Work Text:
For once in the timeless timespan of Angkara Murka, the Gamelan Hall was devoid of music and mirth: the throne empty, the musicians absent, and not even the lost souls loitered the hallowed stone halls. It was quiet occasions like these that Ayu could finally be free of her eternal duty however brief it may be. Instead of dancing, she was now at one of the designated bathing pool. With the ever flowing cool, clear water, she could wash herself of her sweat and whatnot and refresh herself for when she step back into the dance hall. She sat naked and unmoving, half submerged up to her chest in the shallow steps with her back pressed against the edge. Tears still flowed from the corner of her eyes even though she has no reason to cry anymore.
For even in Ayu's brief respite from dancing, Nyai Badarawuhi was also naked beside her favoured dawuh.
"Cah Ayu, why does your tears still flow?" Her hand carresses the younger woman's face gently, without wiping the tear away. "Are you... not happy here with me?"
"No... Nyai. I am elated to be by your side..." Ayu replied even as the tears seems to double in volume at her Nyai's gentle yet firm touch and voice. She gasped, as the scaly length of a snake slithered and wrapped itself tightly around her chest, waist, and in between her thighs.
"Then let me wash your tears away. They're unbecoming on your countenance. What will others say when they see my favorite dawuh like this?" Nyai Badarawuhi pulled herself away from Ayu towards the middle of the pool, and Ayu elicited a barely audible whimper as she too was pulled away from the relative safety of the shallow water and into the deeper water of the center of the pool. Her hair trailed above her head as she was pulled under the surface, and she briefly struggled against the grip of the snake wrapped around her body before Nyai Badarawuhi appearead before her without warning which made Ayu cry and burble with surprise. She inadvertently swallowed water into her windpipe and lungs, coughing and gurgling on the invasive liquid. Yet, the snake's grip was ever taut, and Nyai Badarawuhi watches on with wide eyed ecstasy as her dawuh sings a different kind of song only the deep water can make her.
A riveting solo just for her alone.
As her struggle weakens and before her vision dims completely, Ayu was lifted upwards by the snake, and she broke the surface coughing and heaving for air. Nyai Badarawuhi slowly rose from under the surface as well eyeing her dawuh as she recovers from her brief ordeal.
"Now, isn't that better, Nduk?" She reaches out to wipe the water from Ayu's cheek, leaving only a thin wet trail where she touched but clearly showing her tears now gone, at least for now.
"Yes, Nyai." Ayu offered a weak smile after she finally found her voice again. But before she could thank her nyai, the tears fell once more unbidden, and Ayu shuddered as Nyai Badarawuhi's sighed.
"My dear Nduk, let me wash your tears away again." She said with a pained smile before slowly sinking into the water once more, and Ayu could only smile weakly as the snake pulled her down once more too into the water as well to sing for her Nyai for as long as it pleases her...