Arrow Lake dragonfly keeper

takiyok — the sensation of her nearness was an ache, and mahler noticed starkly how she stood away from him when another time she might have pressed her flank to his in a silent alliance. 
but he had gone on and ruined that, had he not? mahler felt his heart yawn in an answering pain of his own, but kept its very traces from his expression as he leveled his stare upon the fairer of the two, antha.
"i am mahler. this is takiyok," he rejoined, for the pair had given their names. "ve are the general and kapitän of diaspora, the place you see here. but it is the mountains that truly belong to us. anyvone who enters our ranks is given the chance to prove themselves."
in the distance, a tremble; mahler straightened, wanting to smooth unease from all those gathered, but his senses cut keenly toward the earthen mutterings he still did not understand.