f l o r e n t i n e THIS IS THE WONDER KEEPING THE STARS APART
Pan was not the only one to heed the call. It was only by chance that Florentine had been close enough to Delumine to hear Coraline’s frantic shouts. The sound was as startling as a knife in the lazy sunlight of the early day. With her heart fluttering, Florentine slips through the wild woodland. At each desperate call her ears twitch, her twilight eyes peering through brush and branches to spy the button-eyed girl. That voice, shrill and panicked was one the Dusk girl remembered. It brought with it old memories of a land of snow and ice, of a childhood blissful and free. But now, all that lingers of Florentine in that winter land are the petals she once shed upon its white, white face. So much has changed for this girl of flowers and dusk-light since she once called Rift’s ever changing lands home. Her heart is no longer what it once was… it feels bruised and broken and yet so full. It is a heart that flutters, butterfly soft against her ribs as her eyes befall the pair before her. “I am.” The gold girl chirps, her lips curling into a smile, even as her heart twinges that no, no she is not okay. But that ache is smaller now, its pain eased by the balm of a letter secreted away in her room. Folding the thoughts (the love, the ache) into the corner of her mind, the Dusk girl joins them, the scent of lavender upon her flowers, pressing upon their skin. Florentine’s lips reach for Coraline’s silver skin, warm and soft and then to Pan. Her touch lingers upon his scales, a sigh escaping as her heart twinges again for Only’s scale-free skin. The flower girl wonders just when her heart might stop its sad, sad aching, for it never used to hurt – not like this. A soft blink hides the terrible thought that at last she might know the pain that put the darkness in her father’s haunted gaze. It is a struggle to bring her lips to smile, a struggle to wipe the strain from the taught strings of her heart. Yet she does, each step light, each step nimble as she turns to Coraline. “I am glad you are here with us, Coraline.” @Coraline @Pan |
★ She is clothed with strength and dignity,
and she laughs without fear of the future ★
