08-13-2021, 02:28 PM
she got blood cold as ice
and a heart made of stone
On the ground, contemplating the burned coast, she lifts her light eyes slowly to Ciri at the sound of her own name. Ciri, who glitters in the twilight in such a breathtaking way that Leokadia notices nothing else at first. Nothing but how beautiful she is, she has thought of her and yet the picture in her mind was not this one. In the meadow the attraction had been a gentle tug, teased out by kind words, and the stars that burned against the bright of day. Now dark wings are perched upon the mare's back and a field of stars wink from among the feathers. "You are lucky they grew so quickly." It is a tease at her own expense but Lo is distracted by the changes in her new friend. She is different, but even Leokadia's perfect memories do not show her all the ways that is true. Except for the scars, cruel puckered things that carve new jagged rows in the taller mare's skin. Lo looks at them and her features, often so devoid the fine subtleties of emotion, cannot conceal her alarm.
"I am not going."
She replies abruptly, there is a jagged toothed feeling crawling beneath her skin, unfamiliar. Leokadia is now the answer to a question she has previously only been able to ask. She is needed, even if Ciri does not want her. The latter she is accustomed to, only now she decides where she may go and stay. "You can't send me away." Leokadia's chest heaves, why? The hollowness inside her roars to life but the other newer feeling keeps it at bay. "Who did this? What is not safe?"
The cremello moves nearer, touches Ciri's neck briefly and speaks in a slower and more careful way. "You are different. A pause, a tilt of her head. "I want you to tell me why." Can Ciri feel her reluctance to put distance back between them? Leokadia feels like she too is one of the small suns raging just at the edge of the star-woman's orbit, unable to pull away.
but she keeps me alive
she's the beast in my bones
Leokadia