anyone;

[Rhonen]

rhonen

molten eyes and a smile made for war

She draws away from him after his question; not all the way, but enough for him to know the question wasn't altogether comfortable or welcome. But he doesn't withdraw it, because it's an important question. It doesn't matter if the question by default has sharp edges and the air of something neither of them really want to know; he will absorb the answer and his own armor is enough to take the cuts it might inflict. So the chestnut boy waits, silently, subconsciously matching his breathing to hers. Something harmonious to offset the sharp edges.

He takes in her words with the same stoic, frowning silence until she claims that no one wants her; it is that that opens his mouth, a disgruntled voice erupting. It's different than the gentle tone he was using, but he can't help himself. "Then they're stupid," he snaps, tail swishing (once, twice) in frustration. Childhood ideals and stories war inside the boy with the harsh realities of the world as he's known it. His parents might never know the conflict they put in the soul of their only son. His older sister had known the Kingdoms they told stories of; she had visited the Deserts and lived in the Sanctuary of their mother's beloved Falls but the twins had gotten only the briefest of visits, the faintest of impressions before mother took them away into the wilds beyond Beqanna; and Rhonen had experienced the Falls for an even briefer time before the Reckoning. Now it is like it never existed, a myth and a legend in his head and nowhere else.

"There used to be a Kingdom that considered itself a sanctuary," he adds after a deep breath, forcing his voice back to an even tone, perhaps a faintly cajoling one. Atrani says she has enjoyed the solitude but he doesn't want to even think about leaving her here after their visit; and surely if she left the Meadow for the Field, she was at least considering looking again for a home? "Surely at least one of the current Kingdoms would also accept two refugees." Refugees from lives that have been far from easy or nice. He still has nightmares, and he can't imagine she doesn't have them occasionally as well. "Though I know nothing of what has happened here while I was gone."

Beqanna could be a completely different world that the one he'd last know.

Weelp I realized as I wrote this Rhonen should be considerably older than I think of him in my head. #timelinechicanery #whoops #magicallynotoldstallionhere