Dusted with star matter and borne upon tides of nature, hers is the beauty of wild places.
She had never known loss to be so painful.
At the convent, she had known loss - they all had. It wasn't uncommon for a fellow trainee to perish during a dangerous evaluation, or for an elderly mentor or tutor to pass of natural causes, but for her King? Her comrade and Commandant? His absence was felt like a blade to her heart with every breath and every blink. What was she to do? What would Solis' children do without their beloved Maxence? Who would direct them to their righteous victories? There was not one that could fill the place of the stallion who had fought the Elder Teryr, not one that could hope to yoke the wild and battle hardened peoples of Solterra to their will, to act with single mind and purpose.
There was no one.
And so in her fear and her directionless terror, Eden fled to the only place that she associated with safety - to Leviathan's side.
With so many months spent alongside the behemoth in training and laughter, in labor and adoration, she had become as accustomed to his scent as she was to her own. So it was a simple thing to track him from the smithy that he had adopted as his haunt to the Oasis that she had shared so many memories with those that she had come to consider family. Gasping with the strike of pain that blossomed within her chest as she recalled her and Maxence's moments held beneath the moonlight of the Oasis, the paladin blinked back tears and forced one gilded hoof in front of the other. "Levi?" She called weakly, her voice made tremulous and thin from fear and sorrow, "Leviathan, where are you?"
In the middle distance, she could see a silhouette, though it was not one that she could entirely attribute to her behemoth. No, it wasn't bulky enough, and the mane and tail... they reflected palely in the cool night air, no ebony or charcoal to be seen - but the horns and the height screamed of her gentle giant. Brow furrowing against her confusion, the aurelian maiden moved closer to the half-known stranger, "Sir? Hello? I'm looking for someone, a stallion named Leviathan.. He has a red eye and one clouded over and his coloring is black and white. He is covered in scars. You wouldn't have forgotten him if you had seen him, and could never dismiss him from memory if you had talked to him. He is great and big... he..." She swallowed against a sudden rush of emotion, "He is my dearest companion."
As she came closer, her confusion could only deepen as the scent of Leviathan became stronger, and the notches in the stranger's horns were the same as her comrade's. "Sir?"
"REALLY?" The word has burst out of the goliath has he had heaved himself out of the oasis, looking down to see light colors with his good eye, instead of the dark he had been growing accustomed to. "No, seriously, why? Wasn't one time enough!?" The titan heaved his horned head back to look up at the sky, scowling at it and tipping his head so his gold eye could focus on the flickering above, his nostrils flaring and heavy hooves digging in to the dirt. He was still tall, still muscular, but now he looked like all of his colors had bled out in to the water (and he turned his head, just to double check and make sure that wasn't what had happened).
A scowl etched at his lips, and he dug his front hooves in to the ground, ears snapping back out of sheer annoyance as he glanced up again. "Goddamnit." It was all he could muster in his annoyance, his shoulders heaving and his head dropping as he grumbled to himself. First Maxence, then the killing of the young Teryrs, and now this. Did he ever really catch a damn break in his life? Fate would argue that no, he really never did. It was always something or another coming to bite him in the ass.
In the midst of his small angry outburst, he could hear his name, and his head came up, eyes going wide and ears suddenly flattening. Oh. Shit. That sounded like Eden, and he could feel a small well of panic in his chest, which was quickly smothered. Gods, she wasn't going to know it was him, and he was going to sound like a damn lunatic trying to explain what had happened to her. He didn't even know what the hell had happened himself.
His tiger lily came closer and closer, and his ears flicked back a little, his good eye focusing on her, an unnatural gold instead of his fiery red. "Eden," he rumbled, and his voice was the same tone, deep and well, laced with annoyance. "I uh.. it's me." A scuff of his hoof, and he flicked his tail, his head tucking to his neck a moment before he heaved out an annoyed sigh. "I probably sound crazy because I don't look like me, and really, if this hadn't happened before, I'd be freaking out. I chalk it up to deities being dickheads, but uh. Hi."
The expressions upon the stranger's face were familiar, and the way he moved was hauntingly similar to Levi... All this considered, Eden still blanched whenthe voice that slipped from the stranger's lips was Leviathan's. Taking a step backward with amer eyes narrowing, Eden found that she wasn't genuinely suspicious, her instincts instead urging the mare to quell such thoughts of subterfuge. Yet, it didn't seem as if she shouldn't be suspicious - she knew that the gods were well and alive within Novus, that their influence could be seen and remarked upon with ease across the entire continent.
How could she know that this doppleganger in negative color was her massive companion? Taking a step closer with eyes still flickering with mistrust, the lass tilted her head to the side, allowing her gaze to pick apart the pale face of this potential imposter. Levi had never told her of any transformative tendencies, but his scars were the same, his horns - while pale - were chipped just so, and the way he held himself, the sheepish grins and that furrow in his brow... It all screamed of Leviathan.
Suddenly, she straightened, her posture rigid as those piercing amber eyes flew back to the stranger's golden gaze, an intensity flaring between them that the maiden was forced to ignore as she posed her question, "What creature did you and Maxence prevent from stinging me when we discovered the blacksmith's shack?"
Though the mention of Maxence stung, cutting the hole that he had left behind a little deeper, she knew that no one but the three of them would know of the scorpion that Levi had kicked over for Maxence to crush. There was no one else in the shack, no one in the courtyard, barely anyone even populating Solterra at the time. Yes, the paladin was quite sure - it was something that Leviathan would know.
And if the cream colored stranger with her behemonths' voice and scars proved to be an imposter?
Eden wasn't sure that it would take her much to consider spilling blood upon the pristine white sands that she loved so well.
Honestly, he couldn't blame her for being suspicious, and he drew in a breath, allowing his ears to flick back a small fraction or so. Leviathan did't move toward her, instead holding still as his eye watched her, the golden orb following her progress. It hurt, a little, but he would have been the same way, honestly.
Her query stunned him, and he blinked at her, lifting his horned head just a little. "Do you mean the scorpion I couldn't crush because I was too big?""And I'm still too big." He hadn't had the room to really maneuver in that shack, and as such, he had punted the insect toward Maxence to the best of his ability. It had been utterly ridiculous, and he was still trying to get the shack bigger, and the forge outside where he could work on weapons and armor in peace. Without worry of the place falling on him or tangling him up in some damned corner.
His answer was simple and he kept himself rather quiet after that, hoping that she was asking to test and see if it was him. Hopefully she believed him, because he had no clue how to prove that he was.. himself, to her otherwise. "You know, that shack is still too small for me," he managed, sounding rather grumpy about it instead, heaving out a soft sigh and making a slight face, his scarred maw wrinkling up.
Dusted with star matter and borne upon tides of nature, hers is the beauty of wild places.
A slow grin replaced the narrowed eyes and pursed lips as the cream colored stallion's face crinkled up in surprise in an oh-so-Leviathan-way and he answered her question with a questioning honesty that was undeniably genuine. However and why ever the gods had decided to bleed the color from the towering warrior that she had the privilege to call comrade, she didn't care; for the sensation of safety and comfort was still there when she looked at him.
'That shack is still too small for me.'
The statement coaxed a laugh from the maiden, the sound bubbling up from her belly and trailing off into a sob. The relief that she felt at his presence, that the teryr hadn't stolen this from her, too, was overwhelming and had brought all of the sadness that had been welling within her chest since Maxence's disappearance and presumed death to the forefront. Stepping forward, the mare pressed her face into Leviathan's chest and heaved a shuddering sigh in an attempt to stop the tears from slipping from amber eyes and sliding down golden cheeks in the wake of fear and worry and stress.
It did not work.
Between sobs, Eden distantly wondered if Levi cared that she was soaking his beautiful gilded skin with her tears, but she couldn't seem to stop herself.
"I'll build you the biggest shack you want. Just stay with me. Stay home."
Honestly, Leviathan couldn't say he ever expected Eden to simply step forward as if it was all fine, and press her head to his chest. Part of him thought she'd still be suspicious, but that part of him was extremely relieved that she had taken it and believed the truth, and had accepted his answer.
Stay. Stay stay stay. It was so strange for someone to want him to stay, but his head ducked, and he gently pressed his nose to her hair, flowers and all, letting out a breath as he did that seemed to shake him. Something warm trickled through him, something he wasn't sure about, but all the same, he moved his horned head and carefully wrapped his neck around hers the best he could with a sound that could only be considered soothing.
"You gonna stay in that shack with me?" he asked, half as a joke, half serious. There was just something about Eden that kept him around, kept him calm and secure, and he closed his eyes, both good and bad, and kept himself a little quieter, unwilling to shatter what silence they had now.
Dusted with star matter and borne upon tides of nature, hers is the beauty of wild places.
You gonna stay in that shack with me?
Eden didn't respond for some time, letting the flow of emotion slow from an overwhelming wave to a gentle trickle. Even after her tears subsided, she stayed silent, amber eyes half lidded as she considered the seemingly endless void of time that she had before her; what was one to do whe faced with an uncertain future? Should she grasp at all tendrils of familiarity and wrap herself within them, effectively coccooning herself in threads that would both comfort her and hold her from moving forward?
Or could she find it within herself to step into that darkness, risk the potentially unstable footholds and scratch her existence into the earth like a message?
As her breathing slowed, becoming even and steady, as she considered the warmth that emanated from Leviathan's chest, from his neck and head draped over her own, she felt rather than thought the answer that would dictate the rest of her life. A warmth twined it's way into her heart and tugged ever so gently forward - into the rest of her life? Closer to Leviathan? Both?
"Only if you move your gargantuan butt over so I'll have room to breathe," Came her mumbled reply at last, the smile that graced her lips evident in the tone of her voice. Blinking rapidly and pushing away a yawn - sorrow was an exhausting state of being, after all - Eden flciked her heavy mass of tail and let truth fill the space between them, "I'm serious, though, I'll do whatever I need to in order to keep you around - even if that means reading all the carpentry books in the continent so I can build a damn shack."
If my future has to be uncertain, I want you to be my constant.
@Leviathan oops my heart is bleeding out all these FEELINGS
The mantra of "stay stay stay" seemed to be a rhythm that rocked through his heart and veins, his entire being, while his eyes remained shut, his large head resting on Eden's neck in a gesture of soothing and affection. Strange, those moments of affection when it came to the beast, but he did have them, even if far and in between. All the while, the silence builds between them, though it's not even remotely suffocating, instead a sort of silence that wraps like a blanket, tucked around his large body and bringing a sense of warmth and comfort with it.
Slowly, it broke, and he was left to laugh in a gentle way, his chest easing with pressure and his throat opening to release the sound, low and loud. It simmered away eventually too, as his head lifted a bare fraction, to allow his lips to play with her mane and gently tease it. "I'll move over however much you need," he mumbled, allowing the words to fall away, just as he listened to the rest of her words. The warmth only curled in his chest more, and he finally heaved his large horned head up, enough that he could lean and press lips to the bridge of her nose instead, wiggling his way there.
Just a gentle nudge, as he felt himself become.. calm. "You don't have to read any carpentry books to keep me around, wild woman. You're the one that keeps me around. Even if I wander.. I always come back to you, don't I?" It was the truth, after all, and he could only heave out a soft sigh, his ears perking up as he blinked, turning his head so his gold eye could focus on her, instead of the milky one. "I love you, Eden. I'm not one to beat around the bush or anything about it, either. I've.. had this feeling very rarely in my life and I know what it is."
Dusted with star matter and borne upon tides of nature, hers is the beauty of wild places.
Eden had nurtured a healthy fear of vulnerability. It was not a fear borne upon prevention of emotional betrayal, no, Eden had been lucky enough to avoid the invisible agony that accompanied a bruised heart. The fear that she held within that warrior soul of hers was one far more simple; one of self preservation, the primitive instinct of a defender that had been trained into the core of her being until it influenced every decision she made.
That instinct, coupled with an upbringing that shunned the understanding of love outside of a platonic scope, had caused Eden to remain ignorant to the truth of the matter between she and her beloved Behemoth. The Paladin had no name for the whirlwind of emotion, the sensation of wholeness and contentedness that swelled her breast ever since that first day - the day they had bloodied one another within the confines of a dirt ring, forging something stronger than friendship beneath Solis’ blazing gaze.
Indeed, Eden had attempted to give a title to the simultaneous heaviness and lightness that ensconced her heart when Leviathan even so much as looked in her direction; camaraderie, companionship, fondness. Yet, when none of those quite fit and when the word “Love” floated into the forefront of her mind, the Paladin found that she could not agree with that either.
It was too short, too diminutive a word to encompass all that she felt toward the stallion. Four letters didn’t seem to be enough, would never seem to be enough.
He held her, and within her warrior’s heart, in the spaces between each pulse, she held him. Leviathan was within and without, as much a part of Eden’s identity as she knew herself to be.
Her mind was a tangled thicket, a restless wind, a tumultuous sea.
And he was her lighthouse, guiding her home and keeping her safe against anything and everything.
The rumble of his laugh was like a cool drink on a hot day, a salve to her frayed nerves, and the words that fell from his lips left her sighing into his skin, happiness wrapping itself around her shoulders like a cloak. Yet, the moment broke as he pulled away and the mare’s face fell only for her expression to morph into one of shock as Leviathan’s lips pressed to the bridge of her nose and she felt the truth of his words sink into her skin.
You’re the one that keeps me around. Even if I wander... I always come back to you, don’t I?
She was about to reply, about to tell him the words that were written upon her heart and glowed within her soul; that she loved him, that some part had known this since we had heard his surprised laughter within the arena, that whatever would come to pass was their path to wander together, their gift from the universe.
But he beat her to it.
Mouth falling open, Eden pulled back, her face a caricature of bewilderment and frustration. For a moment, she half glared, half pouted at the scar stitched face of the stallion that had captured her heart with an ease that both terrified and thrilled her.
“You ass!” Yelled the mare, her face splitting into the widest, most dazzling smile she could manage around her laughter, “I was going to say it first. I love you, you giant, ridiculous, tumbleweed man. I love you more than I knew I could.”
Stretching up onto the tips of her golden hooves, those ebony lips reaching to brush against the mammoth stallion’s forehead that leaned just out of reach, Eden settled for blowing a breath against his skin, her amber eyes glimmering.
“I cannot tell you how relieved I am that I don’t have to build a shack.”
The reaction he drew forth from her was amusing, and he offered a half smile, lazily curling a front limb under himself as he looked at her befuddled face until he leaned himself a little forward, reaching a massive head to tip it down as she yelled at him. It only drew a laugh out of his throat, a deep rumbling noise that crawled up from his chest and vibrated out his mouth. "Sorry I beat you to the punch," came the rumbled reply, and as she reached up, he lowered his might head down that much more for her.
Rather than say anything, his lips met her cheek, and he curled to rest his head over her nape, among the wild tangles of her hair as his eyes shut. "I think it'd take a long time to make that shack anyway," he uttered, only to laugh a little as the wind whipped around them, a soft and warm breeze from over the sands that reached the oasis. It was a peaceful moment, at least, and he only nuzzled his scarred maw in to her hair, drawing it back to lazily lip at a few flowers, and finally hefting his head up gently.
"Now what should we do?" he teased, his voice warm as he nosed at her. His lips pressed to her head, the bridge of her nose, and he nuzzled a little more, tail flicking behind him heavily. It was a good night, a good time, peaceful and lazy and he couldn't help but close his eyes. "Perhaps we should head back? It's one hell of a trek over the sands to get back to the court," he offered, a cockeyed smile on his lips.
