Rey had scrubbed every inch of the lower two thirds of her body, her tail having taken the longest, as she took equal pride in keeping it shiny and luxurious as she did with the hair on her head, and had moved on to her arms, sponging the sudsy water over her shoulders and back. When she finally reached up to get to work on her hair, she found that her arms were so sore, that she couldn't even raise them high enough to reach the base of her neck. After several tries, she turned to Kylo, who was now resting his chin on one hand while he stared into the water, lost in thought. "He almost looks like he could be not completely awful when he stares off like that" Rey thought to herself "He might even be rather handsome if I was feeling really generous." "Hey," she called out "Could you help me?" He started slightly and raised his eyes to look at her questioningly; she held up her hands "This is as far as I can lift them, and I can't reach my hair" she said laughingly. Without a word, he reached out and guided her to a position facing away from him, and began taking her buns down "Why do you wear your hair this way?" He asked, unwinding one after the other; he was surprisingly gentle , taking care to not yank at her hair, and being as gentle as he could "If I'm not mistaken, this kind of hairstyle is worn by faun children, and you're...not quite a child?" He said it like someone who was fairly confident in their assessment, but wanted to be sure.
Rey nodded "Yes, you're right. I should have been confirmed as an adult three springs ago, but my horns stopped growing when I reached my fourteenth year, and the elders refused to acknowledge my adulthood until they grew again, so I've been stuck in the status of a child indefinitely." Kylo had finished taking her buns down "Let me take a look at your horns," He grasped her chin gently and turned her face toward him; brushing her hair out of the way, he drew closer to her, a concentrated frown creasing his brow as he studied the horns protruding from her forehead. "Well, they look perfectly healthy" he gripped one of them, rubbing his thumb over the length of it, and in the process making Rey almost cry out: she'd never felt anything like THAT from someone touching her horns before; it sent a chill down her spine and almost made her skin break out in goose flesh. Kylo, oblivious so the feelings he'd invoked in her continued "They're small, it's true, but they look mature, and they're quite sturdy. Anyway, your elders are fools to judge your maturity based on faun growth milestones, when you are clearly of a different ilk." He turned her head back away from him, and poured water over her hair before taking the soap in his hands and working it into a lather.
Rey leaned back against the cauldron and closed her eyes trying to compose herself after the delicious shock she'd just received; she was tempted to make a sassy remark about how he had said he wasn't going to give her any special treatment, but she was afraid he would stop. "Seeing as how you seem very sure that I'm not the smallest bit faun, can you tell me what I am? You mentioned the word satyrkind." He was silent for a moment "What did the ones who raised you tell you that you are?" Rey shrugged "They didn't. I was left outside my mother's hut as a newborn; no one ever tried to call me anything, they all knew I was different, but they just raised me as one of their own."
"Hmm" He seemed to be searching for a way to best explain "Do you know what a satyr is?" "It sounds familiar," she replied "Aren't they a bit like fauns?" Kylo set down the soap he'd been lathering and started working it into Rey's scalp "Satyrs and fauns are cousins of a sort; they both have goat-like legs and horns. The one physical difference is that satyrs have cloven hooves, while faun hooves are solid; once you get past physical appearance, all similarities end. You are already familiar with fauns: they are calm folk and reject the company of almost all other sentient creatures, save the fauna they share their territories with." He moved from her scalp, grabbing the cloth and thoroughly scrubbing her ears, making sure to get behind them, and all the way up to their delicate tips. "Satyrs on the other hand are wildly social creatures; they love wine and song, and will fuck literally anything that is possibly fuckable." Seeing the disgust on Rey's face, he allowed himself the smallest of smirks. "They sound like magical creatures," Rey griped "I clearly don't fit into the category of faun or satyr, so how does what you said I am, a satyrkind, fit into all of this?" Kylo began rinsing the suds from her hair and ears "The word satyrkind means the child of a satyr. Now, I know you're going to ask how you could be the child of a satyr, when you look nothing like one, apart from your horns. Satyrs live very long lives and, as I'm sure you can imagine based on their social natures, do not reproduce very often; however, when they do, they most often do so with their own kind. A satyr mating with another satyr produces a satyr, therefore there is no need for a special name. A satyrkind on the other hand, is what happens when a satyr reproduces with a different race." He had finished rinsing her hair by that time, and wrung all the water he could from it; then, tying it up at the top of her head, he resumed his former position leaning against the side of the cauldron, chin resting on one hand.
" Ages ago, Satyrs used to breed with other races much more often, spreading their blood far and wide. One odd thing about them, is if two creatures possessing satyr blood, regardless of how they dominantly present, will always produce another satyr. Satyrkinder are born when a satyr reproduces with a creature who has no trace of satyr blood; and the the abilities that child is born with, as well as what they look like, is heavily dependent on the race of the other parent." Rey nodded "I think I get what you're saying: one of my parents was a satyr, as evidenced by my horns and the presence of a tail. On the other hand, my other parent is a mystery. Also, would you explain my tail? It's not like a satyr's at all; it looks like a horse's tail" She picked up the wash cloth and leaned over, motioning him closer; he frowned and drew back, not understanding her intention. She pointed at the would on his forehead that had long hardened over with dried blood, again beckoning him closer; this time he cooperated, although hesitantly, and she proceeded to sponge the blood away.
"The other half of your parentage may be a mystery for now, but I have a few vague ideas of its nature." he let his eyes fall closed as Rey washed his face "Exploring the nature of your abilities however, could provide much more reliable clues as to what it might be. As far as your strange tail, I can't think of what kind of creature might possess one like it, but satyrs recessively carry the traits of many different races; some so ancient they may be entirely unknown to us. It's possible that trait comes from a race that doesn't even exist anymore." "I see," she answered, finishing her task and wringing out the washcloth "Well, Kylo Ren, I'd very much appreciate it if you would let me stay and teach me how to discover whatever abilities I might have. What do you say?" She asked brightly. He pondered her proposition for a few moments, running a thumb over his bottom lip. "I suppose I could teach you how to harness your magic. Though..." He fixed her with that strange stare of his again "What would be in this for me?" Rey's head popped up from where she's been resting it against the side of the cauldron "What do you mean?" She asked cautiously, put on her guard again by the weight that seemed to cling to his words "What I mean is," he played his fingertips across the surface of the water "You would be staying here with me; you'd need food, shelter, clothing eventually. Your lessons would take up a majority of my time, so how do you plan on making compensation?"
Rey drew away from him slightly; she saw that she had allowed herself to think of him in a friendly light, when the truth was that she didn't know this man in the least, and had no idea what his intentions for her might consist of. She thought about withdrawing her proposal entirely, but what would she do then? She couldn't go home with nothing; and trying to figure out her abilities all alone? Magic could be incredibly dangerous, and she knew nothing about it; she might as well just drown herself in the bath right then and there. She sighed "What could I possibly have to offer you?" He thought for a moment, stroking his chin "Well, you do have a very unique smell about you; I'd be quite curious to find out what your power feels like. I will agree to all your requests if you allow me to feed off your spirit energy every now and then. Not to worry" He rushed to explain seeing the look of panic come over her features "Sapping energy like this is not harmful in small doses; it will only make you feel slightly tired for a short period of time, there are no lasting consequences. And it will give me a stronger feel for the source and nature of your power."
Rey was torn; on one hand, she wanted to reject him outright. "Feeding" off her spirit energy sounded horrible, and she didn't necessarily trust his definition of "small doses", nor his ability to maintain self control. On the other hand, she desperately wanted to explore her potential and find out as much about where she came from as she could. There was also a tiny voice deep down inside her, that she would never openly acknowledge, that was curious about what it would be like for this Kylo Ren to feed on her. She'd never had any kind of sexual experience in her life, aside from the exploring of her own body that she'd done in the rare occasion that she'd had some privacy; and even though Kylo said nothing about it being sexual in nature, the way it had felt when he touched her horn, and everything she felt when she looked at him, along with the aggressive way he sometimes spoke to her, told her that this was an experience she'd regret running away from.
"Well?" Kylo's voice broke through her thoughts "Do you think that's something you can agree to?" "Give me a minute, I'm still deciding" she replied "I'm done in here now, though. Help me out?" Kylo reached out his hand toward where the robe he'd brought out for her lay on the log bench. Much to Rey's surprise, the robe levitated and flew into his hand, where he shook it out and held it up for her to step into. Rey followed his lead, and, hugging herself once more in another attempt at modesty and to hide as much from his eyes as she could, she stood up and turned her back to him, reaching out behind her with one arm and then the other, slipping into the giant black robe. Once she had the robe wrapped around her upper half, Kylo lifted her out of the bath his hands under her arms just like he had before. He wrapped her up tightly, and picked her up, carrying her into his cave and depositing her on a made up bed on the low couch near the hearth. As he was covering her with blankets and tucking them around her, she looked up at him "I'd like to know about what exactly you are, and the nature of your own abilities; would you tell me about them?" He pulled the blanket up to her chin "Yes, in time, I'll tell you all about what I am and show you all I can do. But that's a conversation for another time. Get your rest now."
He stepped back and turned around, proceeding to strip off his shirt, and was moving to take off his pants when Rey squeaked out an alarmed "What are you doing?!" He looked over his shoulder at her "You're not the only one who needed to bathe" Her eyes grew wide as he stripped of the remainder of his clothing and, still keeping his back to her, strode out of the cave. A few minutes later she heard him climbing into the cauldron, and she buried her head in her pillows in blushing shame at herself for wondering what he looked like from the front.
Rey tried her best to wait until Kylo was done bathing to let him know that she would accept his offer, but the warmth of the bed, and soft sounds of the fire lulled her into a deep sleep. "Oh well," she thought to herself as she drifted off "I'll just tell him in the morning."