I am not like any ordinary world
Her nose crinkles. The wildwood boy watches the way it does. Confusion etches itself across the girl’s features and Leonidas huffs, frustrated. “No.” He murmurs, yet smiles, bright like the sun as she talks of the size of her grandmother. “I mean…” The woods call his gaze, but has no answer for him. Next, the market calls him and he looks there and it seems to fit the brightness of Maeve, her smile, her lively voice. “Your name feels small but you… you are so much brighter, bolder, prettier… bigger.” The boy finishes, lamely. He looks away from her, blood rushing to warm his cheeks. If only Maret was here, she would have the words that he cannot find and does not know. “It is a good thing. I like that you don’t fit your name.” The boy whispers, the words glimmering their offering like gold dust in the autumnal air.
Then, then she comes alive as she speaks of being a phoenix and flying and yes, yes, this is what she means. SHe is too bright, too alive, so bold. The orphan boy is sure that there is nothing that could contain this child. His smile is bright and as feral as the woodland he roams. He remembers flying through the storm with the strangeling girl. The energy of lightning crackles through his veins. “I wish you had wings,” he breathes, “I would show you the sky and the wind.”
Maeve stumbles over her words as she presses on, pulling his thoughts out of the sky and down, down into the lovely deep magic of Delumine woods. “I have slept there.” Leonidas agrees. “But I have slept in many places beneath the stars…” He trails off, thinking of his uncle, the way he had watched him and asked if they can stay together, beneath the stars. “I go where I wish. I can show you some of the places I sleep, if you would like.” Leonidas grins, the invitation easing some of the loneliness that yawns dark and cold within him.
Obediently he listens to the music, how it rises and falls and just as he succumbs, just as he thinks he might turn toward it, a child lured toward the Pied Piper, there is a loud crash and laughter as a stand tips up. Wares from the tables scatter across the cobbles and down towards the ally. Dark figures step closer towards the mouth of the street and Leonidas’ ears fall toward his skull. He backs away, flighty as a deer. His gaze tips toward Maeve, briefly, “Will you teach me music another time?” he breathes framing her in gold for the briefest moment. “Come and find me if you like.” Is all the boy says before he flees for the welcoming dark of his woods. His gold is snuffed out as he flees down the street and into the trees.
@Maeve
