Jay's Journey

Chapter 25

The magical stampede of flora came to a stop a few miles away from the prison, and the three were set back down into the forest. Jay expected to feel the hit of exhaustion not unlike the last time she'd used such powerful magic, but nothing came.

At least dozens of miles were easily sensible all around. It was as though she could see behind every leaf and through every tree. It took her several moments to come to the present moment, an area between the trees now overflowing with flowers due to her residual magic.

"Holy fucking shit." Vayen commented.

"Jay... Did you do it?" Zira wondered. Jay called a patch of flowers to grow before their very eyes; petals bursting free from their buds in flashes of color.

"You did it!" Zira shouted.

"How the fuck didja figure it out there?!" Vayen wondered.

"I just... accepted that I was a woman and realized that I was the one to do that." Jay explained. Now that she had to say it out loud, it was honestly too difficult to articulate. It was like the Omnocean, messy and organic but undeniably powerful.

"Yeah uh, no fuckin' clue what that means but good job!" Vayen said, scooping up Jay into a crushing hug.

"Oh wait shit you're naked." He realized, putting Jay down. Right, being struck by lighting had left her completely bare of clothes.

"Uh..." She stammered.

"Here." Zira said, tearing off her own tunic and throwing it to Jay.

"I have something else I can wear." Zira said. Despite having already been seen naked, Jay still dashed off into the trees to change. Zira then took out the expensive shirt Vayen had bought for her and put it on.

In the daylight, the embroidery shined vibrantly, and it managed to stand out despite the forest floor being carpeted by flowers.

"So, we finally fuckin' did it." Vayen said. Zira smiled.

"Yeah, we did, we got hi- I guess her, back." Zira said.

"Yup." Vayen replied. They looked one another in the eye as their various expectations of this moment fell flat. Given, they had no idea what their rescue would look like, but getting their asses handed to them before being saved by a newly powerful Jay wasn't in either of their fantasies.

Zira caved first, leaping onto Vayen and clutching onto him by the back of his shirt. In his exhaustion, Vayen collapsed to the ground as he returned the kiss. Zira had no idea what she was doing, and Vayen had all the charm of a mud brick. Zira thought it was only about touching lips, but Vayen was moving his. Wait, she could do that? It did feel really nice. She felt his hands clutching her, firm and strong. Such contact would be restraining if done by anyone else, but with Vayen, it was comforting. He bit her lip, and she yelped out in surprise at least an octave higher than she knew she could. She decided to do it back, and he gasped, a deep gravelly sound that made Zira's eyes fly wide. She felt powerful. He'd never sounded like that before. Something in her nerves buzzed, something she'd never been trained to account for. This wasn't like her, and yet it was a part of her she couldn't comprehend being apart from.

She wanted him to touch her more. How could he do that? She was lying on top of him, and his hands didn't stop moving. She cupped his face, feeling the jawline she found her eyes being drawn to. He leaned into the touch and sighed contentedly. She'd never been this close to him before, so she'd never noticed the way his eyelashes fluttered when he blinked. She liked it, but she wasn't sure what to do about it, so she peppered his face with kisses. He laughed, and she felt it in her own chest. Weeks of tension had fallen away, and so she allowed herself enjoy the moment