THORVALD
Were you a sailor of some kind?
"Once upon a time, it may as well have been in another life." Thorvald answers with the barest hint of a smirk, there is a weight behind those words, somewhere deep down behind the amiable facade he presents. It wraps around his hocks like Ymera's kraken appendages, up and up, sliding slick over his charcoal skin and pulling. He had been many things once.
A Sailor, a Warrior, a Son, a Brother.
Ah, but that had been so very long ago. The years all blurred together and the memories warped at the edges, crumbled on others. Each turn of the page, the start of another chapter, made all the ink press together. Oh there are such tales he can tell the Dunalino beside him, of Ymera and her eyes whiter than any pearl of the abyss, glowing like lanterns in the mire and murk, beckoning the wayward soul home. Great floating mountains of ice in the north, drifting silently on the stormy sea while leviathans coiled around them in slow waltz. How it felt for the salt wind to card it's spindled fingers through coarse manes, how close sailing felt to flying when the sails were loosed.
Somnus.
"Ah, the King of Dawn and it's new beginnings." Val rumbled with good humor, pale blue eyes regarding the other with a touch more interest. The only King's he'd ever met were the ones which had ruled Skoan. The haggard and weathered face of King Asvaldr, his life written in the deep creases which lined his aged visage. Then young King Vali, though he supposes, that he is not so young anymore. But his youthful face flickers to the forefront of Thorvald's mind and his cold heart twists, sharp and unforgiving.
He had never bowed to either of them, and the handsome face of Vali disappears into the shadows once more, dragged down by the kraken and his mistress. Perhaps it is in bad manners that he does not turn to Somnus and bow now. "Not even companions are immune to the hustle and bustle it appears." A glance is given to the barn owl in question, but it does not linger for long, it returns to the gilded lines of the King's face and then out to the crowd.
"Any particular reason for the festival?" He asks eventually, another sip of ale pausing his words. "I'm afraid I'm rather bad at keeping up with the comings and goings of everything. Especially in new places."
TAG; @Somnus
NOTES; here the undead grump is
