King Elk Forest summisse

@Sacnite? :o

germanicus considered what the king had said. he was returning from a mildly successful hunt outside the borders, not the thick-haunched rabbit he had wanted, but a quail instead. a mouthful for a wolf moving through the territory. putting the tiny body into a cache, the soldier pondered the fading light, the bleed from daytime into twilight.

he had searched but not found. and while the quiet was in his heart, something deep and restless and the antithesis of what he must be, he knew he was keep committed to his promise. instead he found the clearing where he intended to take a brief sleep before his nighttime vigil, a slice of short greenery overlooking the forest and its inhabitants.

Yessss

The sun started to fall, and the stars started to blink awake.
The sky was a patchy swirl of inky blue and purple, dotted by the soft lavender clouds that drifted lazily overhead.
Sacnite sat, watching the stars. Looking for Laroche's.

Ah, there.
The bright light winked down at her. He still remembered her. And she would forever remember him.
Love you.
Soft steps sounded to her side. Sacnite drew her eyes away from the sky to be met with the dark form of the King's Guard, Germanicus. Her tail thumped softly and a smile grew on her complexion. He was good company.
"Hello," she murmured. She didn't want to be the one to break the sunset quiet, but soon the nightlife would awake and cause a rucus anyway.

as soon as he caught sight of sacnite, germanicus realized he would go without his respite. but he was not perturbed by this and preferring somehow that if he must spend the evening awake, she was a welcome fixture 

"hello," he greeted, settling a polite distance away from her and turning his muted gaze out across the darkening skies. "how does your plant come along?" he knew not the first thing to ask after the healer's craft, so chose this.

He kept his distance.
Calhoun's words rung in her mind then. About his pelt...about the High Elk.
Good.

She dipped her head, spectating him with caution.
The plant. Yeah. "I'll know if it will be useful in the spring," she smiled softly.
She hoped the stem would flourish with leaves, and the summer would yield the buds containing those bright red petals, ready for the autumn again.

Disgrace.
She looked away from him. She shouldn't talk to him...she might not be accepted. The High Elk won't grace her and she'll be homeless again.
But...what if he is accepted?
Sacnite looked back to Germanicus.
"Are you going to partake in the ritual in spring?"
She was almost scared to ask. Would he think she'd been brainwashed or something?
All she could do is hold his gaze.

"perhaps not," germanicus answered honestly, wondering why her eyes had lingered. something caught beneath her tongue he suspected; he knew withholding when it was presented. 

and yet the soldier would not inquire into it. "i do not think i am made for ritual." ritual or romance, pragmatic to an inner faultline. was it pragmatism that inspired him now? "will you?"

Perhaps not.
That's good, right?
That means Celnes can protect him, and that Calhoun and Cenric can't say the High Elk want him gone.
And Germanicus could stay
She hoped.

But to be made or not made for ritual? What did that even mean?
Maybe he knew anyway, what those who's beliefs were stranger wanted. Would they...kill him?
No. Sacnite wouldn't let that happen.
But yes.
She nodded slowly. "I want a family again," she wanted to be accepted. Loved likes he was in Shadewood Keep.​

at sacnite and her mention of family, the eagle did not outwardly stir but measured it as reflection upon former motherhood. it did not change his muted opinion of her, still vague but pleasant.

it would have indeed had she been of the ruling family, and put on airs like so many of the cousins. her peasantry like his own put them upon equal footing. moreso than he had first believed. "you have a role here in kingslend. our king célnes is fair." why should her loyalty not be repaid in what sacnite wanted.

A role, yes.
Be it seemed their religion would come before that.
"Celnes is fair. But I fear the others are not."
Cenric. the man who looked at her with scrutiny and she'd put it all down to her being skinny and weak.
It was her pale hints instead.

Her gaze fell. Unfelt pain etching her face.
She was scared. He was a friend. Maybe if they were secretive no one would notice.
"Calhoun said..." She paused, looking around. Checking they weren't being watched.
"He said you'd be gone by the spring."
If she were human, she'd wring her hands and fiddle with a handkerchief.
"He prefers Cenric to Celnes."
Germanicus would have a better grasp on what that meant. Was there a plot against the King? The thought made her shudder. Germanicus would fight to the death...and his life didn't matter to them.
Her eyes widened.
Holy shit.

Cenric and Calhoun were going to kill Celnes, that's why Germanicus is her guard. She changed their ways by coming here and they want it to be how it was.
She felt sick. She..she needed to...

Sacnite stood, staggering. Celnes. Her eyes locked onto Germanicus.
Her lips trembled, threatening to let her tears fall from her eyes. 

calhoun. he knew the face of the man, and decided it was not surprising that he had chosen to gossip. the sentiment did not affect germanicus overmuch. it was the right of the deorwine to discuss who lived among them, and the eaglebound himself had no real tie to the land outside of the elk-woman herself.

but it was the second that brought the guard's ears tipped upright and attentive. calhoun could choose who he wished to worship, but his right to place one king over another was dangerous. it spoke to the centurion's sense of imperial treason. sacnite seemed to have been struck by some sort of epiphany. rising with her, the man cleared his throat, slipped closer with a ghost of concern wisping across the slate grey expanse of his silent face. "sit down. please."

No no no!
This wasn't how it ended. This was not Shadewood Keep.
This can be stopped, they can continue.
Her ears slicked back, a wave of nausea crashing into her skull.
sit.

Sacnite slid to her haunches.
This was sickening. Germanicus.
She lifted her head to him. He was safe. He can protect the King. She can...help him.
She held his face in her vision.
Her lip trembled as she slid down lower. It would be ok...
"I'm sorry," she breathed, a sob rising in her throat that she forced down. She wasn't allowed to cry.
Not now.

sacnite continued to exist beneath the grip of whatever had taken her. the eaglebound thought of how he might bring water so high above the packland. 

there was not a way to fetch it for the forager, and so the soldier tucked himself against her flank. he did not ask, only sought to heed her distress with the warmth of his body as he might a fellow fighter upon the field of combat.