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OLDHAMMER SMITHY - LATE AFTERNOON
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Cavro putters about the smithy, forge running on low as he doesn't have any major tasks going at the moment. Instead, he's working on setting a portion of Aurelius' order neatly into some crates; Fifty-eight nearly identical shelf ends, all made of twisted narrow square bar and decorative yet functional cross supports, as well as twenty-four matching top and bottom frames, just ornate enough to catch the eye without sacrificing function. The only thing missing is the lumber for the shelves, something which Cavro hasn't sourced just yet. He looks over the crates with a smirk of pride.
Erika practically bounces in the door, the okapi grinning widely: "Heeeey! How's my favourite friend-lover doing?" She pauses mid-stride: "...that sounded a bit wrong. Anyway!"
Cavro starts a bit at Erika's sudden arrival, but calms immediately as he trots over and hugs around her waist. "Hi love~! Do do doing great, actually, just packing one of the larger orders." He looks up at her with a warm smile. "How are you?"
Erika grins as she hugs Cavro back, leaning to nuzzle his neck: "Pretty greatness, really. Helping a friend is always fun!"
Cavro chuckles at the nuzzle, a light purr rising in his chest. "Who were you helping today?"
Erika blinks: "Oh, just Xochi! Her garden is doing greatnessly." She blinks again, looking up: "Is that a word?" She shrugs.
Cavro grins, slipping out of the hug and holding Erika's hand instead. "Xochi is... The snake lady that that that isn't the guard captain, right? I I I think I've seen her in the the market, but we've never met. Were you giving her ad ad advice on gardening in Respite?"
Erika nodnods excitedly: "Yeah, I've been helpin' her to get everything up and running! Although gardens don't really run, and I'm not so sure about snakes either."
Cavro chuckles again, nodding. "Enough gardens pop up in Respite, the town is is is going to smell really nice next summer!"
Erika shrugs, smiling: "Yeah, maybe! I dunno. More green is always good." She muses, then lifts Cavro's hand a bit: "Speaking of not really which, Xochi needs our help too."
Cavro blinks, squeezing her hand a little. "Mine too? I I I'd be glad to help your friend, what can I do?"
Erika looks about the forge, humming: "We need to make her something... something that's like representativeness of our relationship, of our love? That sort of... something?" She shrugs slightly, not entirely sure what she's after here.
Cavro hums as well, looking toward the forge as well as the stock shelves at the back. He pauses, then looks back to Erika with a little bit of skepticism. "Wait... Why?"
Erika shrugs with a smile: "She needs that sort of item for a ritual of some kind, something about what she's been missing. I wasn't really sure, but we can do something, right?"
Cavro nods slowly, though clearly a bit more concerned. "A a a ritual? Sorry, I I I don't understand... What's going to happen with a a a representation of our feelings in in in a ritual?"
Erika shrugs with a grin: "Beats me!"
Cavro shakes out a chill in his spine as his mind wanders to old tales of caution. Still, he takes a long look at the unworried expression on Erika's face and lets out a sigh. "Well, if if if you're not worried about it, then I I I won't worry either, darling."
Erika looks at Cavro, then takes his hand in hers again: "What's there to worry? Friend needs help, I wanna help. Make something."
Cavro chuckles, lifting her hand and kissing it. "Of course, but what? I I I guess it needs to be something more special than just a a a piece of wood with our names carved on it..."
Erika giggles: "Maybe? I don't really know, but... hmm." She looks about the assorted junk in the forge, frowning slightly.
Cavro pats Erika's hand before letting it go, starting to wander toward the back shelves and bins. They are filled with templates and half-finished ideas, pieces of iron plate with chalk lines, and bins of nails and brackets. The workbench has much of the same; rivets and nails, some scraps. In one bin under the bench is a finished set of iron rose stems, left over from his gift to his worried mother.
Erika follows Cavro, curious. She looks about, but the forge isn't really her playground (not since her Father soft-banned her from playing in there as a kid) anymore.
Cavro shakes his head at the things on the back shelf, wandering to the end of the workbench instead. He spots the stems, pulling one out and holding it up. "What if... Well, that's more of of of just my work, though... I was making them before we we we became so close..."
Erika looks at the stem, nodding slowly, a smile slowly spreading on her face as she muses: "Yeah... that could work! We could make a... a... something with that and..." She glances towards the door, thinking of her garden.
Cavro blinks at her, glancing where she's looking. "Uh... Oh! One of each, you think?"
Erika turns back, nod-nodding at Cavro: "Yeah! Like something like that. We can do that, right?"
Cavro grins, getting an image in his mind. "Yes, I I I think it could look nice and do the job! I can start on on on the iron one right away, if you want to find one from your garden~"
Erika perks up a bit more, getting excited: "Oh, yeah!" She gives Cavro a deep kiss, then starts out the door: "I'll be right back!"
Cavro returns the kiss with a hum, left blushing and a bit giddy as he watches Erika run off. A few seconds after she's gone, he turns to the forge and tosses the stem into the coals to soften it a bit in preparation, starting to sift through the scraps for petal-like flakes.
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A COUPLE HOURS LATER
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Cavro pulls the product of his work from the steam cloud, the petals no longer glowing orange as he holds the flower up by it's slightly spiralled stem for Erika to take. "It just just just needs your touch, darling~"
Erika looks at the flower, then looks at the almost eerily similar live flower she's just picked from her garden. "Yeah..." She takes the iron flower from Cavro, and carefully arranges the real rose entwined into it, sticking her tongue out as she focuses.
Cavro watches Erika as she works, blushing as his heart flutters a bit. He looks to the two flowers as she finishes, grinning with a bit of pride. "Your flowers really are so so so beautiful~"
Erika grins in about equal blush and pride as she's done, looking at Cavro: "Well, so are yours~."
Cavro steps toward her, setting one hand on hers holding the flowers, and wrapping the other around her waist in a half hug. "I I I hope it's what your friend needs."
Erika grins with visible joy: "I'm pretty sure it is. Made with love~" She leans to kiss Cavro: "Say, how'bout we finish tomorrow and go..." She whispers some blushingly devious words into Cavro's ear.
Cavro kisses her back, a scarlet blush under his fur as he listens to Erika's whispers. He grins and nods, looking at her with a bit of heat in his gaze. "Yes, I I I think I can't wait for touch... Er it it can... I... Let's go~"
Erika giggles as she holds Cavro's hand while leaving the unfinished work of flowery love on the table for now. She starts leading him towards her home and garden, their usual place for... tight handholding, obviously.
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ERIKA'S GARDEN - EARLY EVENING
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Cavro steps through the lower foliage into the clearing of Erika's garden, looking over his shoulder toward the okapi who owns the hand in his. He shivers slightly again in the open air, having forgotten his coat or even cap and feeling the cool warning of early autumn's evening.
Erika follows Cavro, only occasionally having stole glances at his rear as the two walked. She grins as they enter her garden: "Much softer here than at the forge, no?"
Cavro grin as well, nodding as he steps toward her. "Yes, if if if just a little cooler but that's okay..." He kisses the back of her hand, then her wrist as he starts a path up her arm. "I I I figure we both have some ideas on on on fixing that~"
Erika lets Cavro do his thing, leaning slightly towards him as the two find themselves in the middle of the mini-jungle once more. "Mmm, possibly..." She leans on giving Cavro a soft lick upon one of his ears, just cause she can.
Cavro giggles at the tickling lick, interrupting himself to reach up and kiss Erika properly. "I knew we would would would eventually see eye to eye."
Erika lifts her hands upon Cavro's shoulders, giving him a kiss: "Whatever do you mean, love?"
Cavro chuckles nervously, shaking his head. "I I I don't know, you know I'm bad at bedroom talk..." He grins depite the protest and embarrassed blush.
Erika kisses down Cavro's neck, kneeling down as she does: "But we're not - mm - even in bedroom now~."
Cavro smiles, enjoying Erika's attentions with a purr, his hands slipping down from her arms to her waist. "Mh, I know~ But your your your garden might as well be our bedroom by now~"
Erika lifts her hand up enough to slip off the wrap around her chest, revealing her perky little tits: "Possibly. Who cares?~"
Cavro chuckles, shrugging. "You're right~" He kisses Erika, one hand sliding up her side, teasingly brushing his thumb against her breast as he works the drawstring of his shirt's neck loose with the other hand.
Erika slides her hands against Cavro's sides and under his shirt, leaning close to kiss the badger.
Cavro gets the string loose enough, reluctantly pulling away from the kiss to pull it over his head, revealing an almost unmarred grey-furred body, a strong contrast to his work-scarred snout and arms though just as bulky from the same. Of course, he shivers at the cool air, but his mind is otherwise occupied.
Erika leans onto Cavro, not really intending to help keep him warm so much as enjoying touching her chest to his, but it does have the effect of warming up the badger anyway. She leans her neck to kiss Cavro's forehead... then does it again. Her tail swishes in agitation and emotion as she claims the badger once again as her own.
Cavro enjoys Erika's closeness and her relatively aggressive attitude, kissing her neck and shoulder as his hand caresses her back, the other supporting himself as he lays back on the soft soil.
Erika leans on top of Cavro, planting many kisses on his neck as her hands travel up and down his body. "You're the bestest~."
Cavro grins, his hand moving from the soil to her side, tracing her loin cloth around her hip. "Only the the the best would know that~"
Erika nibbles at Cavro's neck, mmh'ing: "If there's someone else here, tell them we're busy...~"
Cavro chuckles, nibbling her shoulder for a moment as he looses her loincloth, humming. "I I I hope they'd figure it out~"
Erika leans closer, nuzzling: "Mm, probably." Her hand wanders down on Cavro's body as though searching for something...
Cavro shivers at her wandering hand, blushing as his own hand slides down her back and cups a toned cheek, the other caressing up her side again.
Erika leans close, letting Cavro take the lead after her initial burst of aggressiveness, just happy to snuggle close his toned musculature for the moment.
Cavro grins, squeezing his handful of okapi before shuffling Southward under her. "My turn this this time, mmh?" He teases around her nipple with his tongue as his groping hand slips further around her thigh, brushing lightly across her nether lips.
Erika squirms at Cavro's touch, but doesn't shy away - if anything, she leans slightly towards his exploring hand.
Cavro responds to her movement, rubbing his fingers against her more firmly. He grins, looking upward toward her face.
Erika looks down at Cavro with a grin, wordlessly encouraging him to go on. She leans down to give him a soft kiss.
Cavro returns the kiss, purring while his fingers track up and around her hood. He hums, grinning. "You you you sure that becoming feral-bodied didn't have a a a side effect, with how you pounce~? Not that I I I'm complaining~"
Erika mm's softly, squirming more at the touch. "Mmm... d-dunno."
Cavro grins, blushing as he feels a bit of boldness. "Well, if you're not not not pouncing, I will~" He takes hold of her hips, rolling the two of them to the side, using his foot to push her loincloth from around her knees down to her ankles.
Erika grins and blushes as Cavro does his thing: "Mmh, used all my energy for pouncin' earlier..."
Cavro smiles, running his fingers down the inside of her thigh to tease her again. "It was your idea~"
Cavro definitively takes the lead from here, two voices possibly heard from the garden warning others off of taking an evening visit. The two lovers eventually do move inside, mostly to bask in their afterglow somewhere a little less cool than the grass and soil.