("there is a way not to be broken
that takes brokenness to find it")
So we break
ourselves body and soul,
in search of a way to not be broken.
Eik doesn't know any other way, not anymore.
But he does not need to hurt others, certainly not his queen. His friend. So the dance is over, when it has just barely begun. He lets go of whatever it was he was grasping at. The breath slows and his clarity fades and all that remains then is the physical throbbing of each shoulder, the fresh bruise on one side and the old wound on the other.
He feels as though he is shrinking beneath her scrutiny, like an insect under a microscope, and he looks away uncomfortably. His eyes return only when he feels her gaze seeking his. "We will make it through this," she says, and he quietly tries to steel himself in her words. He does not believe in the supervision of the gods nor the generosity of time but he wants to believe in her. He tries to.
There has got to be some way to heal without breaking first. There has got to be something to believe in that is not violence. Tentatively he reaches forward to brush his muzzle feather-light across her chest, and then to her neck near her collar, gently burrowing beneath the silver rope of her braids to find the warm flesh beneath. His touch is a swift and silent apology, and a promise of his own.
He draws away and nods, brief and silent. And he leaves once more to wherever it is he goes.
Ah sudden feelings <3
@
Time makes fools of us all
