Keeper-
Keeper is unaware of the doubt that builds in Magnificent.
Dragons should not doubt, but mares do. Except for Keeper. She hasn’t had a doubt in her mind since the moment she made herself swear to never doubt again and this has been one promise that she has kept to herself, even if she breaks all the others. Doubt was very much like fear - a mindkiller, and she refused to let it in. This either makes her stupid or brave, or a combination of both which is more than likely as far as Keeper is concerned.
But nothing ventured is nothing gained, and she is not so easily daunted and if she had known Magnificent’s poor thoughts of doubt and being unfixable, Keeper would have assured her otherwise. The gods do hear and sometimes, just sometimes, they listen and they lend more than an ear. Keeper tries to keep the old gods appeased, perhaps that is why she is who she is: brilliant and foolish, a kind-hearted beast of burden that loved to chase after deer and secrets, and a mare as beautiful as mountains and dragons both, Magnificent!
The black followed her, kept to her pace and even challenged her with her ‘little beasty’ comment that pulled a grin from Keeper’s mouth even as they came to the first river. She half expected Magnificent to just fly over it but somehow too, she had known the mare would not. At the second river, the black does just that - flies over it and Keeper is in awe as she watches her. Magnificent’s wings block out the sun, even if it is similar to blinking for a second but it was enough to blot the light from the dunskin’s upturned face.
It is a long enough moment not to make her envious of flight but rather, curious. She has never once wished for feathered or leathered appendages to sprout from her back and carry her up and up, but she has to wonder just this once, what it must be like to pass so close to the sun… Then she is across the second river and Magnificent is looking her in a newfound manner that makes Keeper squirm just the tiniest bit. She knows she is not being sized up for dinner but there is something warmer and deeper growing between them, and she had first felt it back in the field even though she had no business being there and would not have been had it not been for a trail never taken before.
(Gods work in mysterious ways.)
“Sometimes,” she throws her head back with a laugh as her black eyes glimmer with a bit of wild adventurous spirit. She leads them up and up and up untils he crests the highest ridge and beneath them, spans the breadth of Hyaline. Her gaze searches out and rests upon the crown jewel in its midst - the lake, blue as a sapphire and rich enough to give Magnificent’s amethyst eyes both a challenge and a compliment. She looks back over her shoulder, smiling just a little as she admits, “Um, just once or twice.” There are easier ins and outs, trails that are more gentle on the muscles but Keeper preferred the wild exhilaration of the climb and the sight that rewarded them as it spread out below, beckoning them in.
“Welcome to Hyaline, what do you think?”
Because if Magnificent did not like it, Keeper would turn tail and take her somewhere else.
not knowing how deep the woods are and lightless
@[Magnificent] almost a month late! I am so sorry for the delay! <333