Vael is a chameleon.
She adapts readily to her surroundings. It is ingrained in her, imprinted on her DNA to shift as she is needed, to bend when the current is too strong. In this case, it is a happy occasion to mold herself. In the shadows of dead trees that needlessly reached for the sky, she had been comfortable. But here, as the sun streams down upon her glossy black in wavering patterns of warmth and light, she is comfortable, too. Maybe even more so.
She is not meant to be alone, and she becomes greedy, quickly, in his company. Greedy, for the heat that doubles when she is beside him. Greedy, for the richness of his voice that fills all the hollows of her hungry ears. Greedy, for eyes that see her (that do not see past her like she’s a ghost). She could lose herself in those eyes that pierce her like a trident. Not because one is a verdant, dewy meadow in the morning and the other is the sun pressed upon the blue ocean at its set. Not because they work together to pull his lips into a knowing grin that’s meaning is almost lost on her. It is because they see her – and she sees Alek.
Only –
Vael doesn’t agree with him. She shakes her dished head without rigor. “Everyone is worth at least a moment’s time, don’t you think?” This close, she can trace the muscles making valleys and peaks of his face. She watches with interest as one twinges, tugs the soft crease of his smile into a deeper divot, a lopsided smirk. In a moment, so much can change. She feels her body respond, her pulse quicken (reactions she doesn’t understand, but finds she likes regardless). The forest becomes a cold vacuum that sucks at her ankles as they stand together as a shield against winter. “We can learn so much about each other in only a moment.” She has the urge to tuck herself under his neck as a child might, but the argument is still on her tongue.
So too, is the burst of air she releases when she whuffs in his face.
She hopes it at least disrupts his side-swept forelock, but she doesn’t stick around to find out. The black girl steps back into the chill of the wood’s embrace, her own grin breaking apart as silvery laughter forces itself out into the quiet air. Perhaps it is foolish to play with a perfect stranger. But subtlety is not Vael’s forte. Neither, for that matter, is company in general. Either way, she imagines she will learn all she needs to about Alek based on what he does in the next moments.
For her part, she draws out from between the vines as slow as honey. His voice is a tether she is loath to loose, even in the chaos she’s created. Who cares if he berates her, as long as she’s not alone? Who cares if he strikes her down, as long as he sees her? My intentions definitely will, he says, but she hadn’t meant that – had worried more for the shiver of death than that of another kind. She is languid but he is purposeful grace; they meet somewhere in the middle of their motions and just after her lie is dismissed. “You must have been companion to a great many to make such observations, Alek.” Her smile fades like the sun behind a cloud. “Color me surprised,” she says, and it’s back again, brighter than before. “Do you find ladies in the woods along all of your walks? Or am I just lucky?”
Vael
and I swear I'm not a pretender