02-03-2020, 08:38 AM
----------------kiss me until i can't speak
Though Pteron had known this would be a difficult conversation, he had not expected it to be difficult in exactly this manner. That Aten accepts so easily does not surprise the dun stallion. Pteron nods, and is just about to turn to leave when the older horse says his name again. The pegasus remains still instead, his olive eyes meeting Aten’s while he waits for the other male to compose himself and continue.
Pteron does not expect what follows, and that is clear from the ever-deepening furrow in his striped brow as the champagne stallion speaks. Hated him? Why would Pteron ever had thought that Aten hated him? Their interactions have been minimal, but never less than cordial. The bad blood that Aten speaks of certainly doesn’t exist in Pteron’s veins, and the younger stallion cannot fathom why it would in Aten’s. Unless…
Pteron’s single-minded focus on his own concerns have left him blind to a great many things. It has not occurred to him that that Aten might still think the change in power five summers past was some Grand Failing on his part. Aten is still the Protector of the Redwoods, after all, the exact title he’d had before. The redwoods have not needed protection either, at least not from any outside danger. Pteron has lived here this entire time, and never one felt any looming sense of danger or uncertainty. He had grown up in the shelter of Loess though, and knows the protection that comes from being under the eye of a powerful Empire. He has only ever wanted the same for Taiga.
And so he does not argue, does not pry farther, does not attempt to defend his family or the legacy that he now chooses to leave behind.
The dun stallion has never been able to appropriately polish his silver tongue, and so he only nods to Aten’s promise to lend aid in the future. His mind his already elsewhere, after all. It flicks from his wife and child tucked somewhere deep in the woods and then to the shoreline of Ischia, where another lover waits for him, her sides growing round with his son (or so he can only hope). It returns to Reia then, and Pteron is reminded that perhaps the new Leader of Taiga deserves a warning of the calamity that Pteron is certain he will soon be unleashing.
“If you could make certain there is no one on the northern shore in a few hours, I would appreciate it.” He tells the golden now-leader. “I have to share this news with my wife, and I am not certain she will take it well. I’d like to avoid any bystander casualties, if I can.” And then, with a firm nod of his head, he takes to the sky and to Ischia.
-- pteron --
@[Aten]