night will fall / vi

[Hestoni]

NIGHT WILL FALL AND DROWN THE SUN
WHEN A GOOD MAN GOES TO WAR

He’s stayed back from her, since her arrival, despite the heavy longing in his heart. While Scorch provides the “real-world” parenting (training their children, providing them with both wit and knowledge), he is the heart of their family. He is the shoulder they come to cry on, the face they cherish to see, the laugh they adore to hear. He is their foundation upon which they anchor their love in and build upon.

And his daughters… His aching, old heart cherishes them so deeply it brings tears to his eyes just thinking of them. Perhaps he is a biased man, leaning toward the adoration of his daughters, but he’s earned the right to do so. The gray around his nose and lips, the slight limp of his right hip, the wisdom in his brown eyes — they all speak of the lengths he has gone through and the stories he holds within his memories.

But, regardless of age or wisdom or tenderness of the heart, he’s forced himself to retreat from Vi’s presence as she is reacquainted with both her mother and Beqanna itself. Their children come and go like eternally-looping prodigal sons and daughters, singing harmonies of return and disappearance. It weighs heavily on his heart, but he treasures the fact that he can now embrace them when they do return home, rather than watch from behind Scorch’s eyes and above in the Afterlife.

The ache in his heart finally becomes unbearable. He spots his daughter from a distance, watching as she made her way slowly (carefully) through Nerine’s landscape. With a heavy sigh, the large chestnut moves to catch up with her at an easy trot, his feathered hooves thumping gently against the ground to announce his arrival. When he speaks, his voice is low and rumbling — like the beginnings of a volcano’s eruption or the growl of a distant thunderstorm — but tender and warm.

“My dear Vi… It’s me, your dad, Hestoni.” Scorch had told him about her minor amnesia (whether it had faded or lingered he isn’t sure) and so he waits, holding his breath in the depths of his large chest, for her response.

Hestoni

@[Vi] and/or @[Andromeda] / I hope this is okay! I was going to reply to your open post but Nilla beat me to it... I wanted to get something up between the two of them because Toni misses his family )):