a light from the shadows will spring; crevan

[Merida]

Merida

from the ashes, a fire shall be awoken

An unlikely duo, a red flame and its shadow, trapezing carelessly through the depths of twilight, with a silent forest greeting them. Perhaps it is the fact they are shifters; Merida is clueless when it comes to the culture that came with her ability, for she was not born with the fox in her blood - instead, had been gifted with it. She holds it all the more precious to her heart, knowing that though it is not in her genes, she was seen fit by the gods or by the faeries or by whatever it is that controls the balance of Beqanna. But she is learning that maybe there is a certain bond between those who can change their shape and those who cannot - an almost secret pledge of loyalty that permeates from the shape of her fox and his wolf. 

Or maybe she is just happy to finally have something to share with someone, a friend.

Their friendship is still new (their first meeting had been fleeting and curious, for Merida still had been unsure in her new footing), but they have greeted each other like old friends. They still knew practically nothing about each other, save for names, so when he asks where she’s been (in such a gentle way, not prying but genuinely curious), she begins to wonder the same about him. 

“Everywhere,” she replies with a sly smile that is fitting on the fox’s slender and pointed snout. She’s flitting and darting around his lumbering form, keeping up with his pace in perfectly poised leaps that allows her to jump from rock, to the forest floor, to a larger boulder where she stops for a moment as its height brings her almost to his shoulder, and instead of looking up at him now can see him eye-to-eye. “Originally I returned to Loess, but the nose of my fox wished to venture elsewhere,”

A brief wave of thoughtfulness passes on her sharp features, thinking of her daughter whom she had left back in the mountainous Loess. Merida has had her own share of times when she also was a horrid beast (things have been said and things have been done that are by her fault alone), and for a moment she lingers on it; but a flick of her tail decisively brushes it away and she leaps down from the boulder to continue padding gracefully alongside Crevan.

His deep laugh makes her wrinkle her nose, throwing her snout upwards haughtily. “And how is it you thought of them before, dear Crevan?” she says accusingly, a small growl rippling on her black lips (though a smile forms closely behind it). 

@[Crevan]