i'm not a girl. i'm a storm with skin . ivar - any

[Ivar]

I V A R i'll use you as a makeshift gauge of how much to give and how much to take The scowl she gives him feels unwarranted, and without thinking he scowls back. Had he done something wrong? He’d just wanted to show her the bats after she’d wandered in uninvited into his home, and yet he’s the one that get scowls at? He is almost bothered, but before he has time to ask she’s leaning back toward him. Ivar stands still, not entirely sure how to react. It would be very easy to (take her down.) but she is also (small, unsatisfying.) as well as (a child.) He settles on the last, unwilling to trust instinct when it seems to battle with itself. Ivar stands still, feeling the occasional soft puff of her breath as she traces the scales of his pale shoulder to where they fade to black along his neck. The tall stallion has to twist his head around at an odd angle to meet her gaze, and the word she has to say do not seem to meld with their situation. Him? What had he done? There’s no time to ask, because she’s already racing off toward the cave, shouting loud enough to wake them (and probably loud enough to wake all the bats in Beqanna). For a split second there is only silence – the peeping having stopped entirely – and then there is a cacophony of sound. The flap of leathery wings and the chittering voices of a dozen species of bats, all streaming out of the save mouth at once. There are tiny fruit bats and gigantic flying foxes, leaf-nosed bats and vesper bats. In the night, they vary only in size, but Ivar knows from closer inspection that the unique landscape of Loess has drawn the little mammals from every end of the world. Some will fly to feed on the fruit of the prickly pear that grows beside the plum and palm trees, while the more blood-thirsty creatures might swoop down on the unsuspecting herds of gazelle or sleeping mobs of kangaroos. “Careful,” he calls to her from the safety of distance, doing his best to keep the laughter from his voice, “Or you might come away with a little more white on your coat than you started with!” kelpie mimicry | dragon scales | tactile hypnosis