illae, any

[Illae]

Illae placed it down gently, nestling the semi wilted stem into earth and pine needles. The damp coldness of winter had made it soggy, but the dusky red petals were still bright and alive enough to stand out against the forest floor it lay upon. It was a small token really, but it marked the great redwood she had slept and dreamed beneath from the first night Ruan and Heda had brought her to Taiga. You are my spot amongst all this wildness, she thought as she nudged delicately at the petals, spreading them just so in what she hoped resembled its original form. “Hmm,” she mused aloud, she would need to find more of them, perhaps enough to make a ring if they would stay put.

“Illae.”

With a start, she whirled around to face him as if she had been caught handling something sacred. It was out of habit that her eyes rounded uncertainly with fear, and habit too that she used her pale body to shield the pretty red flower away from him. Her mother would have marked her body with aches that would’ve persisted for days for squandering her time on pretty things. Yet the warm ease of his smile was enough to reminded her that Ruan was not her mother. And in a heartbeat her defences fell and she drifted towards him, finding again that familiar sanctuary at his touch she had become accustomed to. From the day Ruan had pulled her into the protected harbour of his great wing, she had learnt what it meant to feel safe.

As she had done from afar on other days, she eyed his scars and the change in him. One day she would have the courage to ask what had become of him away from Taiga, but it would not be this day. Beneath the scars, behind his eyes of ice, he was still Ruan, his protective affection of them all had always spelled that clear. She bumped her muzzle against the flesh at his throat, and felt the gentle vibration of his words before they became real, noting the guilt in his voice, though unable to comprehend it.

“It’s ok.” She murmured softly into the cosy warmth of his skin, before lifting her brown eyes to find his. Once they had been puffy with tears, now they gleamed with an inkling of something more bright. Curiosity perhaps? Wonder? It was all unbeknown to her of course. Though there was an aliveness that radiated from her flesh that had been absent before.

“I’ve been busy. Look…” Her delight evident as she peeled away from him and drifted back to the large redwood she had marked with the tiny red flower, her home within a home. She leaned down to touch it, the gentle caress of her breath was strong enough to disorganise some of the petals she had so meticulously arranged before. Illae sighed, though her mood didn’t dampen. “I want to find more of them, but I fear it is still too cold.” And she glanced back at Ruan, regarding him with a childish look one gives when they have a problem that demands fixing.

it's perfect :-D i've just pretended she's been here for a little while and done some growing of her own.