Sleeping Paradise

[Sweetcherrie]

After the auction results had come in, Sweetcherrie had gone to her room to change her clothes. The dress looked great, but was simply not too handy. She put on a simple pair of jeans and a top, and neatly put the dress away in her wardrobe cupboard. Then she grabbed a small pouch from her jewellery box. Inside there was a stone key, given to her by a thankful customer. She had helped him out of a tight spot, and he had given her the key.

 

He had told her that if she ever needed to escape daily life she would only have to find the lock that went with the key, and she would find paradise. At the time she had found it strange, but later it had come in handy. Most of the times she liked her life, and did not need to escape it, but every now and then she felt like being alone.

 

The first time it had been weird. She had been standing there with the key in her hand, trying to think of where to find the lock. In the end she had given up, had lied down on her bed, and had fallen asleep with the key in her hand. Her dreams that night had been wonderful, and when she had woken up the next morning she felt she could deal with the world again.

 

She hoped that it was possible to enter the dream paradise with two people, but as long as they would both be touching the key and as long as they were both asleep at the same time, it should be ok. Sweetcherrie knew it was a long shot, but she surely wanted to try. If it worked, it would be the perfect date, and they would maybe find paradise together. If it didn’t…well, she still had the back up plan of a moonlit picnic at the lake.

 

She slipped the pouch with the key into the pocket of her jeans and left her room to find Gyrfalcon. Still in thought she walked towards the Cabaret Room, and heard voices as she passed the Conservatory. When looking inside she saw Gyrfalcon and Wyvern talking animatedly.

 

“Gyr?”

 

The ranger turned around when he heard his name, and smiled at her. Her heart skipped a beat. Yes, she was glad that it was him who had won her. She took the pouch from her pocket and offered it to him. As he took the key out he looked at her questioningly.

 

“It’s essential for our date. Can you meet me tomorrow evening at the entrance of the Keep at sundown?”

 

She blushed slightly and smiled. It would be the first time in a long while that she would go on a date, but it would be great, at least she hoped it would be.

 

He nodded slowly, “I’ll be there.”

 

Sweetcherrie nodded back, and left again to prepare her back up plan in case things would all go wrong.

[Sweetcherrie]

OOC: Thanks to Gyrfalcon for helping me out

 

With Daryl sitting next to her she packed the basket. The fox had been helping her to get everything just as Gyrfalcon liked it, and she only hoped that he did not play any pranks on her. He had been grinning as she had explained what she had in mind to him, and had grinned even wider when she had shown him the sleeping powder.

 

The fox yipped, “I think you should drug him anyway.”

 

Sweetcherrie shook her head, “I would prefer it if he would sleep a natural sleep. Who knows what sort of paradise we go off to if his sleep is chemically induced.”

 

Daryl grinned. He had already explained to her that he would love to drug the half-elf for her, but had also promised her that he would not do this without her permission.

 

She checked again if she had everything. Blanket, snacks, wine….and sleeping powder. She still hoped that it would not be needed, but she would simply have to explain to Gyrfalcon that it could be needed.

 

She thanked Daryl for his help, and with the picnic basket in her hands she walked out of the room. The basket was heavy, but it would be worth it to have some nice refreshments when they were there. She walked the short way to the big door of the keep, and put the basket down. Gyrfalcon wasn’t there yet, but she wasn’t too worried. He would come.

 

Stifling a yawn she heard a soft sound coming from behind her. She looked, but there was nobody there. She yawned again and looked at how the last slivers of silver left the sky. Behind her a sly fox hid in the shadows without her noticing.

 

As preparation for her nightly events, and to make sure that she would be able to sleep she had stayed up all last night. It had seemed like a good idea yesterday still, but now she only hoped that she would be able to keep the conversation going.

 

“Good evening.”

 

His voice seemed to have come out of nowhere, and she shot wide-awake again.

 

“Hey,” She smiled at Gyrfalcon, “Ready?”

 

Gyrfalcon chuckled, “I most certainly am, but you seemed to be a bit tired. Did you sleep enough last night?”

 

Sweetcherrie stifled another yawn, “I’ll be ok. I have something good prepared for us.”

 

She smiled again, but had to stop halfway because another yawn dropped in. She reached for the basket, but Gyrfalcon smiled and picked it up for her.

 

“Where are we going?”

 

Sweetcherrie hooked her arm through his, “We’ll be going to the lake first.”

 

Walking next to him she felt slightly nervous. They had never really gotten to know each other too well, and now she would be sleeping with him on their first date. Her arms tingled where she was touching him, and she glanced to the side. He looked absolutely amazing tonight, but he looked pretty good all the time.

 

Ones or twice it was a good thing that their arms were hooked because in her sleepiness her feet tangled up around stones, and only his arm helped her keep her balance. They reached the edge of the lake, and after Gyrfalcon had put the basket down, Sweetcherrie spread out the blanket for them to sit on.

 

Gyrfalcon sat down on the blanket, and Sweetcherrie sat down on her knees next to him. She took two glasses from the basket and poured out some wine for both of them. With a smile she offered him a glass, and shivered as his hand touched hers. She settled a little bit away from him, and warned herself.

 

She could simply not fall in love with Gyrfalcon. The last thing she had heard was that there was something between him and Salinye, and she seriously didn’t want to spoil anything going on between two of her good friends.

 

She held up her glass to him with a smile, “To a good friendship.”

 

He nodded with a smile and they drank. Then there was silence between them. The moon had come out and being only half-full the night was quite dark. The stars could all be seen well, and there were no clouds to cover them. Sweetcherrie tried finding something to talk about, and stupidly blurted out the first thing she could think about.

 

“So, how is Salinye?”

 

He smiled at her "She's doing well. She came back from another of her quests for knowledge a few days ago, once again refusing to say where she's gone."

 

She nodded, “Must be hard, I mean, you know…”

 

Sweetcherrie wanted to hit herself. Why did her tongue seem to be tied up when she actually needed it to work? She didn’t have problems normally so why would it not work now?

 

He seemed hesitant for a moment "We actually talked about that. We decided that we're.... well, close friends rather then romantically involved."

 

“Oh.”

 

Her heart jumped, but then sank again. What did this mean? Was he in love with her, but had she decided that it would be otherwise, or did he agree with this decision. She took another sip of her wine, thinking about how to carry on.

 

The cool evening breeze made her shiver, and she looked around for her sweater. Darn, she had packed everything for the date, but with Daryl going on about wanting to drug Gyrfalcon, she hadn’t stopped to think that it could actually be cold at the side of the lake at this hour. On top of this the wine made her only sleepier, and she did her best to not yawn again.

 

”I must be a horrible date like this,” She thought desperately. Oh well, she would have to make the best of it. She settled closer to him, and stared out over the lake. Still silent, but she simply didn’t know exactly how to break this silence after what he had just told her.

 

Then she felt his hands on her shoulder as he draped his cloak around her, “Are you sure you’re ok?”

 

She looked at him. She wasn’t sure. Here he was, so close to her, but she had no idea what to do next. His eyes kept hers captured, and then he leaned in.

 

His lips touched hers, and she felt a shiver going through her body, but not of cold this time. No, it felt as if he was setting her on fire, and she got dizzy in her head. It must be the wine she still managed to think as their kiss deepened.

 

Then she could breathe again as their lips parted. She leaned against him, simply not wanting to let got. Gyrfalcon held her close to him, and they lay down on the blanket. Her head was on his chest, and his arm around her. She could hear his heart beat, and it felt amazing. It would no longer be needed to go to paradise, this already was paradise. Warm and safe against him, it didn’t take too long before she fell asleep.

 

Gyrfalcon smiled at the girl in his arms, and kissed Sweetcherrie’s forehead. He had no idea how she had gotten this tired, but to know that she felt safe enough with him to let her guard down and sleep, made him smile. He held one arm around her, and reached for his wine glass.

 

The ranger sipped slowly, not noticing the small trace of powder on the rim.

 

Only a few moments later the half-elf was fast asleep, his arms still holding Sweetcherrie warmly. From the shades Daryl traipsed forward, and grinned at the sleeping couple. He knew that things would not have worked out without his help. He stuck his nuzzle into Gyrfalcon’s pocket, and pulled out the pouch. With his paws he managed to get the key out, and again a little bit later the two sleeping beauties were holding hands with the small stone key in between.

 

Daryl grinned again, and disappeared back into the shades. His job was done.

[Sweetcherrie]

With her eyes closed she was lying down. Under her was warm sand, and Sweetcherrie could feel how the sun was warming her face. Behind her she heard the waves rolling onto the beach, and all around she could hear the palm trees rustle in the wind. The cry from a cockatoo sounded in the distance, and as she opened her eyes she saw beautiful green flamingos flying over.

 

Wait a minute…green flamingos?!?

 

She shot up straight and blinked against the multi-coloured world she found herself in. The colours were amazing. It was almost as if Sweetcherrie could taste them. And by now the wind was so intense that she could see it.

 

She looked around, and saw Gyrfalcon standing next to her. The ranger was shaking his head as if he had woken up from a weird dream, and looked at her.

 

“Where are we?”

 

She held out her hand, and he helped her up, “I guess this is what you get when you have a drug induced sleep…”

 

Gyrfalcon blinked, “You drugged me?”

“I…well, no actually, I didn’t. But I have a pretty good guess who did drug you.”

 

Sweetcherrie looked around. They were standing on a deserted beach, the palm trees she had heard were to her left, and to her right the waves were rolling pinkly onto the beach. The sand under her feet was purplish with silver glitters, and though the colours were distorted it was still beautiful.

 

“Excuse me? Sweetcherrie?”

 

He put his hand on her shoulder, and she pulled her eyes away from the coloured world around her to look at Gyrfalcon.

 

“Could you maybe explain a bit more?”

 

The ranger was looking utterly confused, and she grinblushed at him.

 

“The key I gave you, if you go to sleep touching it, it will lead you to paradise. Daryl helped me prepare, and-“

 

“Oh my god, he didn’t. I am so going to dangle that fox out of a window, with a rope tied around his paw.”

 

Sweetcherrie moved forward, and placed her hand on his arm, “Oh no! I’m sure he didn’t mean it that bad, or well, maybe, but still we ended up at this beautiful place…can’t be all bad, can it?”

 

Gyrfalcon raised an eyebrow in reply, “No, not all bad, but I will pay him back..one way or the other.”

 

Sweetcherrie opened her mouth to say something, but then changed her mind. She slipped her hand in his, and smiled at him, “Shall we just have a look around while we’re here?”

 

He grinned widely and he squeezed her hand, “Good plan.”

 

Hand in hand they walked away from the beach, and entered the palm tree forest. Further in they found a path, laid with marble stones, and they decided to follow it. Overhead the birds were still singing, and under the shade of the trees it was very pleasant to just walk there.

 

After they had been walking for about ten minutes, they saw a marble building in between the greens of the trees and bushes. Sweetcherrie grinned, and let go of his hand. She ran forward towards the building, and laughed happily when she ran into the building and discovered that she had visited this place in her paradise before.

 

She was standing inside what looked mostly like one of the marble bathing houses from the films and, as she heard Gyrfalcon enter behind her, she turned around.

 

“This has been in my paradise before, I hope you brought your swimming trunks because if I’m not mistaking there is a large basin just around…here.”

 

While talking she had entered the building further, and now the basin was lying in front of her. Inside this room the colours seemed more normal, this was probably due to the fact that this part of the paradise had come from her natural sleep.

 

She started taking her clothes off, and once she had reached her underwear she dove forward into the pool. She took a few strokes, and then came back up. Kicking water she turned around to see if Gyrfalcon was following. On the side of the basin the ranger was still standing fully clothed, and blushing heavily.

 

Sweetcherrie giggled, “You can come in you know, the water is nice and cool.”

 

“Erm…I sorta lack swimming trunks.”

 

“That didn’t stop me,” she grinned, and splashed some water in his direction.

 

Gyrfalcon shrugged and, still blushing, started to take his clothes off, folding them neatly and slipping into the water once he was down to his underwear.

 

Sweetcherrie smiled and swam towards him. She glided into his arms as if she belonged there and their lips met for a kiss.

[Sweetcherrie]

Two hours later they climbed out of the pool. Their skin was wrinkled, but both were grinning happily. They found towels in a small room on the side, and after having fun drying each other they spread them out on the floor next to the pool. Sunlight filtered in through the roof, and they lay down next to each other.

 

They spent another two hours talking and laughing, and got to know each other better and better. Then, as if they had both been drugged, they fell asleep. Their hands tangled together, and their breathing mixed.

 

When they woke up the sun was just dawning above the pen keep lake, and the air was starting to warm up slightly. They smiled at each other, and without words they started packing the blanket, the glasses and the wine back into the picnic basket. Their hands touched a couple of times, and each time it was as if electricity crackled through the air.

 

Gyrfalcon picked up the basket, and put his free arm around Sweetcherrie’s shoulder. With big grins on their faces they walked back to the Keep.

 

OOC: Gyrfalcon helped me out with his side of the story. Thank you

Edited August 2, 2006 by Sweetcherrie