01-27-2018, 04:20 PM
 i'll use you as a makeshift gauge of how much to give and how much to take Ivar has always been good at denial. Recognizing it in himself has been difficult, but seeing it in others has aways come much more easily. The buckskin mare is in denial. Ivar has been away for months. The king of Loess has been absent, and the only stirrings in the small land have been the lives of his little herd of mares. The women he had gathered to amuse him, to pass the time. Yet he has not been with them, but rather away. The fishy smell to Ivar is his natural odor - he is a sea creature before all else. He’d hidden that from Heda of course; he has presented himself as nothing more than what he seems. She knows him to be a kelpie, but has never truly understood what it meant. The buckskin mare is still smiling, even as he hesitates over what she knows should be joyous news. She does not want to accept what she knows is coming, which only makes what he has to say all the more difficult. His breath catches in his throat and he is grateful he does not have to meet her gaze. “We’ve been trying so long,” he says, “I’d given up hope.” “But…But it doesn’t change what I came back to tell you.” Or perhaps it does, he thinks, even as the words spill forth. “I can’t stay in Loess anymore. I’m leaving. I’m going with Isobell.” “I’ve asked Castile to stay here. He’s promised to help you. I’m sure he’ll do the same for…for our child.” Only then does he pull away, his dark eyes meeting Heda’s familiar gaze. He knows what he expects to see, but knowing does not make it any easier. minimal smoky grullo tobiano | equus kelpus |