The smaller movements of the daintily winged male did not go unnoticed by the Orphaned Crow; indeed, Raglan found his eyes drawn to every breath, blink, and shift performed by Cynix’s nebula and marble form. Pangs of bittersweet nostalgia yanked at the bloody bay’s chest as memories of laughter beneath blankets of stars flooded his mind’s eye. Was time so much of a rift? Was the loss of their home so deeply felt that the two colts that they were would grow into stallions so distanced by circumstance?
“A little. Solterra and Denocte.. again.”
While Cynix hid his emotions well, Raglan was no stranger to how close the enmity between the two opposing courts lay to the stallion’s heart. He recalled the way Cynix had drawn stares and sometimes outright glares from denizens of the Night Court - all due to the lad’s parents having fallen for one another across imaginary boundaries. Raglan had never understood such vehemence aimed toward his soft spoken friend. Denocte was supposed to stand for freedom from conformity, freedom from those little rules that directed equines into narrow, flavorless lives; it was supposed to be a place that allowed the freedom of falling in love with whomever your heart chose.
Lowering his head to Cynix’s level, the horned Crow took a few hesitant steps forward, closing the distance little by little until he stood a personable length from his friend. Offering a tentative smile that stood so opposite of Raglan’s usual jaunty bravado, the young stag shuffled his wings at his sides and resisted the urge to reach forward with darkened lips and preen at the delicate wings attached to the scholar’s skull.
Raglan pushed a halfway mirthful laugh from his belly.
“The games that Kings and Queens will play over invisible lines and pretend fences always pan out rather interesting for us, no?” Another step closer, sorrow pressing heavily into the lines about opal eyes, the Crow spoke softly as he dared, “They’ve been good to you here, right? They better have been good to you.”
Cynix was the last piece of home that Raglan knew, and he’d tear down the entire Capitol if his final remnant of Denocte had a single feather out of place.
@Cynix sorry for the wait bby
