Gale
this is going to break me clean in two --
this is going to bring me close to you
She does not flinch away, which feels like another small victory. They’re so close their breath mingles, a single soft cloud in the cold spring air. Gale follows the plumes until the heat of them dissipates into nothing, and the rapid swooping of his stomach is now most reminiscent of birds in flight. It is her nearness causing this, he’s decided, having gathered enough evidence through observations of his own reaction and her proximity.
She makes him feel…strange.
Exposed, almost, or perhaps that is just a consequence of sharing with her the tale of the dark future that waits for him. Gale weighs the emotion, and decides he is not quite ready to deal with it. He will think more later, when he is alone and without distraction. For now he will think of other things, and he meets her gaze to change the subject just before she presses her question gently against his nose. There’d been no time to react, and yet he is able to follow her when she pulls away for the briefest moment. Just long enough to realize what he is doing, and pull away quickly.
“Yes,” he answers, “Right there at the end.” The words are spoken between breaths; the wind seems to be pulling the air from his lungs, or perhaps that too is Mazikeen. When she breaks eye contact, his senses flow in like the tide, making him aware of the dazed expression he’s been wearing. She’s going to think him a fool, Gale chides himself, and well she should. Mazikeen is well out of Gale’s league, and Gale is sure the cat-eyed mare knows it. Think about it more later, he reminds himself, and breathes a quiet breath he’d not known he’d been holding when Mazikeen asks about getting something to eat.
“Depends on what you consider edible.” He replies, recalling the sharp wolf’s teeth she’d once donned and shivering at the idea of what type of meal they might consume. “We’ve got some pretty awesome fruit.” Just he says it, he remembers that the darkness has slowed the seasonal blossoming. Well, he probably has some awesome fruit.
@[Mazikeen]
|
