[private] she keeps me alive; Ciri

[Leokadia]

she got blood cold as ice
and a heart made of stone

Ciri’s laughter comes in a bright peal, shocked and beautiful and it surprises Leokadia. It interrupts the anger she can feel rolling off of Ciri but not for long, not long at all. The anger bothers Leokadia, but in a distant way, like a small razorblade tucked deep up into her innards. Uncomfortable, inescapable, incomprehensible. Ignoring this discomfort she frowns at Ciri who has retorted quickly to her invitation for a run after being told very abruptly to shut up. “Do not--”but Ciri is speaking again already, putting herself to motion as she does so. Healed well enough, and likely not about to shut the hell up any time soon.

Leokadia moves after the red glow, the crimson light of the stars reflecting in her eyes. Beneath them, the outline of Ciri’s body and wings is dark but highlighted strangely in red. The light clings to the point of her hip or the curve of her neck as it might a horizon just after sunset but so much dimmer so that Leokadia almost doesn’t see it if she actually looks. Ciri’s stride extends, Leokadia tosses her shapely head up and joins her. When they move ever more quickly, side by side, the edge of her pale wing brushes the edge of Ciri’s dark one. A chill travels along Leokadias nerve endings, tingling away to leave only the cold wind that cuts against her thin southern hide. Clever eyes check the black mare’s stride, and the inside ear listens to the even sound of her breath. When she is satisfied that Ciri has been honest with her about the sufficiency of the healing she’d received, she speaks. ”I want to really run Ciri, stay with me this time.” Her words harken back to a previous run when Ciri misunderstood her, to a request that Leokadia herself stay, and last of all that Ciri stay with her this time and not go away. Leokadia is not sure she intends to be so vulnerable but the words come out unbridled and then she runs.

It is a dangerous, breakneck run, heedless even though it has grown dark and she does not know the isle. She is not particularly fond of running or races, not at all really, but she wants to run with Ciri and wants to make Ciri run.
And run.

She knows Ciri can catch her, stop her but she reaches out to nip her, to drive her forward and  push herself further to keep Ciri from cutting her off. When the burning three comes into clear view Leokadia is sweating, steam rising from her skin. She avoids the blue light, slowing, until she trots a circle that carries her back to Ciri, for whom the tree is likely a familiar sight. There’s water nearby, fresh and clean, the scent of it brought in on the cold air she can’t seem to pull down to her lungs fast enough. She would ask about the tree, but she is breathless when she touches Ciri’s shoulder. “Hi.” She manages, and settles beside Ciri, closer than she has in the past, their wings inches apart. Lo is dizzy with endorphins and a little bit of oxygen deprivation. ”You can stop shutting up and tell me what’s wrong with that tree.” She manages what she thinks will land like a joke. Another breath, another touch. “Are you less angry” A breath. “now?”

No one needs to kill her, she might be about to die right now from trying to outrun Ciri. Next time they fly, now that they can.

Leokadia doesn’t expect Ciri to stop being angry and so as she catches her breath she reaches out again, more slowly, more gently. Now that the giddiness is fading she worries about Ciri moving away, but still tries to touch her anyway, to press her muzzle to the mare’s neck and nip very gently. “If you want to be angry, I want you to talk to me. I can read you, anybody, pretty well but I don’t always… understand.” Leokadia tucks her chin, pulling back into herself. “I want to be able to understand you.”

but she keeps me alive
she's the beast in my bones

Leokadia

@Ciri