Blackbeak Bluff dreams of gods and monsters

"i would"

she blinks up at the resplendent glow of his sun kissed eye, so starkly different to the stygian depths of her own and smiles ruefully, head already beginning to give a small shake. it is certainly all a bit wondrous, that he would pledge himself to her like that without even skipping a heartbeat and she is left a little breathless at the sheer emotion that stirs within her. there is gratitude and fear and so much more crammed in between those. she just cannot wrap her head around why, she is somber and aloof so often and yet he is persistently kind to her- her brows furrow a little; why?  

she should say something, in case he takes her reaction as rejection- it is most certainly not that she wouldn't like to whisk him away to her tenebrous woods. she just couldn't do that to him, tear him away from a decent pack to forests that most felt suffocated and on edge within. yet he gets in before she can let a syllable slip through charcoal lips and her head nods along with the words he releases. her breath hitches a little in her throat and she swallows hastily to cover it up as inky eyes withdraw from his face. 

comfort

she feels it too, it is as if the air embraces her softly when she's in his presence, as if it whispers nice things rather than sneers or taunts. she could get so used to dancing with the giggling breezes, tinged with that playful electricity rather than stalking through whipping chills and hissed warnings when alone. yet anxiety wriggles throughout her gut as her teeth prick at her lip, she loved faolan and it killed him. there was no sugarcoating that and although the wolves that stole the life from him were far away; the memories haunted her so starkly that sometimes rationality was not enough to convince her of her safety and those she dared care for. yet the words to tremble softly from her tense jaws are "i miss you too rosencrantz"

she looks back to him now, pressing her look so intensely into his own as if he might disappear if she so much as wavered. she has run blindly into battles, taken down wolves twice her size without so much as a blink and yet it is things like this that requires the deepest of inhales and summonings of bravery. but she does it, and with her jaw set she lays herself emotionally vulnerable by giving into the instinctive pull and crushes the tingling air between them so that her face meets the plush fur of his chest. her heart hammers heavily against her chest and she feels a little choked as she inhales him. if he doesn't pull away she'll stay there, focusing on the feeling of each breath expanding the muscles in his chest. exhaling a little shakily, the soldier simply murmurs "i'm not going to ask you to leave rusalka" there's a finalizing firmness to her tone, hinting that she does not intend to budge on the matter. at least, unlike many, many wolves; tundra was not overly ambitious. sure she'd enjoyed the feeling of leading alongside maegi in blackfeather but she didn't fantasize over being in a position of power. before escaping to teekon she'd been a mindless soldier, not allowed to retain even a free will. in the end, freedom was good enough for her.