[P] A drowsy sweetness

[Eik]

So far, he has lived two lives. (two lives too many) Or at least this is the way he remembers the long nine years that preceded this moment. It would shock him to learn of all the lives the sweet-eyed woman before him has lived. Not the living of them (it seems nothing is beyond belief anymore) but the surviving of them, the fact that she can stand here, before him, and not be crushed by the weight of all her lives.

"I don't know... What do you think I might be doing?"

Oh, all the possibilities are there and one by one they take turns rolling across his mind: stealing, spying, slave trading... But one look at her, just a glance, and these things all crumble away. He is left with an answer, if not an explanation, and in his voice rings something like resignation. "The same thing as me, I suppose."  

There is a moment of silence, but against the heat and the bright light it seems much longer than it is. In this moment he has a faraway look, as though he is trying to wrangle some thought that ran away.

Then it suddenly clicks- the flowers, the knife round her throat, her presence here past the heart of Solterra. "You're lady Florentine, aren't you." He's heard stories and rumors, and some words from a trusted friend- but nobody told Eik of her eyes! There lies a world behind her gaze, a resounding presence that clashes with the gentle femininity of her features. He feels exposed as she looks at him, and his reactionary response is to be on edge, razor-sharp and weary-- but something about her, something more than just the flowers in her hair, stills his heart's desire to race away. It reminds him a bit of his first encounter with Asterion, the way everything seemed to click into place with a certain, inexplicable sense of rightness. Like the silent answer to a question that was never asked.

"I'm Eik." He remembers his name after too long, and his head tilts in intrigue as he asks "Do you ever have a problem with bees?" It is, unfortunately, the first and only question that comes to mind.

-     -     -
There is no better way to know us
E I K
than as two wolves, come separately to a wood

@Florentine <3