Deception

Gelu could see he was nervous and almost deliberately avoiding her gaze; she puffed out a breath in frustration, why couldn't he just say it outright? Malsyn was a good guy, her best friend in fact.

And he knew she was a girl.

She knew that he knew.

The question was, how did he find out? Was it an accurate guess? Was it when she accidentally used her real voice earlier? Did he....See her at some point?

"I'm exhausted." Gelu replied with a smile, picking up the other oars "Let's get to the island quickly and get some sleep."

"Okay." replied Malsyn, rowing again to get there quicker. He swallowed.

"Look..." he stared, "I know your master wanted you to do this for his own selfish needs, and I know about you being a woman..." he said, wincing a bit, expecting the worst.

"I heard you fighting with your master once when I was passing by to take the old broken weapons to the blacksmith to be recycled... I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier, but I didn't want you to get in trouble..." he finished quietly, looking down at the bottom of the boat.

Gelu stared at him for a long time, a whirl of thoughts rushing through her head. She was angry, angry that her secret had been revealed so simply with that argument with Tal'Kun. But yet, she was touched that Malsyn had not told anyone her secret.

She took a deep breath, there was that one other secret. If Malsyn knew the first one, he might as well know the second.

"There's another thing, I...." Gelu faltered, but then took another deep breath "I...am a half-demon." she shut her eyes, turning her face away "I know it's bad but I obviously can't change my heritage, however much I want to."

Malsyn looked up at her and then looked past her for a moment, pausing. "Oh..." he said, then paused again.

His facial expression changed from that of surprise to that of reassurance. "I understand... It's okay." he said with a small smile, in a comforting manner.

"Oh, and my real name is Gelu." she shrugged, and then paused "Thanks...by the way, for not telling anyone my secret, and not minding me being a half-demon."

She seemed to contemplate something for a moment and then leaned across and kissed Malsyn on the cheek in gratitude. She picked up her oars again and continued rowing, her cheeks slightly pink; she focused on getting to the island where her wyvern was waiting.

Malsyn went slightly red too as she kissed him on the cheek. He smiled bashfully and kept rowing.

"Gelu... That's a nice name." he said, still blushing too.

"Wow... he muttered at the beauty of the wyvern cave as they continued to get closer, taking small breaks now and then to catch his breath.

"Thanks..." Gelu muttered, the pink in her cheeks deepening.

The island was quite small with a large cave dominating most of it, made of smooth rock, with various precious gems glittering from inside the great mouth.

They drew the boat up to the shore and Gelu climed out, staring at the cave in awe.

Malsyn got out and pulled the boat on shore and in behind a rock, out of sight. Now that they were going to be with a Wyvern, they didn't have much use for a boat, but one never knows when it may come in handy.

He joined Gelu's side and stared at the cave too, taking all the scenery in.

Gelu touched his elbow to signal that they were going in and led the way inside. Immediately, if sensing their presence, the cave lit up in an unusal blue light similar to that which appears when Ra'Halya teleports somewhere.

She led him depper into the cave; oddly the air still remained fresh and not stale. A warm air drifted towards them and played gently with their hair.

Malsyn followed Gelu as they entered the cave. He stared in awe as it glowed a unique blue. He took a deep breath of the unexpectedly fresh air inside the cave.

It was an enormous cave for such a small island...

The cave stretched far underground which explained it's deepness; the path gently sloped downwards, here and there along the way the disappearing backs of creatures could be seen in the periphial (sp) vision.

Gelu decided to strike up a conversation as they walked.

"So...What else clued you in to discovering that I'm a girl?"

Malsyn continued walking along side her as they went deeper and lower into the glowing cave. He paused for a moment.

"Hmm... well..." he started after a bit, and smirked, "Your mess up on the mountain back there was pretty funny and giving away." he finished, snickering a bit to himself.

Gelu cringed but grinned.

"It's too easy to be myself around you, it was the first time I've slipped in over seven years." she thumped him on the shoulder playfully. "Damn you, Malsyn." she joked.

Gelu smirked at another thought.

"Want to see something cool?" she asked, then faced him, her eyes flaring pink "This is my party trick" she snickered, her eyes returning to normal.

Malsyn laughed at her joking defeat, smirking.

Then his eyes went wide as her eyes turned a flaring pink.

"Woah...!" he said, thinking it was pretty cool, not only that, but just discovering his best friend was a demoness he thought was, in the words of Malsyn, "pretty damned cool" too.

"That pink eye thing actually happened before when you woke me up after Tal'Kun knocked me out, I'm glad you didn't notice then, otherwise it would raise some awkward questions." Gelu told Malsyn, smiling "I can do other demon stuff, but it's a painful process since I'm half-human."

As if in rememberance of Tal'Kun's attack, a whopping headache came on.

The cave passage began to get wider as they walked, eventually opening out into a large room about two leagues* in length and three leagues in width. Most of it was a lake, with a raised ornate platform in the middle upon which Ra'Halya waited.

"Welcome my Rider..." The wyverness spoke in the half-demoness' head "I see my co-Rider knows of your secrets, was this intentional?"

"Kind of." Gelu replied, flashing a grin at Malsyn who would hear the conversation as well. Headache forgotten. "His name's Malsyn."

"You admire him." Ra'Halya noted amused, this time only in Gelu's head. "I can feel it in your emotions."

Gelu went beet red.

"Um...How do we get across?" she asked quickly to change the subject.

"Command the water, it is the final test." Ra'Halya said to both of them and fell silent.

Malsyn stared in amazement at the beauty of the cave and looked at the wyvern. He turned to Gelu after they had been silent a moment before the wyvern told them to command the water.

"What do you think that means?" he asked her pensively.

((From my previous post: League = about seven miles))

Gelu controlled the butterfly greenhouse that had erupted in her stomach from Ra'Halya's words about Malsyn before answering.

"I think we might have to draw on our new power." she paused "Whoops, I forgot to transfer half of it to you - come here." she said nervously.

The half-demoness took his hands in hers and -trying not to get distracted- delved deep in her mind for the new sphere of power.
Finding it, she halved it and channeled one half down her arms and across her hands into his.

"Feel the power now?" she asked, grinning and drawing her hands away.

Malsyn was staring at her hands holding his own, daydreaming.

"Huh? Oh, yeah." He said, snapping back into reality.

"Wow, it has a warm, fuzzy feeling to it." he added, trying harder to focus on what they were supposed to be doing, rather than them holding hands.

Gelu laughed, but not unkindly at his obviously sidetracked thought train, having and idea of what it was about - the same reason she was getting distracted.

"Put your hand on my shoulder." she ordered, trying not to blush like an idiot again "We need to work together."