[AW] CIRCUS CHILD ,

[Eik]

Eik came here to say goodbye. He is not a man of funeral pyres, especially crowded ones. No, as soon as he sees the bones, he leaves to pay his respects alone and in the places of his old gods. His gods, the ones that are no longer here. He started in the desert, naturally. Then to the great mountain, the crown of Novus. From there, through the forests to the ocean. Along the way he thinks of the fallen commander, he pushes his memories deep into sand, stone, mud, and now- the sea.

Maxence is not all he thinks about. The two men only knew each other so well, after all. On Eik's pilgrimage, he thinks of the creatures he's met in his short stay in Novus. The desert rose, the woman of steel, the boy who reminds him of the color turquoise. These are the first to come to mind, but the rest soon follow, as imagery and snippets of conversation and details. Like he is spying on his own life in bits and pieces. Sunrise, snake, eagle, twilight. Black velvet and a basket and the drip drop of molten gold. He tries to imagine where he fits in with all these deconstructed characters and finds he cannot. There is no real place, no stage large enough for his vast... vastness. Loneliness. Oddity.. We ramble and rant and secretly hope to find something left among the ashes.

And when we don't, well... we look up and see her. The desert mirage. Eik hasn't attracted her attention yet and takes this moment to look her over, to match the sight before him to his memory of that day among the dunes. He wants to leave before he is seen (he knows how sweet it can be, alone with your thoughts) but she turns her head and there is no graceful escape for him.

He sighs and comes closer. "I did not think I would see you again," he says. It made me a little sad almost rises to his lips but he swallows it down. Too childish. Feelings are so much more complicated than happy and sad, more nuanced than he has words for. I wanted to swallow the clouds is more accurate, but too... dramatic.

(We'll save that one for a lover we will, if we ever love anyone more than solitude and sifting through ashes and the stillness of a winter morning on the tundra and)

His thoughts are tangled and complicated, but it is this simple: she went her way and he went his, and now their ways meet again.

He steps forward to stand beside her on the bluff. "Is this where you've been? The sea?" She seems so at place in the desert that he has a hard time seeing her truly at peace here, amidst all this blue and green. This is his type of place, vast and lonesome.

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@Rhoswen I couldn't resist, hope you don't mind!