Gale
03-14-2021, 10:25 AM
It is so easy to lose himself while watching her, to forget everything in the world except the bright-eyed warrior in front of him. She has new scars, ones that are more recent than those inflicted during her battle with the monster on Islandres, and Gale finds himself wondering at the violence she’d faced since her departure. Has it been more than usual, he wonders, with her trapped in a single shape? He knows that Hyaline does not allow non-shifters, and though he longs to ask how she has been received in her equine shape, Gale forces the question back.
He needs to put distance between them. Knowing more - making her aware he cares enough to want to know more - will only make that more difficult. Even if Breach and her Pack were foolish enough to exclude Mazikeen without her shifting, Gale is very certain the white mare will rectify the situation herself.
After asking for a sign, his blue gaze remains on her face, and he tries to read the flurry of emotions that cross her face. It is like reading a message in a thundercloud, he thinks, or the bird bones on the beach. Witches might be able to interpret such things, or diplomats or magicians, but Gale is only truly sure that she is unsure. Yet she smiles, and offers to leave him a feather from his first shape, and then it is his turn to feel like a thundercloud, all roiled up inside with feelings like flashes of lightning
This is the last time he’ll see her, Gale realizes. Well, the last time he’ll see her and know that it is truly with his own eyes, and not those of the Cursed others. He wants to memorize every bit of her, from the way her pale lashes veiled fire-bright eyes to the way the scars along her ribs cause the hair to grow in whirls and lines that remind him of a frozen sea.
She shifts, neither toward him nor away, but it causes him to pair his gaze to Mazikeen’s only time to see her look toward the sea. He’s told her she can stay, but now she says she needs to be alone. The acceptance is more begrudging than he outwardly shows, but he has mostly accepted this unwelcome weight, and it shows in the way he offers her a bittersweet smile.
“I am glad to have known you, Mazikeen.” He says, and before the last of his courage fails him, presses a soft kiss and her cheek, then turns and disappears into the dark jungle.
He needs to put distance between them. Knowing more - making her aware he cares enough to want to know more - will only make that more difficult. Even if Breach and her Pack were foolish enough to exclude Mazikeen without her shifting, Gale is very certain the white mare will rectify the situation herself.
After asking for a sign, his blue gaze remains on her face, and he tries to read the flurry of emotions that cross her face. It is like reading a message in a thundercloud, he thinks, or the bird bones on the beach. Witches might be able to interpret such things, or diplomats or magicians, but Gale is only truly sure that she is unsure. Yet she smiles, and offers to leave him a feather from his first shape, and then it is his turn to feel like a thundercloud, all roiled up inside with feelings like flashes of lightning
This is the last time he’ll see her, Gale realizes. Well, the last time he’ll see her and know that it is truly with his own eyes, and not those of the Cursed others. He wants to memorize every bit of her, from the way her pale lashes veiled fire-bright eyes to the way the scars along her ribs cause the hair to grow in whirls and lines that remind him of a frozen sea.
She shifts, neither toward him nor away, but it causes him to pair his gaze to Mazikeen’s only time to see her look toward the sea. He’s told her she can stay, but now she says she needs to be alone. The acceptance is more begrudging than he outwardly shows, but he has mostly accepted this unwelcome weight, and it shows in the way he offers her a bittersweet smile.
“I am glad to have known you, Mazikeen.” He says, and before the last of his courage fails him, presses a soft kiss and her cheek, then turns and disappears into the dark jungle.