It was harder than she thought it would be, to un-learn how to trod so softly, as she had in the days when she was hunted. Harder still, to learn to relax her shoulders when she felt a stranger approaching, to keep her stride loose and even instead of flashing with exaggerated strength.
To learn to simply exist in a quiet sort of way, when she had come of age at the end of times; a woman forged in tribulation.
But Rual was helping, as he always had. And when the idea of a journey together - to spend time in each other's company and see the world at their own pace, without death or diplomats on their mind - was tossed between them it was an idea that stuck. It was strange, it was tempting.
So they set out, not for queen and country, not because a dark god commanded it or their lives depended on it. Just for fun.
Just for them.
On the morning of their journey, they dive into the channel which divides their home from the resort with the ease of two creatures in their prime. The crossing is easy, and it is not lost on her how difficult this minor obstacle would have been the last time she had been in Tephra with Raul. But she had become an expert at pushing away these intrusive reminders of the past, and she does so now as she pulls her sleek body from the waves, shaking away the kelp which had clung to her tangled mane in a spray of salt-water.
"Me neither," Warlight agrees, absently, as her shining black eyes take in the unknown territory. When she turns her angular face in his direction, Will is surprised to see a lopsided grin, almost boyish in its awkwardness. She doesn't hide her mild surprise; her freckled lips cracking into a smile to echo his own.
"Before you get all sappy on me, let's find the place we will call home for the next few days." Her comment is emphasized with a smack of her wet tail across his hocks as she springs into a trot. "I want to put the whole continent at my back," she calls over her shoulder, "and look west to see if there is anything out there at all."
To learn to simply exist in a quiet sort of way, when she had come of age at the end of times; a woman forged in tribulation.
But Rual was helping, as he always had. And when the idea of a journey together - to spend time in each other's company and see the world at their own pace, without death or diplomats on their mind - was tossed between them it was an idea that stuck. It was strange, it was tempting.
So they set out, not for queen and country, not because a dark god commanded it or their lives depended on it. Just for fun.
Just for them.
On the morning of their journey, they dive into the channel which divides their home from the resort with the ease of two creatures in their prime. The crossing is easy, and it is not lost on her how difficult this minor obstacle would have been the last time she had been in Tephra with Raul. But she had become an expert at pushing away these intrusive reminders of the past, and she does so now as she pulls her sleek body from the waves, shaking away the kelp which had clung to her tangled mane in a spray of salt-water.
"Me neither," Warlight agrees, absently, as her shining black eyes take in the unknown territory. When she turns her angular face in his direction, Will is surprised to see a lopsided grin, almost boyish in its awkwardness. She doesn't hide her mild surprise; her freckled lips cracking into a smile to echo his own.
"Before you get all sappy on me, let's find the place we will call home for the next few days." Her comment is emphasized with a smack of her wet tail across his hocks as she springs into a trot. "I want to put the whole continent at my back," she calls over her shoulder, "and look west to see if there is anything out there at all."
![[Image: Warlightpageddoll1.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/NMPHtrtV/Warlightpageddoll1.png)