[private] It's crazy what you'll do for a friend

[Obscene]

I can see through you, see your true colors
Cause inside you're ugly, you're ugly like me

There is no denying his attraction to the striped Seneschal and it goes beyond her physical beauty. She is a dangerous and deceptive woman, an enigma he’s never been able to solve. As her lips find his neck he visibly unwinds, the uncertainty and resentment fading piece by piece as it always does when he was so close to her. However they both seem focused on other things today as she pulls away when he does to answer the question he had asked of her. “A leader?” He asks, visibly impressed. She had been busy, hadn’t she?

He didn’t know much about the sub-kingdoms of Tephra, they hadn’t interested him as a child and they don’t much interest him now, but holding on to one of their leaders sparks an idea and he makes a mental note to seek out their captives as soon as he is able. “Does this leave Islandres open for the taking?” He asks, two ideas now in his head. What would it mean for them to take one of the islands? What if the Pampas became more than just a sub-kingdom to Loess? Just as Aela hated the North for reasons she kept to herself, he hated the ash-lands and everything they had stood for. All the lies and memories that he wishes he could forget. Destroying that place doesn't sound so bad after all. She brings up the quietness of the area and he sees an opportunity here (one of many) to discuss one of the important things on his docket. “Tephra might not be quiet for much longer.” He says to her, fixing the mare with his bloody gaze and watching to see if he might wipe away her disappointment. “I’ve met with Gale.” He says, waiting with interest to see how she would react to this and then going forward in recounting the entirety of that meeting to her. Including the deal that the Curse and he had discussed. “Shall I pluck the child from the kingdom?” He finally asks her, loathing the thought of his hooves hitting those black sands again but unwilling to let anyone else collect the filly. The child that they may or may not return to Hyaline.

As his lips trace the constellations engraved across her haunches they both think of the Pampas Champion that they had not seen over the past few months. Both recalling the star-touched stallion with a mirage of mixed feelings. When she speaks of the dream he finally pulls away, catching the way she looks at his own chest with recognition. “But it wasn’t.” He responds darkly, unhappy that she too had been pulled into that other world. Wondering if they had both faced the same monsters or if they had battled different things. “It wasn’t a dream.” He says as she reaches for him, as he focuses on the way she traces the stars and growls softly with approval. “She marked you as well.” She says and he is confused, wondering who exactly she is. After Carnicus it had all seemed to glitch out and go wrong and he can’t really remember what he had seen before he had been whisked away and returned to the flowered lands.

However he can still see the black dragon staring at him. He cannot forget its serpentine smile.

He pulls away from her again as he remembers what he was, what he would become, a fate he cannot change. And it brings all that mistrust and suspicion back to the surface to the point where he needs to know once and for all just how much he can trust her. “Your brother paid a visit the other day. I wasn’t aware that you two seem to be related to the whole of Beqanna.”

obscene

@Aela