My heart saw the things my eyes couldn't see; Iset

[Iset]

Iset

there's an old man sitting on the throne that is saying
I should probably keep my pretty mouth shut.

Never had she ever seen someone as impenetrably happy as Fox. While she was swallowing a lump of gratitude he was smiling at her like she had just told the joke of the century. With no caution or hesitation, he sidles slightly closer to her and reaches out, softly pressing his warm nose to the side of her neck. She leans into him unconsciously, craving the contact and affection that she had not felt in so very long. Her eyes close at the feel of his warm breath dancing across her skin. 

He grins again (so. Damn. Happy.) and pulls lightly on the bronze strands of her mane before releasing her and retreating from their close proximity. Her eyes flutter open and she takes a moment to readjust to the light and the lack of connection the the horse at her side before focusing on his words. 

'I like you, Iset.'

He likes her? But why would he like her? He had seen what she had caused, seen the damage and destruction that had ensued because of her. She laughs lightly, and a bit of her old sarcasm and sass enters her tone when she says, “Well of course, why wouldn’t you?” But something is still off in her tone; still, she is not herself. 

He makes another joke, and this time she laughs because obviously the cold doesn’t affect him. He has a hold on the icy snow just as Levi had a hold on the flames. Polar opposites, those too are. They walk together for a while, managing about five minutes of quiet companionship before he begins to ask her about herself. And for some reason unbeknownst to her, she actually answers him.

Before she does, however, she fakes (a pretty damn convincing) look of anger and indignation before spitting out, “Are you saying I look old?” She is quite proud that even after all of the losses she had taken recently that she could still manage to inject so much venom and bite into a tone. She gives him a moment to flounder before giggling girlishly and shaking her head lightly to assure him she was only teasing him. Two can play at his game. 

“I came to Hyaline with my brother Amet. We, along with my twin Sakir, are from the Dunes, outside of Beqanna. Sakir did not join us until we had already lain claim to Hyaline, and that caused a bit of drama as well.” It would take a long time to get into her past in the Dunes, and that wasn’t something Iset cared to relive often. Maybe another time, she thought, she would share the details of her early life with Fox. 

“I haven’t been much anywhere else, really. The Meadow, the Forest, Hyaline and the Dunes are the only places I’ve been. What about you?” She questions, genuinely curious as to what sort of places Beqanna held.