azrael
He regards the stranger with a warm turquoise gaze, drawing in the look of her, pale in the darkness and seeming to shine despite the lack of moon-glow. The summer night was chilly, but beside the stillness of the lake, it seems a bit warmer, and he relishes in the last bits of summer – so different from his mountain home. Beside him, a long staff rests nestled against his side, fringed with silver and glittering stones which culminate in a webbed dreamcatcher at its head. It is not nearly as practical as the leather she wears, his eyes falling appreciatingly over the telescope with unabashed curiosity.
“The mountains offer a clearer view.” he nods toward her accoutrements. “What do you see – on nights where the stars more bravely show their face?” Did she see what he did, when she gazed on the heavens through her magnifying glass? Azrael imagined she would know each constellation by name, memorizing their patterns and reading their secrets. Though she didn’t have the appearance of the People, he had no doubt that the stars chose others to know them too.
He hadn’t seen her around Denocte before, but then, that didn’t mean much… Azrael was generally a solitary creature, and many could say the same about him. Still, he thinks he would have remembered such a face – pale as the moonlight. He offers the mare a knowing smile, finding kinship in the fellow star-watcher from her telescope alone, wanting to know more.
“Well met – I am Azrael.”
For a moment, the two stand quietly beside one another on the shores of the midnight lake, comfortable in the darkness as if they were born to wear night’s shadows. “What brings you to Denocte? Did you come for the festival?”
Since Summerfest had been underway for some time, the aurora-tinged stallion assumed that all of the strangers had come to browse their market wares and taste the mead and cakes. It wasn’t really his style, though Azrael would admit to meeting more than one memorable creature under the guise of the festival.
Perhaps it is his uncharacteristic desire for companionship that draws him from the mountains again tonight. Company was just what the stallion needed – for the solitude of his mountain home allowed him too much time alone with his memories. He needed new beginnings – it was time to step away from the demons of his past and embrace the hope for what came next.
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