[open] The dark of December

[Pteron]

and since you’re the only one that matters,----------------
----------------tell me: who do i run to?

He waits, quiet, while Neverwhere puzzles through whatever it is that keeps her occupied. Pteron is reluctant to rush her, being all too aware of the sensation of being knocked unconsciousness. Of course, for Pteron it lasts only moments – Neverwhere is less quick to heal, and her angry hiss of a voice is not entirely unexpected. Pteron would not feel very patient if he bled like she does. She rips at the tree, and Pteron watches her take out her fury on the defenseless maple without a word. He even glances away, giving her this moment to herself as much as he can without leaving her exposed. He knows how it feels to have control taken away, how sometimes giving up is the only choice. That Neverwhere points to the scar below his throat at the moment that memory returns to him sends a cold shiver of coincidence down the pegasus’ teal spine.

Without thinking, he tucks his head down to hide the scar left by blue flames

Do all his siblings do that, Neverwhere inquires. Do what, Pteron thinks? Develop a resistance to their magical healing if one spot is destroyed too many times? Offer to help injured women in the woods out of the goodness of their hearts? Definitely not the latter, the dun thinks to himself, the image of the green-eyed Celina with her sharp teeth sinking into the soft skin of Elio’s nose replaying in his mind. His family is falling apart, and Pteron is hiding out in the woods. The guilt rises again, seemingly strengthened by the nearness of the bald-faced mare. He shakes it away, and shakes his wings as well, bending them gently before tucking them once more against his sides. There they disappear, and he is an ordinary looking horse save his coloring.

He’s not heard of her dislike of magic, or else Pteron would not have been so casual used his invisibility. It is only habit, borne of months of patrol in these transient woodlands. It’s better to look boring in these parts, better to not draw the eye. Unfortunately, Neverwhere is likely to draw in all sorts of dangers here in the open. The blood is a beacon for hunters both natural and mythic; standing near her is like placing himself beside a target. But he cannot leave her. It would not be right.

Pteron comes from a different chapter of his parents’ lives, raised in a time when there was far less fear and never any strife that reached the children. They had taught him the values they held: loyalty and honor and family. This chapter in life is far different; they are all of them stalked by any number of dangers and even the unborn seem to quiver in terror. Yet the green-eyed man retains the compassionate heart that he has always exhibited, even when it means drawing Wolfbane’s ire. Leaving her out here would be the safest option for himself and Aegean, but it wouldn’t be right.

“I could help you back to Nerine,” Pteron tells her, “unless there is somewhere else you would rather go.” He looks away from the dark cloud horizon as he says this, his olive green gaze focused intently on the beaten mare. He remembers her words when he had ceded Taiga to Aten. “You are welcome to shelter with us during the storm, or longer if you wish.” Pteron has been encountering a fair number of Aegean’s family of late; perhaps this is the Fates’ way of evening the balance. He’s heard of the boys in Taiga, knows that the thing that wears his father’s skin has been satisfying its need for violence and chaos in an increasingly depraved manner.

That Neverwhere is a victim of such an assault seems clear, but asking seems invasive. Insensitive even, so Pteron is quiet and for the first time laments that he has done so well in ridding this area of any plant that might endanger Aegean and the child he carried.

“If my father learns he failed to kill you, I doubt you will survive your next meeting.” Pteron says quietly. His voice is as calm as if he comments on the ever-darkening sky. “But perhaps if he thinks you dead, you will have time to regain your strength.”

@[Neverwhere]

-- pteron --