The blackened mare looked distracted. Her eyes clouded over as if she was lost to some other reality. Nymf could only imagine what it must be like to carry the weight of an entire kingdom upon one’s shoulders. All the lives that relied on her and required her wisdom. It was no wonder that she was a hard mare to intercept.
From afar, Nymf watched her new queen. She’d never had a queen before. The nomadic lifestyle had been the only thing she’d ever known. Her parents had refused to settle into a kingdom and when she found her Seb, it felt natural that they should follow their example. Life seemed less complicated that way. They’d ruled themselves. It was a freedom that she could never forget and, yet, more recently it was the idea of that very freedom that terrified her. Many a moonlit night she’d laid awake and wondered if he’d still be alive if they’d had a sovereign to protect them. If they had the strength of numbers behind them they would not have been targeted and his life would have been protected.
She shook the thoughts from her mind. There was no point in fixating on the things that she could not change. Though her heart was heavy, she tried to focus on the new life she was beginning to pave for herself. She had to do her best to make something of herself under the Nerine Queen. She had to grow stronger, to prove to herself that she was so much more than a chunk of meat to be used at the pleasure of men. Never again would she allow herself to be caught unaware. Next time, she would fight just as hard as any man ever could.
The voice of Hestia interrupts her musings and she is caught of guard. Surprised. For days she’d watched the mare as she worked tirelessly amongst her people. She always seemed preoccupied – unreachable. Though Nymf had set out to introduce herself to Hestia, she’d not actually anticipated that she would be successful.
Suddenly, she was at a loss. She’d never spoken with a queen before. Should she bow? Should she address her with some kind of title? There had been no preparation for the moment that she’d found herself in and she stuttered stupidly.
”Forgive me,” she finally managed, lowering her neck respectively. ”I have never had the pleasure of addressing a queen.”
Her cheeks flushed with the color of her embarrassment. She should have asked Volcan the proper way to speak to her new ruler. Instead she had found herself looking like a fool.
”I have wanted to introduce myself to you,” she decided to proceed towards the point of her hoped for encounter. ”I am Nymf, Volcan’s newest recruit.”
Recruit sounded better than rescue. It was still embarrassing to remember the circumstances that she had been brought into the fold. She doubted that Hestia would look warmly upon her if she caught wind of her past suicidal tendencies. There were still times when she heard the voice of her beloved Seb beckoning her to join him – and sometimes she wanted to. But, now she had Kiwi to look after and she had a promise to fulfil. She would avenge him. She had to. Then, maybe after, she could join him.
@[Hestia]