[P] be who we are

[Samaira]

i got all i need,
all i need,
i'm flying

His response is not what she expects. Of course, the only King she ever knew had a price out for her wings, and any others like her that might exist. But if Samaira has learned anything at all since coming to Terrastella, she knows that Asterion is not him. "How would you have me know you?" the earthen woman asks, her moon-silver eyes resting on his night-dark ones.

She wonders.

As her King, her friend? Something else? How has she wanted to know him, since that sun bright morning filled with life and laughter and song. Again the thought crosses her mind⁠—would she have known him the way she had, if he had introduced himself as King?

Something in her aches, soft and quiet and thumping, and she turns her gaze to the sky before it can free itself.

"It's good to be flying," Samaira responds in kind, with wistful words. There is so much more behind them than he can ever assume, she knows. So much of her that nobody sees⁠—so much of what is behind her that she has yet to share with anyone. But to finally fly brings her more tranquility than she has ever known in her life. How much she had been missing, ever since she was a girl. How much they had kept from her, out of selfishness and greed.

But Samaira need not fear those evils anymore. They are left behind her, somewhere so far away in the world that she does not even know where anymore. But why, then, do the memories still follow her. Lurking, lingering, clinging to her like the buzz of the insects in the swamp.

She doesn't rest too long on the thought, as Asterion turns toward Alaunus and asks after their meeting. She smiles and gestures toward her bonded with grateful eyes. "Alaunus found me on the cliffs, when my wing was still bandaged," the appendage moves on reflex, ruffling her feathers against her side. "He has healing abilities, it's quite miraculous really. He healed what was left of the tender tissues and muscle."

"Actually, because of him and your healers, I've become a bit of a medic myself," she smiles a bit sheepishly, her dark lashes fluttering against her cheeks as she looks back toward the man at her side. "Knowing that I can help those who have been hurt… it eases me." Knowing that she will never be like those from her homeland. Knowing that none need ever be alone and in pain as she.

Quiet falls between them and her gaze drifts out to sea, bright and wondering. "You are strangely talkative today," Alaunus says, and there is mischief in his voice as the words reach her. "And you are strangely quiet," Samaira counters. Behind her, Alaunus ruffles his wings and preens for a moment, contemplating. "I just like to see you being so candid, with someone other than me."

Something inside her shifts, like a distant storm cloud filling the horizon.

"Asterion," she says softly, suddenly, her voice floating through the silence like a petal on the breeze, "Would you tell me something about yourself? Anything." And she thinks, standing there by the sea at his side, knowing somehow for certain, I would know you, King or not. But there is a haunting in the bright silver of her eyes. A yearning in the smokiness of her words. A longing, for that thing that has been so elusive since those days in the forest of her youth.

Trust.

And how badly does she want to find it, to grasp it in her fingers and never release it again. How badly Samaira aches, to allow herself the connection she is missing between those around her and herself. Her life here is such a gift, and yet some part of her still feels empty. Searching. Will she ever fill it?

"Speaking."

credits

@Asterion <3