01-19-2022, 04:24 PM
Lillibet
The families of wild ungulates who had made the golden forest of Sylva their home had always fascinated Lillibet. She’d watched them in her wanderings, though ─ this is another point of bitterness ─ she’d never shared in her mother’s zoolingualism, and so could only gaze upon them as they roamed. The time or two she’d attempted to leap and bound through the forest in their midst had ended with the iridescent girl kicking rocks in solitary on her lonely trek back to civilization.
The antlered stags had been less common than their fairer counterparts, and so catching a glimpse of them had always felt something like a reward. She feels a similar thrill today as she watches Bolder shift. It appears natural, well practiced, and the fact that she’d spotted him just before he’d taken on the antlered form of a regal stag makes her feel as if she’s included in some sort of secret.
Lillibet’s brief moment of embarrassment passes unnoticed while her acquaintance searches his memory for her name, for which she is grateful, and by the time he finds it her abashed flush has made room for an expression more controlled and polite. She flutters a fluted ear and dips her ivory head in a mock curtsy at Bolder’s grin. ”The one and only,” she responds merrily, pleased that she had correctly remembered the name of the young moon-faced man.
His return to equine form is just as fluid as the first shift she’d witnessed and the resulting familiar form that stands before her is no less majestic than the stag. Quiet laughter escapes the ethereal woman as she shakes her gold-striped head ─ ”Not at all. I may be a bit too comfortable around those who can shift.” Her father and brother into bears, Manny into… whatever monster Manny was. Her mother, even, with the magic of a genie could change into whatever it was she desired. Lillibet felt less comfort, perhaps, than silent envy, but that’s something best not shared during the first true dialogue with a new acquaintance.
Bolder begins to move off, gleaming copper and brass beneath the morning sun, and it’s the first time Lillibet truly appreciates her own supernal glow ─ if she could look anything like he did beneath the warmth of the sun, then maybe there could be happiness in being a celestial ivory beacon. The young stallion’s inviting, lopsided smile coaxes a similar expression from the bygone Sylvan Princess and eagerly she moves beside him, intentional and graceful in her polite avoidance of his wings, as they begin to adventure together along the treeline. ”If you don’t mind the company,” she adds, despite having already matched his pace.
Lillibet scours her brain for a swift moment, trying her best to remember where it was Bolder had said he was from when they’d first met among the Ruins. ”Do you often find places to sleep outside of Hyaline?” she asks with a sideways glance of her honeyed eyes when finally she remembers, plucking his voice from her recollection and ignoring the parts that had caused her pain ─ Baltia, Rezza, the golden trees of Sylva beneath the deep, dark sea.
