To Hell and Back (Hellworlder pirates)

Ch 83 Epilogue

Epilogue

A calm sea breeze brushed back Alwen's hair and caused her robes to flutter in the wind, she took in a deep breath and let out a sigh. The air smelled just like she remembered, an undefinable quality separated it from the ocean scents of Earth, Mars, Verdant, or even Pandemonium. There was an underlying calmness to the air on Torwen that she hadn't know she was missing, like the soft scents of sandalwood or teak, but also not like those very Terran scents.

People, her people, passed by as she stopped on the seaside path, some giving her the side eye as they took in her strange appearance. She couldn't blame them; her clothes were very different from what a typical Altoran women would wear. Everyone around her wore soft pastel colors, thick long sleeved woolen sweaters, and skirts that danced around their ankles. While she on the other hand wore a hybridized set of robes, inspired from her Hellworlder family and the clothes that was their uniform, and her own uniform as a Healer of Ashendra. Madam Ito had made a fuss about how they weren't truly authentic, but Alwen pointed out that most of the tones and textures that were traditionally used wouldn't match her violet skin tone. That seemed to be a greater sin to the cranky women, so she had decided to borrow from Torweni culture and from the uniform of healers to make Alwen a set of truly unique clothing.

Out of a need for practicality over fashion Alwen had opted for men's robes instead of the frilly ones worn by women, but Madam Ito had opted to embroider the hem with delicate looking flowers Alwen didn't know the name of.

Alwen didn't fail to see how their eyes dipped towards the two blades at her hip, one was Makaze, and the other was a Wakizashi gifted to her by Captain Astarte after she had finally received the mark. There usually wasn't much ceremony to the procedure, most people just got it done the day after they joined the ship. But since Alwen had put it off for so long and was about to take the mantle as the ship's chief medical officer there had been a large celebration to mark the occasion. They had taken over an empty warehouse near the dry docks on Noctis and had filled the area with beer, music, and lots of dancing around a bonfire. And as she emerged with a fresh demonic seal burned into her chest they had begun to sing that damned song. The Ballad of Bones the Godslayer had grown into the legend of Saint Bones the Godslayer, and had pretty much become the ships anthem. The verses and beat had changed a lot since its first iteration, but now it seemed that the whole crew had collectively decided on a one codified version as everyone was able to sing it without missing a beat. She had even heard that the other Archdevil class cruisers were trying to compose their own anthems, and she was curious what they might come up with and had hoped it would take some of the attention off her and that embarrassing song the crew sang at every opportunity.

After she had nearly died of embarrassment, Gato had gently guided her close to the fire and began to dance the opening steps to the Torweni dances she had spent most of their date teaching him. She hadn't been upset that she had to spend most of the night teaching him to dance, in fact it had been fun to watch him trip over his own paws for once. So often when they were training it had been him slowly guiding her through the steps in Terran sword play, firmly correcting her form at every misstep. Now she had the chance to return the favor and that made the night all the more fun, especially when he finally got the gist of it and adapted the alien dance to his own unique physiology. His legs while capable of bipedal locomotion, weren't human or Torweni so they couldn't move the same way. But he had spent a lifetime learning how to get his body to do exactly what he wanted and in no time he was whisking her around the fire . At times he flowed gently into the steps, and at other when the music picked up he stepped into the motion with vigor and passion.

And after that, when they had retuned to the Hellworlder dorms, he had shown her many moves to a dance she had yet to learn. In bed he moved a lot like he did in life, at times slow and gentle, and at others he had a raw animalistic passion.