Rising Sun Valley Dear Fellow Traveller

He did not protest her company, and she was grateful. She thought of Reverie, the kind girl with the kind words and whispered a “thanks.” When he made his introduction she listened and answered “Tauris,” in kind, and she’d hover a moment longer before easing her stance. She curled into herself, making small her body, shuddering against the bite of cold and peering around the earthy hollow. A barrier of roots muffled the dissonant cries of wind outside, and though still drafty, it would suffice.

Moment passed into moment and as the air eased Tauris began to let her eyes coast over the stranger called Louis- though only when she hoped he wouldn’t catch her. A body manifested behind that cobalt stare, a boy of silver, like the ones back home. Northern. Refined. There was a little reassurance in that. But he was different, too. Some unconventional wildness in the shape of him, mirroring the energy she saw in his summer- sky eyes. She would not dispel the silence, yet allowed her mind to sail in the stretch of unspoken words between them.