CASIMIRA
dragon-shifting daughter of ashhal and ryatah
He catches the way her eyes flit away from his face, and then back to it again, and she sees the way a smile dares at the corner of his lips. A part of her wants to laugh, to shake away her embarrassment or at least find a way to own up to it. Had she been herself, had she not been barely holding herself up on such shaky ground, she would have. But instead all she can manage is a small and nervous smile, and she swallows everything away.
She is prepared to bury these new and unknown feelings trying to bubble over inside her chest, to let them fade away and let time erase them all after she leaves here.
She could have done it, she thinks, if he had not touched her.
She looks up from beneath her dark eyelashes when he lowers his head, and the way he looks at her is enough to make her pulse jump all on its own. She can see the quiet concern that pools in his eyes, and she isn’t sure if she can remember anyone ever looking at her with such kindness. But then she feels the feathers of his wing whisper across her cheek, and it feels like sparks lighting across her skin. There is a sharp inhale, and the way her heart beats so erratically she is afraid it will never steady itself again.
“I’m not beautiful,” she softly corrects him even though she doesn’t want to. She wants to be the pretty thing that he thinks he sees; a pretty girl with a pretty name and a pretty heart to match. She wants to lean into his touch and see what else might be there, to see if those sparks could arc into a wild electricity, but she stops herself, because it is a foolish thing to want. “If you knew the things that I have done, you would never say that.” The words are still quietly spoken, even as he backs away from her. Her pale blue eyes remain with his, and she thinks of the golden stallion she had attacked in her draconic fury. She doesn’t want to know what Badden would think of her if he knew of the beast she struggled with every moment of every day.
“Who taught you to be so kind, Badden?” She finally asks him with more of a smile, one that was stronger than any previously because for now, she is focused on him and not her own demons. She had learned her kindness from her mother, even if she did not always use it. He must have had someone in his life too, she thinks, and she cannot shake her desire to piece together everything about him.