Seraphina was not sure how she expected the stallion to react to her greeting; she had not even been sure if he would hear her voice, quiet as she was. He turned, a movement that struck her as practiced and graceful in spite of how painful he looked, so riddled with oozing blisters and scars. She felt a squirming ache simply looking in his direction, like ants crawling just beneath the surface of her skin. His wounds were not the worst she’d ever seen, even in her short – but wartorn – lifespan, but Seraphina had never seen anyone in his state of permanence. Those wounds did not look like they healed. He turned – a movement that was, all things considered, bizarrely elegant – and offered a greeting that mirrored her own; there was no threat to this man. Perhaps – or likely – there had been, once, but for the moment, any danger he might have posed with his warlike build and multitude of scars was extinguished.
Silence came creeping in to fill the space between them, and she shifted in a semblance of awkwardness. She was not a social creature, beyond pleasantries and obligations, and she was unaccustomed to being expected to carry the conversation; it should be simple, she told herself. Cough up her name and ask a question, and perhaps he’d start talking. “I…” She began, hint of uncertainty coloring her tone, “…am Seraphina, warrior of the Day Court. Are you…searching for the relic?” Encountering others was easy on patrol, or on the sands of Solterra. It was completely, horribly different when she found herself on foreign soil.
The sound of movement and a thickly-accented greeting drew the mare’s attention, and she glanced back over her shoulder to eye a familiar shape. Rostislav, the stallion she’d encountered while wandering Terrastella. She offered a stiff nod to him in greeting, acknowledging him with a simple, “Rostislav.” (Her tongue still wrapped awkwardly around his foreign name, drawl not quite accommodating the syllables.)
I'M IN A ROOM MADE OUT OF MIRRORSand there's no way to escape the violence of a girl against herself.☼please tag Sera! contact is encouraged, short of violence
