[P] last year I abstained

[Samaira]

hold me on your heart as the brave sea holds the foam

Samaira lets him pull her close without struggle, lets him take her into the water until it is brushing against her ankles with its near-winter chill. She almost doesn't feel its gentle touch, almost doesn't feel…

Beneath them, the reflection of the sky and the stars dances too, among the ripples made by their movement through the lake. The stars spin and twirl until they are no longer stars, and the breeze through the trees is like a soundtrack. There is peace. Samaira thinks, is this what peace is like?

When Elchanan's chest touches hers, the heat of his skin ignites a feeling like electricity all the way down her spine. Her cheeks warm, her dark lashes fluttering against the fine tattoos upon her cheeks. A soft sound escapes her lips, like a rush of air, a gasp.

Samaira's heart beats faster. Somewhere, in her memory, the earthen woman thinks she hears the sound of music, of hooves upon cobblestone. Something about this does not feel right, like she is not meant to be dancing with him.

But something feels all too right about it, too.

And when his breath skates over her skin, playing in her hair, something in Samaira is lost to it. A shiver flits its way across her body, over each curve, delightful and terrible.

"Elchanan," her voice is nothing more than a breath, nothing more than a whisper. If it is a prayer, or a plea, it's hard to say. But his voice buries itself deep within the pegasus' veins, lingering, racing. She feels like she is drowning in a sea, but also that she does not want to come up for air.

She wants to get impossibly closer to him.

"Someone," she starts, pauses as if to reconsider her thoughts, and then continues anyway, "someone I cared for went missing on the island." Her silver eyes are downturned to the stars and sky below, her heart beating hard against her chest.

They are still swirling their way through the lake. Samaira is too aware of his body being so close to hers, that she is both dizzy and enthralled. She cannot stop herself from speaking. "There is an altar for him at the festival, I cannot bear to visit it." Her heart wants to ache, but it can't. It can't, it can't.

take me far away to the hills that hide your home

⚕ | @Elchanan <3