trying to find out who she was or what she was doing, it would always come with questions. And she didn't like questions from strangers.

And like she had expected the first question was coming only a couple of moments later. She tried hard, and thankfully succeeded, in not making a face. All those people on this planet... they learnt how to lie before they learnt to walk. And then there was Aaliyah. Who was different and who was confused when she entered earth. And who couldn't lie.

What brought you to this corner of the woods? - You did. But she couldn't say that. Or rather she didn't want to. "I felt very drawn to it", she said in a low voice. "Like some magnet was pulling me towards it." She put a soft smirk onto her lips and looked at Kosara. Her posture had taken much more strength to it, she stood steady and straight, with confidence. "What brought you to this area?", she asked with a voice that clearly stated that she knew that camping wasn't the answer and she was giving Kosara the possibility to spill the truth... or lie to her again. If she decided to hide the truth, Aaliyah wouldn't continue to ask. Asking a lot, meant receiving questions in return. And she wasn't sure how many of these she could answer before she had to either not say anything or spill what really was going on.

Her arm had gotten weirdly numb by now, only the tattoo on her wrist burning down on her flesh like a poker freshly removed from the devouring flames. She was close to not being able to stand it anymore. She pressed her wrist against her side, hoping that it wouldn't look too obvious, but the pain was getting unbearable. She tried to maintain a straight face, but it was getting more complicated by the second. What was this pain? And what did it have to do with this woman? Whatever the tattoo said... she had never been able to translate it.

@EchoicChamber

Stefany blinked, the world turning clearer around her as she sat up. She groaned and lay back down. Her fingers crumpled the fabric underneath her and she blinked, staring up into Madison's eyes.
For a mere millisecond, she felt her heart beat increasing. She batted the thought away.
"I'm...I'm okay. You don't need to call anyone. Let's go."
She didn't like the people staring at her and she stood up, picking up Madison's jacket and handing it back to him. She was still dizzy but determined to get out of there.
"You coming?"

Sara made it a point not to scrutinize the woman too much. Sure, she wanted to observe her for small tells and signs of anything and everything. But she didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable or worse yet, examined. So she tried to keep her gaze firmly on Aaliyah's eyes and put a friendly expression on her face. Of course it didn't hurt the woman was quite easy on the eyes. Nik smiled and shook herself mentally. Now was not the time for this.

"It does have the power to draw people in." Sara confirmed when Aaliyah answered her question. "With its quiet power and majesty it has a mystical allure that some people cannot deny." Nik's smile softened and her eyes lost focus once she started speaking about her beloved forest. She looked about her, raised her arms and turned in a slow circle, stopping when her eyes once again found Aaliyah’s. "I mean just look at it. It's beyond beautiful. The sights, the sounds, the smells. The energy!" She pinned the other woman with her burning blue eyes. "There's no use denying we both felt that energy. And even though I am here camping and do work here as a park ranger. I would be lying if I said that's the only reason I'm here in this moment." Sara wanted to approach the other woman, but stayed in place. She didn't think she would be welcomed yet. "But we are strangers so forgive me if I'm not ready to divulge anything beyond the obvious." This time she could not hold herself back and took a tiny step forward. "I will not deny however that I as well felt drawn to this particular area of the forest."

Sara fell silent. Even as it was she felt like she'd said too much. She was usually so careful when socializing with people. Humans especially. She knew there could be monstrously evil ones among them and she needed to protect her secret from those. So she made sure to vet thoroughly the ones she did associate with. But still, Aaliyah was no human. Of that she was quite possitive. No human possessed such strong woodland essence. Nor any vila for that matter. Not even Sara herself. But still Nik felt drawn to her. She wanted to get to know her. Who was she, what was she like. And, yes, what exactly was she. Baby steps. She knew her name. So that was a start. Perhaps they could become friends. Nik wasn't lonely per se, but she did feel an emptiness within her at times. But not right now. Not here at this moment with this stranger in front of her.

Sara's wrist burned and pulsed, reminding her of itself. She looked at it and the action made her notice a subtle movement of Aaliyah's. She was pressing her hand to her side and Nik noticed the glow. And suddenly she recognized it for what it was. A tattoo much like her own, also glowing like her own. Nik looked at her wrist. And suddenly it hit her that the date stamped there was today. Although what the importance of that was she didn't know. Or if in fact there was importance to it at all, or if it was simply a coincidence. The script she couldn't read. She'd never been able to. In fact Sara'd never been able to identify it as any known script that existed in Earth's history. Her eyes rose to Aaliyah's. Concern, curiosity and uncertainty swirled within the blue irises.

She stepped forward, not caring this time if Aaliyah would welcome her advance and staring her in the eyes made a gentle move for her wrist.

The woman in front of her - Kosara... her name was Kosara...

Kosara looked at her, and not just at her, but directly at her eyes. No, strictly at her eyes. Aaliyah felt a little uneasy, but a lot more curious. No person has ever looked at her like that. Has looked into her eyes for that long, or that intensely. She held her gaze with curiosity still all over her face. The woman fascinated her.

Kosara started to talk, maybe even ramble, about the forest and Aaliyah's curiosity got even stronger. The passion behind her words and the love in her eyes... She felt more for this forest than any human could ever feel for the earth they live on. She gave Aaliyah a warm feeling in her chest, it was a strange one. She felt like she was talking to someone who could understand her. And she was more and more convinced that this woman was not from earth. Or at least not from the earth she had come to know. In all her years on this planet, no one had ever cared so much for the environment. Of course, some crazy people would chain themselves to the trees and stop others from killing them... but it wasn't the same. It wasn't this kind of passion. It wasn't that kind of love.

It was home to her, she then realized. She had that same look on her face that Aaliyah had when she used to run and jump through the crowns of the trees on Astraea. She had that spark in her eyes...

The way that Kosara talked about these woods, the way that she tried to make Aaliyah see what she saw in it, made her wanna step forward and just reassure her that she did see it, that she did feel it. A small smile played on her lips, but her eyes wore a much bigger one. And as if Kosara felt just as drawn towards the stranger in the woods that was Aaliyah, she stepped closer, just one bit.

Those eyes... there was something about them that wouldn't let Aaliyah move a single bit. She could feel her heart beat against her chest and it was faster than before. When did it quicken? She couldn't remember. A second Aaliyah thought she would step back again, her face showed some sort of... loss in confidence, maybe? Or was it... uncertainty? But she didn't step back.

The woman rose her wrist to her eyes and Aaliyah watched the wrist that glowed in front of her. Her face didn't change, but her heart picked up speed yet again. She wasn't someone who lost her composed face easily. The former queen glanced at the tattoo that looked so alike to her own - and lost her straight face when she realized that the language on her skin was in no way from this earth, was not human. But before she could say something or gain her straight face back, Kosara had reached out for her wrist, Aaliyah's eyes shot up and met with those blue ones again that had the ability to freeze her on the spot. And so she didn't move when the woman gently took her wrist into her hands and looked at Aaliyah's tattoo.

She wasn't sure why she was so sure that Kosara would be able to read whatever was written on it, but she just knew. The stranger from the woods... She would know what it said, just like Aaliyah would know what Kosara's burning wrist said if she got a better look at it.

The sensation she felt when Kosara touched her was out of this world. It made the sensation she felt through the tree-touching moment feel minor. She felt how all of her body reacted to the gentle touch, her veins, her blood, every cell of her being seemed to have been waiting for this moment. She threw her head back, closed her eyes and a sharp moan left her lips as she hadn't expected that. Though she probably should have after what happened with that tree situation...

She could feel how her Eredh ran through her veins and sharpened her ears and closed eyes and simply all of her senses, she could feel how the golden liquid grew and for a moment she could have told you every single little ant and their exact position in the woods. Then it was gone. She hadn't noticed, but when she opened her eyes she saw that she had pulled her wrist back from Kosara and was holding onto it, clutching it to her chest. Her breaths came heavy. She looked at the woman and her blue eyes for what seemed forever, but really only was fifteen seconds. Then she slowly, ever so carefully, as if reaching out to something that could bite your hand off, moved her hand towards Kosara's face and attempted to touch her cheek. To maybe stroke her thumb over it. Would she experience the same thing again? The burning, the heat, the pain, the pulsation in her wrist was gone now at least...

_{(Shit, this was bad. Sorry, love. You gotta deal with this now xD)}