Wapun Meadow ❝a kiss cannot reach her through the incrusting ivory.

It was true: she was unaware of it all. She was unaware of what may have happened, had she no aid and no breath left in her, should the skirmish have gone awry. And, even now, she seemed so unaware of being so unaware. It was a stark fault of hers and where her common sense sorely lacked, and one which she only recognized in moments where she felt a bit helpless towards understanding it all.

So she took Verx’s tirade in silent observance, and even his Freudian slip. But when he spoke of what he, indeed, wanted her to do, a muscle flickered within her stubborn and slim jaw. Aure made herself rise, though, when Verx made his leave; mulling over his raving, and the reason for them to head back soon.

Feathers of inner flame ebbed through the taut muscles of her back, alighting every singular nerve with embers and making her terribly aware of the male who shepherded her from behind. A tremble coursed through her; something that wasn’t quite fury or frustration, but something inscrutable she couldn’t place.

Regardless, she halted resolutely where she was, looking over the boney jut of shoulder and hip to fix Verx with an edged, veiled stare. “I’m a featherbrained fool, sure, and no amount of apologies will change what happened — but I would never let that happen to Drago again.” Her own throat constricted, as if to continue, but she found herself speechless. With a snipping growl and a flare of her tail, she turned from him and resumed that stiff-legged stalk. Oh, that feeling it — it was shame.

The father of her children had every right to be furious with her; and she had no right to— oh, fuck it.

Aure stopped again, and this time, she faced Vercingetorix in full; head lowered and shoulders curved. “Nevermind Mahler, then. I will worry about your fucking throat! What if your breathing gets absolutely fucked when you are out on your patrols, or off ‘battling strangers’?” Eyes glinting with her own shame, her voice tight and low with fervor. “What—” if the children wake up one day for a father who will never breathe again?

Aure couldn’t say it. Instead, with her jaw trembling from the force of her clenching, she turned her head aside; scars writhed upon a face that glowered towards the Sunspires; pale muscles working with... with... she didn’t know.