I love only that which they defend; Tickani/Keeper/Any

[Ryan]

I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness,
nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory

He doesn’t live a very adventurous life. Mostly, he lives the life of a large cat, though a particularly benign one who is more likely to play with the equine children of Hyaline than to eat them. His feline diet is mostly rabbits and birds, when he can’t be bothered to change back and graze. There’s always a little bit of regretfulness when he surfaces and knows he’s eaten something, but it has faded over the years. He doesn’t hurt anyone he could know, and it’s the natural order of life for the cat to want to hunt; he keeps control of what it hunts and that has to be enough.


But even though he is not particularly adventurous, he was born and raised on stories of heroes and villians, Kings and Queens and Princes. He craves stories like those, even now, and wonders if Keeper has been having grand exciting things happen while she was gone. Perhaps it is a childish hope, but he turns to her with a smile and more than a small hint of the little bot he was in his light eyes. Keeper would remember – he was barely more than a boy when they met, after all. “While you were gone – did you see anything exciting?”


He presses close to her even as he speaks, as if he could wrap his equine form around hers; it doesn’t work, his horse body not as flexible as his cat, but he has wrapped his cat around her enough times that she’ll recognize the gesture; recognize his strange and personal brand of affection.


Ryan knows she might not stay, but he treasures the hours they have, down to the last minute, down to the last breath. He’ll carefully hoard those memories, when he is alone again.

Ryan

( I love only that which they defend. )

@[Kristin] ILU