SLEEPLESS

What's up, glowy fox?

This was a test painting for a gallery show but I ended up deciding to go in a different direction. I wasn't really happy with the technique I used on the fox (it's too textured for my liking) -- but I thought I'd share it anyway.

Just a little heads up that my print store is having a sale!

                                          ~     Dhana Halstrod    ~                                          ~  Sorceress // Fighter ~

Elithrar barely flinched, but his hands betrayed him. He gazed at the wood floor, where his book has fallen, open to a curious illustration. Nothing licentious, mind you, but curious. Bizarre, even. A lot of excuses came to his mind to deny her words. But when he looked up to her, Elithrar saw her amused smile and the way her brown eyes seemed to sparkle in the room’s dim light.

“And what if?” he asked before thinking, a slight blush spreading on his cheeks and pointed ears. He inclined a little his head to remove a lock of hair from his eyes.

Well, what if indeed? Looking was nothing but an innocent game, wasn’t it?

xdepthsofwinterx​:

’He’s getting bolder’, Dhana thought with the slightest arch of an eyebrow. Red dusted his ears and cheekbones, a quiet flame within those golden eyes that fuelled his spoken challenge. A flirtatious challenge.

Those sepia eyes studied him, semi hooded, with a whisper of sultry intent.

“I’d ask ‘like what you see’ but-” she leans across the table, resting her chin upon her knuckles, “I feel like I already know the answer.”

The flutter of pages catches her attention, but it takes her a moment to look away from him, as if she were mesmerised.

“I guess the only logical question would be-” the sorceress leans over to study the intriguing contents of Elithrar’s book. Her lips curl at the corners as she finishes her sentence, “-what do you wish of me, master elf?”

Even if he wanted, he couldn’t deny it. He didn’t want to deny it, he realized, and that struck him strangely, his throat going suddenly dry as if they were in Anoroch’s desert, his heart beating like a mad drum inside his chest. He could feel it as if it was trying to break free from the bone’s prison constituted by his ribs.

Could she hear it?

“Why would I deny the truth?” he said.

Even if he didn’t feel that confident at the moment, she deserved some honesty from him. The elf didn’t confide much, to say the least. He kept his thoughts and feeling for him alone, usually. Cold and stoic were the general opinions about him.

But thanks to their common past, he knew he could trust her.

“Only what you want to offer, ” he finally said in a breath. But still, he couldn’t detach himself from her sepia eyes, shining with pleasure or amusement, he guessed. Her smile had enraptured him. The sorceress’ power and charms were too powerful and had broken all his defenses.

Elithrar could only surrender, and gladly he did.

Sepia eyes twinkled mischievously beneath those lashes, Dhana taking in a deep breath through her nose. Elithrar’s scent caught her attention; smoky incense, his natural musky with a hint of spice. Coy is the smile residing upon her face, this turn of events delighting the sorceress to no end. They had danced about the nature of their relationship for years. Solid friends, eternal family...but there was an undeniable attraction between the pair that had only seemed to grow as Dhana matured.

And now, so many years later, after their worlds had been turned upside down, both seemed...far more inclined to cross that line into uncharted territory.

Slowly, enticingly, Dhana lowered her arm. Fingers walked their way over the table between them, the velvet fabric of her fingerless gloves brushing against the bare flesh of his wrist. Calloused digits traced intricate patterns in the air naught a hairsbreadth from Elithrar’s skin, cold magic caressing him, causing a rush of goosebumps in response.

“The truth you say? And, pray tell, Eli, what truth is that?” Her voice has dropped an octave, something deep and rich. Enticing...that was the only word for it. She had toyed with him for so long, teased and encouraged the elf to lower his guard. To let her in. And as she pouted her lips, her wild yet alluring presence only grew more prevalent.

Raising her hand, Dhana directed her cold caress to Elithrar’s cheek, fingers coiling as she did. Dark eyes flickered to his lips and back up to his entranced gaze. That smile cocked up into a lopsided grin as she whispered.

Spells from all different reaches of the Continent.