keep a little fire burning; svedka, any

[Smoak]

Keep a little fire burning;
however small, however hidden.

Smoak draws closer to Svedka, his own bone-plated head lowering conspiratorially and ears pricking forward so as not to miss any detail that his childhood friend offers to him about the horses of the plains. He has yet to experience lust-driven nights, but truthfully he has been in no rush, preferring the (thus far) platonic company of Solace, Scyla, and Harrier, over the effort required to woo any of the younger females of Tephra. Perhaps he has been distracted by the twin of Svedka, by the feelings that have blossomed slowly within him despite the aversion he had originally felt at his emotions for her ─ but he would never admit it.

"Maybe next time you'll bring someone back with you, yeah? Beqanna could use a little loosening up," he laughs with guile, happy to be back in the presence of Svedka and his contagious smile. The palomino pulls playfully at his mane and Smoak peels back champagne lips to nip at the other in jest. "We would have dragged you back here kicking and screaming eventually. You know Lace would have never let you stay there forever." And he would have been the one to guide her on the adventure, to quell the nerves of the one being he knows who could, perhaps, contain no wanderlust at all.

Smoak squeals mirthfully as his hooves dig into the soft sand, muscles in his shoulders rippling to evade Svedka's gnashing jaw. The wind blows his mane over his hazel eyes and Smoak shakes his head to rid his view of the tresses as the conversation slips briefly over his own parents.

Svedka's sudden and powerful concern draws and nicker from the champagne stallion's maw and he nudges it against the ridge of his friend's cheek comfortingly. "He has since disappeared," Smoak tells him matter-of-factly, a sad smile replacing the casual grin he'd previously held, "And Solace doesn't know. I don't like to see either of you upset." His hazel eyes flick to Svedka's hidden ears briefly, unused to the painted stallion's aggression but there is a sort of happiness that grows in Smoak's chest ─ happiness that his friend would kill for him, just as Smoak would do in return.

"It was just after you left, when... when they all escaped from Carnage. Mom ran him off," he ends quietly before turning his gaze to the nearby roiling ocean for a few moments. When he looks back to his friend, the mischief has returned to his hazel eyes and Smoak grins.

"C'mon, Ved, let's go do something crazy."

Smoak

@[Svedka]