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She wasn’t sure what she had expected in response - she just knows that what Gale says with his eyes on the ground surprises her.
In the time it takes to blink, too many thoughts rush through Mazikeen’s mind.
Part of her resents the warm flush that prickles across her skin as though the words have settled upon her. That part is also furious at the rapid pace of her heart and annoyed at how easily this compliment affects her. It shouldn’t - it’s just a word. An opinion. It’s not even the word she’d most preferred to be described as.
When he closes his eyes and thus avoids her gaze, she wonders if it’s a lie. Mazikeen has never doubted the words of a friend before. Coming from anyone else, she would have made a joke about it but accepted the truth at the same time.
None of her other friends had ever affected her in this way before. She thinks of how the first time they had touched outside of battle had been when she was a horse, how this skin had been the one he had brushed up against when moving past her. The fact that she remembers each moment feels ridiculous and silly and the significance of those memories to her frightens her.
And yet there’s a thrill mixed in with the fear. Mazikeen becomes aware of the fact that she’s smiling when she makes up her mind to act on instinct instead of thought. It feels as though she’s moving in slow motion when she reaches across the gap between them to brush her muzzle against his neck where she had shoved him lightly a few moments ago. She stops herself before she can trace the whole curve of the muscles there - now overcome with the same uneasy shyness that had stopped her from immediately greeting him with a touch.
She becomes aware that she should say something. Thank you feels silly. And she thinks it’s been said already without words. Any jokes that might have risen to her lips have completely fallen away.
“Well.” She breathes out the shaky word onto his skin as she begins to pull away - eyes carefully watching him with a cautious smile.
Surely the way the word wobbles is just an aftermath of the crying. The annoying tremble that she can feel in her legs is just exhaustion.
“Maybe this shape isn’t so bad, then.”
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