fuck all your dreams; they're not all they seem.
They were the strength and the hope and the future. From them would flow new life, new blood from new blood, and new breath from breath.
But not Romek. He was old now – perhaps not in body, his immortality took care of that, but in spirit. He had loved and lost and lost and lost. He had never had much tolerance for the sly-footed social dealings of the equids even as a yearling, but now it had almost entirely disappeared.
He had not noticed the weirdness between Reagan and Ruan. He had not noticed the change in their wolf-leader, had not noticed the tension at the meeting – Romek had never been the best versed in social cues or behaviour, but perhaps now he was now more ignorant of it than he had ever been. If not for Maribel and their children, he would be a solitary beast once more, a striped shadow-within-shadows. Silent sentry.
And at the sound of Ruan’s voice, his feline ears twitch. He realises it is a summons, of a sort, and rises to his striped paws in a single fluid motion. He moves through the underbrush almost silently, making sure to snap a twig there, brush a leaf there – he does not particularly wish to startle them. The ice man calls his name as the tiger steps out into into view. He gives a half smile and walks towards them, with each step becoming more equine, until there is a spotted stallion standing beside them.
Even Romek can see the surprise and shock on their faces, and he turns to Ruan with a tilted head.
“Reagan has left.” More of a statement than question.
Reagan had been his last solid connection to the members of this kingdom – it had been she and Romek and Demian who had come together, formed a kind of alliance, discovered this land. Ruan had been barely a stranger to him – some random stallion that Reagan had recruited. He remembers thinking – if she trusts him, then so do I.
But he had proven his trustworthiness, his strength as a caretaker of the Taiga (it was a job the stallion did not envy), had earned it by his own right. Romek settled a little, glanced at the other two briefly.
“How can I be of service?”
Romek
**EDIT: Quick edit but I just remembered that Romek's daughter Anastazja should be with him.
SO just assume that she has followed him here and is behind him. I will chuck up a post for her later.