07-26-2019, 12:40 AM
V u l g a r i S
If there is anything in this world that challenges his love for Leliana, it is the depth of love he has for their children. Five girls and one boy, he reminds himself with a quiet laugh as he boredly walks along the border of Tephra. At least, he chalks it up to boredom but he has paced this trail so many times that it has begun to form a dirt trail. Several of the children had come early when the frost still clung to the grass fields in the morning but this year feels like an eternity. He swallows nervously as he turns to begin the path anew.
As he takes that first step, however, her beckon curls across his face like her gentle touch and he feels himself pause. His ears swivel forward and he hurries to her favorite corner of the kingdom. Vulgaris isn’t built for speed, of course, but his long legs carry him as swiftly as they can until he finds her there curled up on the ground. He smiles like an idiot, the expression wide enough to warm his eyes before he edges closer to her.
The pale man lowers himself carefully to lie behind her and occasionally brush her mane from her face with a loving touch. Leliana can heal herself and labor just fine even without him, he tells himself, but a knot forms in his stomach just the same as it has every time. The sound of her breaths coming in a steady rhythm is reassuring as he watches her face for any sign of discomfort beyond what he’s learned to expect.
Finally, he is surprised to watch a second baby join its sister on the ground. They shimmer like fire and little explosions of color when Leliana kisses them for the first time. Her voice is a morning hymn when she speaks the girl’s name like a precious secret. A slow exhale eases from his lungs, a breath he didn’t know he was holding, when he focuses on the boy. A boy and a girl, just like Larke and Chronos. Will they be as inseparable? His cheeks ache with the smile across his face as he carefully stands at last.
“Drache. A strong name for the youngest of our brood,” he says as he gently kisses each of their foreheads. “Saint and Drache.”
As he takes that first step, however, her beckon curls across his face like her gentle touch and he feels himself pause. His ears swivel forward and he hurries to her favorite corner of the kingdom. Vulgaris isn’t built for speed, of course, but his long legs carry him as swiftly as they can until he finds her there curled up on the ground. He smiles like an idiot, the expression wide enough to warm his eyes before he edges closer to her.
The pale man lowers himself carefully to lie behind her and occasionally brush her mane from her face with a loving touch. Leliana can heal herself and labor just fine even without him, he tells himself, but a knot forms in his stomach just the same as it has every time. The sound of her breaths coming in a steady rhythm is reassuring as he watches her face for any sign of discomfort beyond what he’s learned to expect.
Finally, he is surprised to watch a second baby join its sister on the ground. They shimmer like fire and little explosions of color when Leliana kisses them for the first time. Her voice is a morning hymn when she speaks the girl’s name like a precious secret. A slow exhale eases from his lungs, a breath he didn’t know he was holding, when he focuses on the boy. A boy and a girl, just like Larke and Chronos. Will they be as inseparable? His cheeks ache with the smile across his face as he carefully stands at last.
“Drache. A strong name for the youngest of our brood,” he says as he gently kisses each of their foreheads. “Saint and Drache.”
In this shook-up, twisted world, I'm gradually growing transparent and vanishing
Don’t look for me; don't look at me
Don’t look for me; don't look at me
