Eulalie made her way slowly toward the river, the warm summer sun on her back. It was a perfect, beautiful day and she relished it. The sky was blue and dotted with clouds and a gentle breeze played with her golden hair. She looked over at Ulric as they walked side by side, and his dark curves and gilded eyes are as familiar to her as her own hand. It had been his campsite she had stumbled into after escaping Solterra, weak from days of relentless travel across the desert and her ordeals before then. He had taken her under his wing, cared for her, and in those earliest days spent in Delumine the man had been her only friend.
She smiled at his profile, and although they were visiting the Rapax on business she still welcomed the time to spend with Ulric. As a warrior of the Dawn Court, Eulalie had been eager to offer her services in the patrols. It was, after all, a part of her duty to keep those within Delumine safe, and if it too meant a chance for her get out for a time she was glad for it. Her earth brown eyes traveled, looking out over the river as it swept through the trees, rushing along its confines of steep banks and crumbling rocks.
“How have you been, Ulric?” she asked, her voice genuine and thoughtful. Even as she was ever alert of their surroundings, she was in tune to her companion as well. All seemed peaceful, as things often were in Delumine. “Things have been busy, I imagine,” the golden woman mused. With the turnover of the kingship to Somnus, Eulalie had no doubt that there was much to be done, keeping them all prisoner within the walls as they worked out the kinks and the details.
Her ponderings brought her back to another day not so long ago on the banks of this same river, as they mirrored the ones spoken then by none other than Somnus himself, although his had been said in jest. She had thought of him a few times recently, as his bright forest green eyes seemed to enjoy sneaking into her mind whenever they pleased. It was no good to languish over them without acting, and the ivory girl reminded herself to seek him out again soon. His presence had been refreshing and himself witty, and she should like to experience that again.
Aim, throw your best shot right at me
'Cause pain, I can take it easily
Did you really I'd fall to my knees
Just to pray for some sweet simplicity?
Theirs was the last group to depart from the citadel, setting out with the Rapax River as their destination. Ulric had lingered just long enough to assure the other groups had met up, that all was well between them, and had gone over a few guidelines as well – what to do should they come across somebody or something, what to be on the lookout for, and when they were expected to be back. Safety was always at the forefront of the Warden’s mind, but his faith was strong for the group that had stepped forward to assist in the patrols.
His partner in crime today is a familiar one of ivory and gold, one he had first seen crashing through the forest in the dark of night as though she were being hunted by a demon. He hadn’t been able to offer much, at least not in his eyes, but he’d offered the gaunt mare what refuge he could in his quaint campsite. It was good to see her as she was now, strong and with a spark in her eye that had been missing back then. To her words the roan offered a complaisant smile, matching her stride as they made it ever closer to the river ahead. “Busy, yes,” he agreed with a genial chuckle, “What with the restructuring of the Kingdom. But I’ve been well all the same.” Exhausted, if he were being honest, but the Warden wasn’t one to complain of his own state – not when it meant that his people were being kept safe. Gilded eyes were alight as they focused on the lady’s own of earthly brown, his smile remaining. “And you, Eulalie? I hope things have been going well for you.”
It wasn’t long before the soothing sound of flowing water met his ears. Up ahead lay the undulating river, its current calm with the lack of rain the past several days. Ulric took a moment to scan the stretch of land that lay beyond it, scrutinizing in his search for anything out of the ordinary. It was quiet, the wildlife seeming undisturbed and at peace. Countless prints marred the dirt and mud around the immediate area, but as a common area for the denizens of Delumine, it would be impossible to decipher whether any of them didn’t belong. Another moment and the Warden seemed satisfied, but the river stretched on for many miles more – they had much more ground to cover.
“Somnus tells me that there are dolphins in this river,” Ulric mused allowed as he picked up his feet to continue following the riverbank, and with a snort of amusement he continued. “And that they’re pink; would you believe that? But I’ve yet to see any with my own two eyes.”
“You’re taking care of yourself?” Eulalie glanced sidelong at her friend, searching for signs in his face that he was working too much or too hard without taking a break or allowing himself time to enjoy the world. For as much as he seemed to nag Somnus for the same, she had a feeling Ulric was the same way. Busying himself with his work, spending too much time running around and fixing things and not getting enough time to himself to relax. She would make it a point to drop by more often and drag him away for even an hour or so if she needed to, a personal mission if one wanted to call it that.
As they grew ever closer to the river, her earth brown eyes ran along its banks and the land surrounding. Like her companion, she kept her senses sharp for anything that might seem out of place. “Things have been good with me, actually. I finally feel at home, for the first time in my life,” the ivory and sunshine woman said, glancing once more at Ulric. It was a realization that left her feeling warm and content, and a smile grew on her face as she said so. She couldn’t imagine going anywhere else after becoming a part of the Dawn Court. No place else would feel right, after Delumine. “Some of that is because of you,” she told the man with a smile, genuine, “If you hadn’t found me, who knows when I would have stopped running?”
Eulalie knew that was a reason it had happened the way it did. There is always a reason, just sometimes they’re harder to find than others. She thought this one was pretty easy to see; Delumine was meant to be her home, to make her home. Here, she could flourish and shine. The court’s peaceful nature had given her everything she had needed to rest, to heal, and to come out of her shell. She would never be able to repay her gratitude for that. They turned parallel to the river, making their way along the bank and she listened to Ulric speak. His words had a smirk forming on her face.
“Oh, that they are,” she said, looking at the golden eyed man, “pink, that is.” Eulalie tried her best to keep her voice even but it was hard to keep the mischievous sparkle from her eyes. “Some of them are more of a pink and grey mottled color, though.” She thought he would have questions, and she couldn’t help but wonder what is reaction would be to the fact that not only she, but Somnus, had seen them. “It’s funny that you mention Somnus,” she began, looking at Ulric from the corner of her eye, “because he and I were standing not that far from here when we saw them.”
Aim, throw your best shot right at me
'Cause pain, I can take it easily
Did you really I'd fall to my knees
Just to pray for some sweet simplicity?
“Me?” The rhetoric was spoken with a raised brow before the roan continued, humming amusedly before he continued. “Of course. I can’t tend to my country if I don’t first tend to myself.” The statement itself was true, but that was where the lie was. Ulric may believe he was taking care of himself, but his own body would be the first to call him out on it. He rose early and settled down late, and when he did sleep, it was for a few hours at best.
As the sunshine woman carried on, the Warden’s features softened as did his smile. Their patrol had only just begun, their first time spent together since those nights spent at his camp – and already he could see a vast difference in Eulalie. Her eyes were bright and her voice optimistic – even the way she moved seemed more free than before, and Ulric could not be happier that he’d played a very small role in her recovery. “I’d rather not think on that,” he remarked at the prospect of what might have happened had their paths not crossed on that night years ago, ”But… I’m glad, that we met that night, and that we managed to find each other again. Delumine is something else entirely, and even my wanderer’s heart seems content here.”
Their conversation became light-hearted as the focus shifted to that of the creatures that lurked in the depths of Rapax River, the likes of which Ulric was almost certain didn’t truly exist. Time and time again he had heard tales of the pink dolphins that inhabited it, yet despite his daily trips past the winding body of water, he had yet to spot a single one.
That’s why he looked to Eulalie with a deadpan expression when she went on, and Ulric nearly scoffed in his disbelief.
“Not you, too,” he said with a groan and a playful roll of his eyes, obstinate in his belief that no such creatures truly existed in the waters before them. Surely everybody who claimed to see them were in cahoots with one another, pulling his leg in some kind of grand scheme. Coming to a halt, Ulric directed the entirety of his attention on Eulalie and by now, he was nearly grinning. “I walk past these parts almost nightly and have yet to see any. Maybe they just don’t like me?”
Eulalie wanted to believe Ulric when he said he was taking proper care of himself, but she couldn’t help but wonder if it were true. She hoped, at least, that it was and that he wasn’t wearing himself down unnecessarily. Nevertheless, she reminded herself to drop by and keep him company more often. Maybe bring him a decent lunch once in awhile, just to make sure he takes a break.
She couldn’t blame him for not wanting to think too much on what ifs. This was the what if that had happened, and there was no point in dwelling on any other possibilities, because they were possibilities no longer. “I’m glad too. You are one of my few friends, Ulric, and I couldn’t be happier to have you in my life.” Her words were honest, and maybe, in the future, she would make more friends but she hoped that Ulric would always be there. He would always be her first friend in Delumine, regardless.
The laugh that escaped the ivory and sunshine woman was unbidden at the expression on Ulric’s face when she spoke of the dolphins. “Do you think I would lie to you?” she asked, gently nudging his shoulder with her own, her eyes alight with joy. “I never thought I’d see one as long as I lived, but I kept hoping it would happen,” Eulalie said, looking at her companion with a mischievous smirk, “Maybe they can sense your lack of belief in them.”
She took in his grin and noted the playfulness in his expression and the golden haired woman was happy that he seemed to be enjoying himself, even as they were meant to be working. She was happy that even now they still got along so perfectly, and she was so very grateful for him. “Maybe,” Eulalie began, offering the roan man a smile back, “You just need a little more faith?” That was the nature of faith, to believe in something even if you couldn’t see it, feel it, hear it. Even seemingly mystical pink dolphins deserved a little bit of that, she thought.
Aim, throw your best shot right at me
'Cause pain, I can take it easily
Did you really I'd fall to my knees
Just to pray for some sweet simplicity?
Did he believe Eulalie would lie to him? No, absolutely not, no matter how trivial the subject may be, like he believed pink dolphins to be.
His neck craned at the pressure of her shoulder into his own, the smile on his face growing softer at the gentle interaction. The mischievous look on Eulalie’s face was impossible to ignore, however, and were they standing any nearer to the river Ulric might believe she’d try and shove him into it any moment. Maybe then he would find these fabled creatures who so vehemently refused to show themselves to him.
Her proposition of having more faith caused his lips to draw back thoughtfully and he hummed softly beneath his breath, eyes of gold drifting out across the expanse of the river, flicking once to the distance – they were still on patrol, after all – and then back again when he failed to see anything. “Faith?” He repeated, quirking a brow as he spoke. Faith was not something Ulric particularly had a lot of, at least where individuals and his belief in them weren’t concerned. Faith wasn’t what had gotten him down from that mountain when he had been but a yearling nor what had ensured his survival from there on out. But… perhaps, just for Eulalie, he could try. What harm would there be in it?
“So… next time I walk by here,” the Warden continued after a contemplative moment, quirking a brow at his companion as his smile returned, “I should expect to see one? Is that how it’s supposed to work?”
Eulalie watched the expression on his face drift into thoughtfulness, listened to his humming with a soft smile curling her lips. Faith, she knew perhaps more than any, was not easy to come by. Not something that landed in your lap and hung around like a lazy cat. Believing took work. Believing in something, or someone, meant that despite all the evidence in the world that went against it, you never doubted. And doubt, doubt was as easy to come by as the blades of grass in the meadow or the grains of sand in the desert. Always there, perhaps small individually, but when they came together they formed something encompassing and unable to ignore.
She had never had much faith in the gods, or at most the one who had been patron to her home in Solterra. Her family had very much believed in and practiced beneath Solis' golden light. But there had been no god in her parents selling her as a slave. There had been no god in those chains, no god in the scars on her body. There had been no god in that life except for maybe the one her slave owner had believed himself to be.
Eulalie's faith had had to be in herself in order to escape that life, and in nobody else.
"All you need to do," the ivory and sunshine woman replied, looking at Ulric's quirked brow with a smile matching his own, not daring to speak on expectations, "is to keep your mind open to the idea that anything is possible." A slave could escape her owner, a boy on the brink of death could grasp onto life with a vice grip. Pink dolphins could call a river home. Eulalie laughed, clear and light like air before gesturing further down the river. "Come on, we best get back to walking," she said, and moved away from their place on the bank of the Rapax to continue their patrol.
Eulalie’s words elicited a response in Ulric that even he hadn’t foreseen coming. Black-tipped ears flicked backwards, but still upright as he furrowed his brow once again as he considered it. Anything is possible…
An image painted itself within his head, plastering itself across his mind’s eye, and he swore he felt his skin prickle as though cold. He remembered a time years ago when he’d been abandoned to the snowy mountaintops of his birthplace, practically left to die without any way of following his family. He remembered the fear that gut-wrenching fear that consumed him after waking that morning to find that everyone was gone and his frantic voice reverberated through the mountains without a response. He remembered the times he didn’t eat, the times when he had fled from the hungry jaws of predators, the times where he had almost just let them capture him.
He remembered. And he had survived.
The world seemed to come back to him all at once, and it took everything he had to resist shaking his head to try and rid it of all those thoughts. Drawing a deep, steady breath in an attempt to reel himself back in and hope that he hadn’t seemed too out of the ordinary, Ulric craned his head back to Eulalie and smiled, nodding his agreement. “Yeah… yeah. Let’s keep going.” Turning away from the river, the Warden now set his sights on the forested area to the north.
Next time, he would see a goddamn pink dolphin.
"Speech"
@Eulalie
HISTORY HAS ITS EYES ON YOU ➳ allcontact is permitted and encouraged
10-01-2018, 05:08 AM - This post was last modified: 10-01-2018, 05:08 AM by Ulric
