Emersyn, the soldier
The forest was cold, dark, silent. It was always like this when it was time for the hunt.
Winter wore itself on dormant forest branches in the grim gossamers of timeless Death. Some of the trees were truly dead while others slept. The sky was gray, the snow white, and against a thousand charred, black trees the young soldier amongst them was non-existent with her wintry coat. On feet more silent than the coming of Winter itself, the girl disturbed not even a shrew, who unknowingly continued to tunnel just beneath the soldier's thin shadow.
A great horned owl who made his home in the tallest, most-oldest tree in the forest was the first to make a sound. His warning call was a sonorous 'ho-ho-hoot!' that carried through Oldwood to the soldier's attentive ears - the owl had sited wolves on route through the trees. It was the sign for the soldier to take to the air, and was soon on her way up a narrow pathway which lead into a near frozen brook where she continued upstream in frigid water to lose her path.
Hungry enough for anything in the dead forest, the wolves dared to hunt their greatest enemy. The pack passed by, parallel to their targeted quarry, never knowing their opportunity to trap the soldier and kill her. Much to their hunger and dismay, the soldier was more clever, as clever as a cloud passing through in the deep night where no moon could sight her.
Even now, watching them turn and go, the soldier kept her heart quiet despite the natural fear of meeting something unknown. Wolves, she knew nothing of them. She had only ever heard of them. Now she could see them. Now she knew them. By smell, by sight, by taste, by sound, and she knew she would come to understand their teeth and their claws, because she would kill them when the time was right.
Mateo, all feathers and blackness, came into Emersyn's vision faster than she came into his. Lalloping around in the forest like a young buck. She briefly wondered what that must be like, to be without the type of discipline that turned young hearts to stone and the mind into an impenetrable fortress. Keen eyes tracked the black as he moved through the trees, his shape was off but Emersyn knew that it was too early to decipher who it might be.
Waiting only took her seven seconds before the boy startled when she shifted a foot in the leaves, both intentionally and unintentionally. She would never admit that encountering anybody other than those she already knew, made her uncomfortable. Mateo came up quick, and despite having thirty extra seconds of knowing he was coming this way, Emersyn was surprised when he balks and spreads his wings in defense.
Wings.
Even she can admit to having stared at them for an indecent amount of time, she said nothing to him - which - she should have by now. Her face read a blank page in a story book, all those pages before the beginning were food for thought, clarity. She gave him nothing other than the incredulous amount of time she took to study his physiology. A horse with wings. This, she decided to herself, must be more of that new world helter-skelter. If she has scared him, then she has done a good job at looking like the soldier Nicolai always hoped she would become.
What she didn't realize was that her own magic had her readied to attack. Telekinesis, although weak, was quite fair to her. The hair pins that had been holding up the long sways of her black and silver curls are flanked at each side. Poised, pointed, promising precision. Emersyn had no idea that her fortress is an armed one. Even as her blizzardy hair spun out of its careful architecture as she lifted her head, the woman made no move to inspect why she was having such a wardrobe malfunction at a time like this.
And finally, who are you? he said. Who am I? Emersyn could be anybody, anything to him. She chose ambiguity for all intensive purposes. At least for now.
"Those are poisonous." Emersyn warned without glancing down at Mateo's feet, so am I, her gaze secretly admitted. Her penetrating blue eyes were pins of their own as they held the boy captive within her sight. "You should step away from those, immediately." Her stance did not change, but it is clear that she wouldn't let him pass, or come near her.
Winter wore itself on dormant forest branches in the grim gossamers of timeless Death. Some of the trees were truly dead while others slept. The sky was gray, the snow white, and against a thousand charred, black trees the young soldier amongst them was non-existent with her wintry coat. On feet more silent than the coming of Winter itself, the girl disturbed not even a shrew, who unknowingly continued to tunnel just beneath the soldier's thin shadow.
A great horned owl who made his home in the tallest, most-oldest tree in the forest was the first to make a sound. His warning call was a sonorous 'ho-ho-hoot!' that carried through Oldwood to the soldier's attentive ears - the owl had sited wolves on route through the trees. It was the sign for the soldier to take to the air, and was soon on her way up a narrow pathway which lead into a near frozen brook where she continued upstream in frigid water to lose her path.
Hungry enough for anything in the dead forest, the wolves dared to hunt their greatest enemy. The pack passed by, parallel to their targeted quarry, never knowing their opportunity to trap the soldier and kill her. Much to their hunger and dismay, the soldier was more clever, as clever as a cloud passing through in the deep night where no moon could sight her.
Even now, watching them turn and go, the soldier kept her heart quiet despite the natural fear of meeting something unknown. Wolves, she knew nothing of them. She had only ever heard of them. Now she could see them. Now she knew them. By smell, by sight, by taste, by sound, and she knew she would come to understand their teeth and their claws, because she would kill them when the time was right.
Mateo, all feathers and blackness, came into Emersyn's vision faster than she came into his. Lalloping around in the forest like a young buck. She briefly wondered what that must be like, to be without the type of discipline that turned young hearts to stone and the mind into an impenetrable fortress. Keen eyes tracked the black as he moved through the trees, his shape was off but Emersyn knew that it was too early to decipher who it might be.
Waiting only took her seven seconds before the boy startled when she shifted a foot in the leaves, both intentionally and unintentionally. She would never admit that encountering anybody other than those she already knew, made her uncomfortable. Mateo came up quick, and despite having thirty extra seconds of knowing he was coming this way, Emersyn was surprised when he balks and spreads his wings in defense.
Wings.
Even she can admit to having stared at them for an indecent amount of time, she said nothing to him - which - she should have by now. Her face read a blank page in a story book, all those pages before the beginning were food for thought, clarity. She gave him nothing other than the incredulous amount of time she took to study his physiology. A horse with wings. This, she decided to herself, must be more of that new world helter-skelter. If she has scared him, then she has done a good job at looking like the soldier Nicolai always hoped she would become.
What she didn't realize was that her own magic had her readied to attack. Telekinesis, although weak, was quite fair to her. The hair pins that had been holding up the long sways of her black and silver curls are flanked at each side. Poised, pointed, promising precision. Emersyn had no idea that her fortress is an armed one. Even as her blizzardy hair spun out of its careful architecture as she lifted her head, the woman made no move to inspect why she was having such a wardrobe malfunction at a time like this.
And finally, who are you? he said. Who am I? Emersyn could be anybody, anything to him. She chose ambiguity for all intensive purposes. At least for now.
"Those are poisonous." Emersyn warned without glancing down at Mateo's feet, so am I, her gaze secretly admitted. Her penetrating blue eyes were pins of their own as they held the boy captive within her sight. "You should step away from those, immediately." Her stance did not change, but it is clear that she wouldn't let him pass, or come near her.
@Mateo Welp, I'm sure she is just being extra today because she can. For some reason I struggled with tenses.
