look before you leap [elysium]

[Elysium]

watch your tongue or have it cut from your head,
save your life by keeping whispers unsaid.

  She is of serpentine essence, with quick reflexes, smooth graceful movement and biting words - she epitomizes everything that there is to being a snake, and her venom-laced words are no less biting. Her observes her carefully as she responds negatively to his blunt nip; he had not harmed her but being startled was humiliating enough for her. He cannot conceal his wry smile as she peers irritably at him, though she draws nearer to him anyway. He is not afraid of her, though his heart pounds gently against his ribcage as she moves closer to him. Adrenaline, he muses to himself, though he knows that is a lie.

  His gaze is set intently on her, and he cannot help the chuckle of mirth bubbling from his throat as she realizes she is admiring herself within his own iridescent oculi. She is unusual, in so many ways, and yet he finds something endearing in her irritable, self-worshiping demeanor. It is a long few moments before she finally looks into his eyes, rather than merely at them, and he stares back unblinking as she spits out her aggravated anxiety. He, too, had been having his doubts, lingering at the surface of his simmering loneliness. He longed for home (her own words and his own), and within such longing there was a deeply-rooted seed of doubt slowly growing, developing and blossoming beneath his champagne-tinted skin.

  He listens to her closely; his cheek turned away from her slightly as his earhole leans to hear her every hissing word. His antennae drape over his still equine-shaped jawline, nearly drifting down and brushing over the top of her crown. Her questioning tone does not deceive him - no one can tell Padma what to do, and she has never needed permission from anyone. She often plays the demure damsel, and yet he knows better. Alas, he finds it intriguing, and as a moth to a flame, he is drawn in, curious still.

  "Disgusting might be a strong word, but I do agree, Padma," his deep tenor rumbles, his long tongue suppressed by years of practice as he speaks slowly and deliberately. "I, too, have grown tired of this. I think that he may have gone away, and for how long, I cannot say." He pauses now, his voice low as he stares deeply into her eyes. "The war has long since passed and we are the ones paying the price. Though I held .. his" Demian, he means, but he dares not think or say the name for fear that it may be known by the spies that still linger. "request of me in high regard, I think that it may be time to move on."
 
   To go home, he doesn't say, but she already knows.

elysium

no mercy from the edge of the blade,
dare escape and learn the price to be paid.