[SWP] selcouth

[Atreus]

over the moaning bones
of those who quit and chose to remain

The longer his eyes linger on the gopher, the more vexing it becomes that it seems entirely unscathed. Of course, Atreus knows better than anyone that not everything can be seen on the surface, but… when the rodent stirs and fails to show any sign at all of discomfort, his suspicion grows. This was rapidly becoming quite an ordeal over a single gopher that appeared to be nothing more than a little cold and dehydrated. Another gopher comes forward then, and the roan’s ears slide back towards his skull in warning. Their supplies were running thin with the recent destruction of Terrastella, their food scarce as well, and they couldn’t be giving handouts to those that didn’t absolutely need them.

He certainly hadn’t been expecting the Warden’s bird to leap down to the ground and become engulfed in flames, and when it does, he raises his head again and steps away. Atreus was about to speak then as he shifted back closer to Fiona, but his voice drowns beneath the murmur of everyone else – the gophers burrowing and chattering away in the background, Theodosia chiding them for destroying their home, Asterion suddenly ordering them to bring everything out from the kitchens, and the strange mare that had accompanied them back – the mare whom he now realized was changing right before his very eyes. The mottled grey began to give way to a myriad of colors, splashes of amber melting into shades of red, creeping ever so slowly up the length of her legs and beyond.

Suddenly he finds himself shifting closer to Fiona. It’s a subconscious reaction that he doesn’t realize for the time being, and he looks on at the outsider through narrowed, judgmental but inquisitive eyes of brilliant gold and endless black. “Why bring them here in the first place?” His accented voice curls and blatantly questions the Goddess in disguise, and he stands unmoving from his lax position nearest Fiona.

“Speaking.”

credits