[private] sabbath;

[Valek]

Summer sun flashes off Valek’s skin as he lopes along the rivers edge and then into the tall grass of the meadow. He is bright and dark in equal parts, rich auburn bay with sabino markings that make him look as though he has just raced through liquid gold.



It is no wonder his dam looks on him with proud exasperation. Handsome, reckless thing.



Kensa is a permissive mother and yet Valek has never come down into the common lands. Hyaline is vast and has long satisfied his desire to roam while shaping him into the promisingly stocky boy who slows to a stop beneath the vast branches of an old rangy oak. From this vantage he can take stock of the vast meadow and its gently rolling hills. The sun is dropping ever lower in the west and he decides he’ll stay at least until he can see the sun setting behind the forest. He is still young enough to return to his own bed each night. It has not occurred to him to deviate from all the patterns of his infancy. Yet.



Here in the meadow there are a number of unfamiliar horses, but Valek is more particular than his mother in matters of socialization and does not introduce himself to anyone nearby. Instead he trots around the tree in ever widening circles, claiming the tree and its shade as his personal territory. He flags his black tail and arches his neck as he goes. Posturing. Eventually he stops at the edge of his domain and paws at the dust bright eyes scanning the strangers for someone to join his kingdom.

VALEK

[Sabbath]

SabbatH

i'll let you play the role. i'll be your animal.

She’s grown now, by some standards, and her coat has begun to gray. Small red dapples reveal themselves a little more each day, peppered across her back and hips like her mother’s. If it weren’t for that broken horn, she’d be quite lovely, with her high cheek bones and sage green doe eyes. But she doesn’t want to be lovely. Nothing in her aches to be called beautiful but rather hungers for something like power, like strength.

Sabbath hides her soft eyes behind a mess of black forelock while the little pits just behind her nose show her the world. The serpent girl doesn’t care for the colors of the meadow even as it turns golden in the summer sun. No, she just wants to separate prey animals from predators. She wants to map heat signatures and memorize the shape of her next meal. Her tongue travels across the razor edge of her many fangs as she tries to wade through the bodies taking up space around her.

She is a young viper with little experience on how to hunt. Adna is too busy with her children to teach her and their father has left them to live his fairy tale with their mother. A soft snort of frustration leaves her when she spots Valek slowly orbiting his tree, drawing further from its shade with each relaxed rotation. Sabbath blinks, tosses her head to brush the tangle of forelock from her face. He’s all shimmering gold but she’s learned to fear the beautiful boys she meets in this life. Still, maybe she could use a refresher.

She walks a little closer to him, the hot summer sun turning the scales across her a fiery red. Sabbath is careful to leave a few feet of space between them. “Are you staking your claim here?” she asks curiously, her voice like a siren song summoning others toward jagged rocks. She tilts her head curiously and even offers a soft smile full of pointed teeth.

@[Valek]

[Valek]

Valek is a boy setting up a fortress from which he will chase away any interlopers. He is the champion of this bit of shade, the master of everything he can reach in 10 or so long strides. The day is growing hot, and without knowing it he has secured a prize bit of real estate in the vast meadow. Like a flashing lure he draws attention, but he is already so solidly built and full of the willful piss and vinegar of colts that no one approaches except for one young viper.

She is striking without being an incredibly beauty, but then he is well accustomed to beauty and it takes more than loveliness to beguile him for even a moment. In this he is like his mother. Danger draws his attention far more readily than sweetness or virtue. He’d been conceived thanks to that very risky personality quirk after all.

His golden legs shift (he never quite gives up motion) and his rich eyes track the scaled the girl. He does not step over the invisible boundary of his kingdom though his dun-barred ears shift infinitesimally to scoop up every note of her words. He envies her needle sharp teeth without knowing why, having no knowledge of his dormant kelpie genes. “Yes. This tree and all its shade are mine now. You can come in, if you want to be the Queen.” A smile, rakish and friendly appears on is own lips briefly and then he waits to see just what she will say. He has a few sisters and a mother, none of them lambs, and so he is prepared to be rebuffed.

VALEK

@[Sabbath]

[Sabbath]

SabbatH

i'll let you play the role. i'll be your animal.

As he changes course to meet her approach, she is studying him and the length of his strides. Could she take him in a fight or would he best her in battle? This life is all about the struggle, after all, and she’s tasted blood enough to know she likes it in the worst way. But he is all kindness when he speaks so maybe they’ll never know which of them is the strongest. Her smile broadens a little at his offer and she laughs softly at his words.

A queen, her? Her mother or her sister Linnea would perhaps be better suited for such a role. Her veins sing for something not quite so polished and pretty. Sabbath tilts her head and takes a step closer, though her expression does not dare him to hold his ground. “Could I be the general instead? I’ll guard your crown so you don’t have to get dirty,” she offers, the light in her eyes dancing at the idea of being a warlord. The serpent girl continues to slink closer until they’re so close she could reach out and kiss him – if she wanted.

“My name is Sabbath. What’s your, my king?”

She keeps her chin tucked down as though she’s modest or bashful and the sun reflects off the pearlescent shard of her horn. Her sage green eyes remain on his as she waits patiently for his name. Would he be more like Aegean or like Eight? Sabbath wishes she could peek into his chest and find all the things he’s collected in his heart but she is only fangs and scales. Magic could never choose a girl as fractured and voracious as her, she knows. But she’s a patient hunter and she’ll find a way to pluck his secrets from his tongue in time, she’s sure.

@[Valek]

[Valek]

He wears a look of hopeful interest tilted handsomely by a rakish smirk that turns to a fully delighted smile as she prowls closer to him. No she may not be a Queen, unless she should dethrone him and extend martial law over his kingdom of cool blue shadow. A sobering thought but he will have to prove himself a good king or do his best to defend his throne should she attempt a coup. Despite all the thoughts smoothly flitting through his imaginative mind Valek does not take more than a second to agree to have her for his General. “A King needs a General as much as a Queen. Maybe more.” In his estimation, because he has not yet been snagged on romance’s hook. He does like the look of a savagely beautiful young woman but hasn’t yet learned what to do with her, about her, or for her. 

Closer still she comes, her chin primly tucked so that her neck is a bold arch with red scales catching the sun and his eyes until she crosses the border out of the light. “I am called Valek, and you are General…?” He asks in a very formal way, though where he has learned it is a mystery, his mother might speak too often in imagery but barely bothers to introduced herself most of the time. Valek shakes his bay and gold head, leaving his mane a tousled mess falling into his eyes “What first, good General? A patrol of our borders? Or do we make plans for conquest?” The sun will set and take their land away, or perhaps make everything theirs, they will have to see what comes with the fading of the day. There are many hours yet to go, and the heat of the day is not backing off. 

VALEK

@[sabbath] @[Sabbath]