Bound for trouble from the start
I've been walking through this old world in the dark
He can’t stop thinking about her. She consumes his every waking thought. Like a living zombie, he ambles about with no purpose or destination. Just hoping by chance he would see her again. He can still feel her against him, can still remember the fire that she had stoked with him. The taste of salt on her skin. The faint scent of smoke that clung to her mane like a girl who had spent a long night at a divebar. He had slept better then he had in the past. The night terrors had returned of course, they couldn’t be kept at bay forever. But he had gotten perhaps three days of solid sleep, more than he had ever had before.
He is still skin and bones, his hips jutting out over stretched hide and ribs peeking between taunt tan skin. There’s a brightness in his eye that has been missing for so long. It’s that glimmer of hope and possibility that sparkles in the golden flecks. It brightens him, takes away some of the grief that aged him. Still close to death but at least he has a small spark of fight left. She had given him that.
Still unfamiliar with the new lands that magic had installed, it took some asking to finally locate her. Tephra, they said. You can’t miss it, it’s got a volcano. No wonder she had smelled of ash and soot. It takes him awhile to find the right path, takes him a day or two to finally get there. He waits on the border (rumor said this King was not fond of trespassers) and takes a good look around with his remaining eye. Despite winter’s chill, it’s not as cold here. He suspects the heat of the volcano boiling underground acts as a natural heater. With his thin coat and ravaged state, he rather welcomes this warmer atmosphere.
He doesn’t call out. Instead he stays quiet, waits. He is looking for her, hoping to see the curve of her back. See her beautiful eyes that have been haunting him. He’s not sure how she will react once she knows he is here. Was she ashamed? She hadn’t been there when he woke up and he had worried he had said something in his sleep, done something wrong. He knows there’s a possibility that one day his father may come back to this place, reclaim what he thought was his. Once the notion would have dismayed him, frightened him. Now he’s never been more sure of anything.
She had restored what little faith he had in the world.
Nobody would take that from him so easily.
Ledger