05-23-2021, 03:09 PM
She doesn't react to the quiet offer he makes to show her the other springs, but it lingers in her mind. The idea of them trying each one out, of lingering here long enough to find a favourite. It is a thrilling and frightening idea that she tries not to entertain.
They are having fun, but that does not mean she's going to stay. That does not mean he'd want her to.
Tarian joins her and Altissima wonders for the hundredth time what she’s doing. What are they doing? The twinkling air around her feels like it is carrying a charge. She feels tense and relaxed all at once and although she had wanted him to join her, she had not thought much past that.
The harshness of his voice does not fit with the pleasantness of this moment, and with her eyes locked with his she cannot figure out a reason for that tone. She’s half a mind to pass away just because he’s telling her not to, a corner of her mouth twitching at this strange and fleeting thought. Altissima had avoided dying just to spite him in the forest, and now she’s entertaining the notion of dying for the same reasons. If she had eyebrows they’d raise clear off her face. Her dying wasn’t good? Is that what she just heard? “Not good? I wouldn’t have thought you’d mind.” She remarks cooly, but even as she says the words she doubts whether it's true.
Altissima once again feels like she’s standing on the edge of a cliff and the instinct to run in the other direction is beginning to stir.
Suddenly the distance between them, which she is so very aware of, feels too small.
Her hooves shift a little beneath the water, creating gentle waves but she doesn’t try to create more space. And she does not leave. It occurs to her quite suddenly that maybe the reason why she has not thought to leave is because she hasn’t thanked him yet so she resolves to get that out of the way. “Thank you.” She practically shoves the words at him, so violently are they blurted out. Altissima does not think about how maybe his rough voice had been for much the same reason as hers right now. Her eyes become focused somewhere above Tarian’s head, unable to look at him directly as she feels heat that has nothing to do with the water creep into her face. “For… helping that day. For distracting me from not-dying.” Although she’s well aware that they both know she had in fact been dying, she carries on with the joke - unable to completely admit the truth out loud so she dances around it.
She had been dying, and he had helped to save her. She’d take some of the credit herself - of course - but Tarian’s presence that day had been the most aggravating blessing she’d ever known.
They are having fun, but that does not mean she's going to stay. That does not mean he'd want her to.
Tarian joins her and Altissima wonders for the hundredth time what she’s doing. What are they doing? The twinkling air around her feels like it is carrying a charge. She feels tense and relaxed all at once and although she had wanted him to join her, she had not thought much past that.
The harshness of his voice does not fit with the pleasantness of this moment, and with her eyes locked with his she cannot figure out a reason for that tone. She’s half a mind to pass away just because he’s telling her not to, a corner of her mouth twitching at this strange and fleeting thought. Altissima had avoided dying just to spite him in the forest, and now she’s entertaining the notion of dying for the same reasons. If she had eyebrows they’d raise clear off her face. Her dying wasn’t good? Is that what she just heard? “Not good? I wouldn’t have thought you’d mind.” She remarks cooly, but even as she says the words she doubts whether it's true.
Altissima once again feels like she’s standing on the edge of a cliff and the instinct to run in the other direction is beginning to stir.
Suddenly the distance between them, which she is so very aware of, feels too small.
Her hooves shift a little beneath the water, creating gentle waves but she doesn’t try to create more space. And she does not leave. It occurs to her quite suddenly that maybe the reason why she has not thought to leave is because she hasn’t thanked him yet so she resolves to get that out of the way. “Thank you.” She practically shoves the words at him, so violently are they blurted out. Altissima does not think about how maybe his rough voice had been for much the same reason as hers right now. Her eyes become focused somewhere above Tarian’s head, unable to look at him directly as she feels heat that has nothing to do with the water creep into her face. “For… helping that day. For distracting me from not-dying.” Although she’s well aware that they both know she had in fact been dying, she carries on with the joke - unable to completely admit the truth out loud so she dances around it.
She had been dying, and he had helped to save her. She’d take some of the credit herself - of course - but Tarian’s presence that day had been the most aggravating blessing she’d ever known.
altissima
@[Tarian]
![[Image: willowsticker_by_space1993_ddeo27s_small.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/Rq5q2nVX/willowsticker_by_space1993_ddeo27s_small.png)