11-23-2018, 10:35 PM
the taigan
She considered his question, her soft earthly gaze taking in their surroundings. He could see the foggy mist reflected in her eyes, the tall shadows of the trees. A circle of moonlight was there too, shining brightly despite the darkness around them. Or perhaps stubbornly?
"No," she finally answers after deliberating with herself, her voice like a rich velvet. "I think I am just where I'm meant to be."
He tilted his head, studying her. Was that a comment on premonition or some other kind of magic? His life had been full of so much of it, and he couldn't help but wonder. He kept the question to himself though, and his patience was rewarded with her name as she offered it next. Elysteria. Ely.
"Do you live here?"
He filled his chest with a slow, deep breath and nodded. "Yes. This is the Taiga." This was the first time in a while that he'd introduced it, and it felt damn good. Perhaps it was odd to the rest of the world, but he couldn't remember a single time he'd introduced himself as its leader or former leader in this case. The Alpha. It had always been only:
"I am Ruan."
His eyes remained steady on her, intense as was his usual way of being. He sensed she may have been from the Before, a depth of knowledge and history in her eyes. He had been young then and hadn't had connections with the politics. So he had no idea if admitting Eight had been his king, Topsail his Queen, was a bad thing. He added it to the conversation anyway.
"I was born in The Valley. Traveled while I was young." After his mother had died, his sister too. His only family. "I had barely returned when The Reckoning came. I have lived here since."
He had helped grow it by a large number, finding kind or feral souls from the Field, or adopting orphaned children. He was too humble to say so aloud, or even think it for long, but he knew it was the truth that he and Jinju had done the most for the Taiga out of all of them. Aten, too, when he'd made it his home. It had been in their care for the longest and they had never been idle caretakers of their Taiga. Romek, his once-king, had chosen well.
"Where do you come from?" He had never been skilled with small talk, but somehow this didn't feel like it was. So perhaps he was doing it right this time.
