"I..."
She speaks without words and he listens just as carefully as before. The silence is full of communication (later it will remind him of being with Seraphina, but that is not where his thoughts go now) and he finds himself staring at the reflections in the full glass before him. He can see the grey-white of his long nose, the red hair of his companion, the lanterns behind them... the whole world lives in miniature in that unassuming amber drink.
He had been gone in his thoughts for a long moment, and it is only the warmth of her touch that brings him back to the world. He blinks, and then gently leans into her in silent gratitude. It is the sort of night that should not end. The kind in fairy tales where time is suspended on a word, a thought, a touch to the shoulder. But there is no magic here, and life, in its grim tedium, is nothing at all like the stories.
And yet--
Secrets have been shared, and that is not without consequence. You can feel it in the air, hanging like smoke and swirling with a strange energy of its own. Two souls have edged closer together tonight and something like promise blooms at the edge of his vision-- or maybe not promise but possibility-- all the possibilities for the days to come, all the ways the universe might be made different, and better
Eik is no dancer. But she does not ask him if he wants to dance. She simply proposes they do, and with a playful tug on his mane she is gone. He hesitates for a moment, content to drown in his drinks and his memories. But she does not look back no matter how hard he stares at her retreating form.
With a resigned sigh he staggers forward to follow Indra into the gentle glow of the dawn. Into the music, and the dance, and wherever else the new day will take them. Where she goes, he follows-- at least for the rest of this quickly fading night.
- - -
There is no better way to know us
E I K
than as two wolves, come separately to a wood
@Indra closing it here <3 can't wait for their next encounter!!
