05-16-2022, 12:19 AM
I L I A N A
One of the first things she notices about the young stallion—Malik, he introduces himself as—is that he talks a lot.
For one as introverted as Iliana it would be easy to assume that she found this irritating, but in reality, she preferred it this way. It was appreciated when she did not have to make a concentrated effort to keep conversation flowing, since if it were left up to her it would likely come to a screeching halt nearly every time. She didn’t really see the point in small talk, and it is another point in Malik’s favor that he had almost immediately launched into the very heart of why he was in Silver Cove.
She soaks in his river of words with an almost unblinking stare—which he might interpret as being rude, but really it’s just how her face looks sometimes—as she waits for a pause to signal when it would be her turn. When it finally comes there is at last an amused smile that turns up the corner of her dark lips, her rose-gold eyes seeming to light from within as she takes a moment to better survey him. “Well Malik from Hyaline, that was….a lot.” She follows this with a short laugh, but already she can feel herself beginning to relax. “My name is Iliana, and yes, I was born in Hyaline. I thought you looked familiar, but I tend to keep to myself. Most of my family does, honestly.” She knew that at one point in time both of her parents had been in the thick of Beqanna’s politics, but it was so long ago the kingdoms they had led didn’t even exist anymore.
She only knew this version of Atrox and Ryatah; the ones that were more interested in each other than anything else happening in Hyaline or the rest of Beqanna.
“You were sent on a quest to find deer parts?” she asks him a bit dubiously, circling back to what he had said earlier about needing to find a silver deer. “I could probably help you track one,” she says, perhaps a bit too nonchalantly—he doesn’t need to know immediately just exactly how good she is at tracking deer. “But, I mean….what’s in it for me?” She looks at him with an angled head, expectant, even though she intends to help him regardless of his answer.
For one as introverted as Iliana it would be easy to assume that she found this irritating, but in reality, she preferred it this way. It was appreciated when she did not have to make a concentrated effort to keep conversation flowing, since if it were left up to her it would likely come to a screeching halt nearly every time. She didn’t really see the point in small talk, and it is another point in Malik’s favor that he had almost immediately launched into the very heart of why he was in Silver Cove.
She soaks in his river of words with an almost unblinking stare—which he might interpret as being rude, but really it’s just how her face looks sometimes—as she waits for a pause to signal when it would be her turn. When it finally comes there is at last an amused smile that turns up the corner of her dark lips, her rose-gold eyes seeming to light from within as she takes a moment to better survey him. “Well Malik from Hyaline, that was….a lot.” She follows this with a short laugh, but already she can feel herself beginning to relax. “My name is Iliana, and yes, I was born in Hyaline. I thought you looked familiar, but I tend to keep to myself. Most of my family does, honestly.” She knew that at one point in time both of her parents had been in the thick of Beqanna’s politics, but it was so long ago the kingdoms they had led didn’t even exist anymore.
She only knew this version of Atrox and Ryatah; the ones that were more interested in each other than anything else happening in Hyaline or the rest of Beqanna.
“You were sent on a quest to find deer parts?” she asks him a bit dubiously, circling back to what he had said earlier about needing to find a silver deer. “I could probably help you track one,” she says, perhaps a bit too nonchalantly—he doesn’t need to know immediately just exactly how good she is at tracking deer. “But, I mean….what’s in it for me?” She looks at him with an angled head, expectant, even though she intends to help him regardless of his answer.
-- the shadow is mine, and so is the valley
@Malik