Blacktail Deer Plateau wisteria; growing [m]

no physical fruit manifested from their union, yet a new stirring was birthed between the two of them. in merrick, quiet rivers of deep emotion — and in astara, a novel sense of belonging. 

their limbs threaded, astara lifted her chin under merrick’s ministrations, her eyes briefly closed in content. here she drew herself possessively around merrick, and breathed in the augmentation of their scent. 

if they were a pair before, they were certainly one now — astara had but skimmed the surface of terrible union, and now pined for merrick in more ways than idle companionship. he was her soul tie, her other among a world of strangers. the cold to her snow, the dark sky to her night — one.