Run together like birds of a feather
We howl like wild beasts
With all our demons, our hells, our heathens
So let them rest in peace
We howl like wild beasts
With all our demons, our hells, our heathens
So let them rest in peace
He hadn’t wanted to go out. Ard had wanted to stay inside, at home, where it was warm and comfortable and he didn’t have to talk to anyone or look at anyone. He woke in a terribly foul mood, fueled by a nightmare he couldn’t remember other than it had ended as all of his nightmares as of late had; Erd had disappeared again.
The nightmares had increased in frequency since his brother’s kidnapping, and even though Erd had returned home and they were reunited and Ard could breathe again, could live again, the terrors of his unconsciousness still pulled and tugged and stabbed whenever they could. He slept less, honestly, spending his hours in the dark sketching by candlelight, painting the visage of his peacefully sleeping brother in their bed, where he belonged.
Oh, how Ard wished for nothing more than to tuck his brother away in his pockets like he did his sketchbook, keeping him safe and sheltered from the world around them.
Erd had recovered nicely from his kidnapping. No marks upon his flesh or his soul, which Ard found himself eternally grateful… But it was he who carried the marks, his paranoia burning like a fire at his heels, the hounds of the damned following his every step. Oh, he knew his twin was worried, but what could he do when he could not sleep? Lips sealed and words sacredly reserved for only Erd’s ears, he had offered no word of complaint to going out when his brother voiced a morning adventure. They had been cooped up inside for far too long since returning home from Denocte, and Erd wanted to spread his wings.
Ard could deny his brother nothing, and so together the twin warlocks of Luminous, of Novus, had departed their small abode within the capital, cloaks and hoods in place to ward off the bitter cold of the morning. Spring would soon be upon them. The afternoons were becoming warm and the snow beneath their hooves were melting, the days growing longer as spring fought to remove winter’s cruel grasp upon the nation… But not even the warm days could thaw the perpetual, frozen chill that had captured Ard’s heart.
He was terrified that nothing ever would.
Side by side, the twins ventured to the Susurro Fields. Erd’s pace was a joyful prance and Ard listened as his better half prattled on about everything and nothing, from the slush at their feet and the small spring flowers already trying to bloom within dead grasses and moist soil to the rising sun in the sky.
It wasn’t long until they came across another soul out and about, however, a lady of golden hairs and creamy tresses. Ard’s turquoise eyes narrowed into a warning glare as he shifted to stand closer to his brother, pressing himself flush against his twin’s side. He had nothing to say, not to this stranger, even though there was a listless to her that he saw in himself.
