07-27-2015, 01:29 PM
there's a moment we make a decision
not to cower and crash to the ground
The jungle hadn't become her home all at once. If anything, home had been where her sister was, which mostly seemed to mean the Valley. But she'd found her way here, taken comfort with an old tailless friend, and somehow she'd just seemed to stick. Time had flowed inevitably forward, and she'd found that no matter where she wandered, the place she returned to was this jungle, with all of its bowers and its animals and its heat. not to cower and crash to the ground
Of course she knows that the jungle is a kingdom just like the Valley. She knows that, inevitably, there will be a meeting called. And when it happens, when she hears an unfamiliar voice call them all together, she's almost surprised to find that she goes. Perhaps it's Librette's blood in her, the blood that binds a mare to a kingdom – perhaps she, like her mother, takes solace in working for something, in ridiculous devotion. Perhaps even now, in the moment of her sadness and depression, the promise of working for something is still enough for her.
For whatever reason, she goes.
She's one of the last to arrive, but she is still in time to hear the hairless mare speak. It's easy enough to guess who the woman is, and Valkerine regards her silently with sad brown eyes, so like her mother's. She doesn't react to most of what Scorch says, although she does listen. What's it to her if they'd lost their traits? She doesn't long for power, or at least, not that kind.
But when the patronus appears, Val is entranced.
In the span of half a second, her childlike wonder comes rushing back. Seeing the spirit makes her electric somehow; it's almost like seeing the face of hope again after many months of absence. It isn't the same kind of rightness that she feels with her twin, but it's not far off. She wants to run to it, to hug it and play with it and become its friend.
She's learned enough in her time that she doesn't do all of that, but she definitely wants to.
The rest of the meeting is a bunch of diplomatic mumbo-jumbo, and while Val listens with interest she knows she's doesn’t know enough to actually help anything. But in that moment, she decides that someday, she will. She will make herself useful. She will learn to be diplomatic. She will learn to fight. She will learn whatever this kingdom needs her to learn. She will protect the little spirit, and she will protect those here who need it.
And so, when all the rest of them have said their piece, when the other have sworn and added their thoughts on things that are too complicated for her, she speaks. Her voice still has the muted hush of tragedy, but there is a strength that shines through. The clouds are clearing. "I'm Valkerine," she addresses the hairless mare. "If you'll have me, I'll join both castes." she pauses, swallowing hard. "And once I've earned it, I'll take the oath."
valkerine
sad tomboy daughter of covet & librette