[P] smiling like you got it all

[Willoughby]

 

willoughby lovelace
night - grab my arm 
save me from this bloody destiny

She couldn't sleep.

Night had long since fallen, and Willoughby could not sate her boredom. She crept away from the place she had tried to rest for the night, her mind going a mile a minute. She felt both excitable and weary. It was a strange sensation to be sure, the creeping bubbling that felt too exhausting to display. 

She wanted to believe there was a place for her in Novus. It felt so simple at first, so foolish... to roam without needing a place to belong. But now the maiden felt winter's distant chill and realized she had nothing to call her own. Walking along Eluetheria Plain, she didn't know what she sought now. Adventure was out there, beyond this realm... Dare she go to it?

Or did she remain, trying to find a place? Join a court? Settle for the mediocre worship of gods that never revealed themselves to her? Save for Caligo's brief presence, Willoughby did not know if they even glanced at her. A vagabond - a lost soul, as the goddess had said to her - was next to nothing. The maiden breathed in the night's cool air, closing her eyes.

When she opened them, a few minutes had passed. She stayed where she was, standing there in the midst of the field, a silhouette made of pastel and feathers. But she was no longer alone. He appeared out of nowhere, spotted her and approached. She smiled almost forlornly as she greeted her friend. "Galileo." 

"Speech." | @Galileo | 100th post woot!

[Galileo]

G A L I L E O

---

It was dark, but he was restless. Restless like the storms that brew over the oceans, eager to approach land and wreak their chaos on its inhabitants. His legs longed to run, to match the rhythm of a beating heart to the thump, thump, thump of his hooves drumming the ground. The wind calls to him, asking him where has he been? Why has he not visited, why does he not wish to play? It wants to dance in his main, to urge him forward and buffet him from all sides. 

Instead, he has been pacing -- one way, then the next, concentrating, thinking... So much had happened, and so much was to come, he had been taking the time to digest it, eager to allow himself space to breathe away from the claustrophobic constraints of his problems. 

But no more. He has had enough thoughts for one day, enough of the considering of what ifs and how comes. It was time to fly, to speed along under the guiding light of the stars above. Night enveloped him in her cool embrace, stroking her shadowy fingers across his back and flank. Go, she whispered with her forked tongue. Go forth and forget your troubles.

And so, he launches himself forward across the plain -- galloping, faster than he had ever galloped before. The ground moved below him at lightning speed, his hooves thundered across the plain waking any ground-dwelling creature awaken from their slumber.

He was carefree.

In typical fashion, it does not last long, and as he finds himself slowing down, he finds the worries and woes creeping back in.

Only a second later, does something catch his eye. Under the twinkling stars, a white -- no, purple -- creature glows. It is smaller than him, but lankier. 

And it speaks his name.

"Willoughby?" He replies, not able to see her too well in the dark. It doesn't take long for him to approach her, however, and he nods happily. "It is you! I thought I knew your voice."


-
@Willoughby