11-03-2016, 08:08 AM
It’s the agitation that has festered in boils and scars in the bucksin’s red cloak as he drapes his wings across his chest. Of course, you cannot see it, for he does not let you. This pretty little face he pretends to put upon the world is not what he seeks to be, and instead, he is forever reminded that there are those alive here today who would cease to be if he had not walked upon this ground as King. How many there were, he was not sure, and without the magic that had plagued his blood, he had been unable to see any of them. Just get a funny little feeling regarding their parentage—a look, a body shape, eye color. He had had one such encounter with the starry-eyed one. Australis. He remembered her well.
She was the one who couldn’t stop talking.
Incessant, on and on, she had slathered him with questions about life and love, and eventually his family. He had stayed on to chat as long as he could stomach without hurling all over her, before turning his red rump back to whatever direction he had come from. And yet now, he found that from his place in the shadow—rightly blocking out the sun—this girl is back for more, having recognized him and choosing for whatever reason to commune with the sun, as shallow and cold as it may be considering that it is winter. She is not afraid of him, and he looks at her with all the side eye he can muster, but even without saying Hello, or any sort of pleasantries, she jumps right back into to talking… as if she’d never stopped.
He took a breath, and a sardonic smile slid across his face as he shook his head. He could not get a word in edgewise, and yet as he stood there, he felt the prickles melt away only slightly. He still has a reputation to maintain. He’s still an old man batting away the kids with a stick.
When in Rome, as they say. “This world is not what it was, and it would be foolish to compare apples to oranges, Australis. You make each day what it is worth. Some are worth far more than others. Some moments, on the other hand, are completely useless. It is up to you to distinguish between the two.”
Ashley peeled back some, his nostrils flaring with each exhale as snow started to fall around them. It was cold. “Why were you thinking about me, then? Nothing better to do while you talk the ears off anyone who will listen to you?”
ashley
I walked the path, it led me to the end.