A S T E R I O N
in sunshine and in shadow*
For a few moments he is sorry to have woken the boy.
There is such peace in his dreaming, such fervent joy; it is easy to wonder what adventures he is on, as his hooves paw the grass and his nostrils quiver and his heart beats like a bird’s in his throat. Oh, since when has two looked so terribly young? Asterion finds himself wanting to protect the colt, when the last time they had seen one another they had been nearly of an age.
Not for the first time he is a little jealous of his sister’s dagger and her magic - that she might not be swept away by time, that she might linger a little longer in folly and in youth. It is a terrible thing, he thinks, to grow up.
When the boy stirs Asterion shakes such thoughts away, and backs a step to give Pan room to stand. His heart twangs like a string at the confusion in the colt’s eyes - it is too similar to the look Flora had given him, not so long ago - but it would be a lie to say he hadn’t expected it. Ravos was a long time ago, and Pan was clearly magic-touched - who knew what years had been lost to him, in the tides of time?
Still he smiles, dark ears forward as the boy names himself, and as his attention turns to Cirrus.
“She is,” he says, and winks at Cirrus when she shoots him a look. “Or rather, we are each other’s. This is Cirrus, my companion.”
The gull turns her gaze back to the pale, scaled boy, eyes bright with interest as he pulls the shell from his bag. With customary quickness she plucks the shell from him, then flies to Asterion’s back, where she sets it on his rump to investigate. The bay king flicks his tail at her, good-naturedly, and in return she gives a sharp tug to one of the silver strands running through it.
But their teasing is set aside at Pan’s next comment. Asterion turns his dark-eyed gaze back to the boy, and thinks of a world before this world, where the gods walked beside them and magic gathered, feral and hungry, in wild lands. “Yes,” he says softly. “But Ravos was a long time ago. I am Asterion - do you remember how you got to Novus, Pan?”
@Pan <3
