Luvena
I have fond memories of summer, days spent under the sun, picking flowers from under the willow trees, and weaving them into delicate chains. I used to fill a basket with them, and take them to all the children who were out and about that day. If I couldn't rule my birthright, than I could at least try to make it's people happy. I think I did most days, even if I let them down in the end.
I have memories of Elysium in the summer too, my boys running around like fools in the shallow oasis waters, lounging with Cavalier on it's shore. Or quiet summers under the shelter of the woods, watching the Artax graze, so unimaginably huge.
I have darker memories of summer too. Fires blooming into a bright sky, the ashes growing so thick it became dark as we ran through the grove. My parents bodies, bloodstained and lifeless on the forest floor. summer days in the desert, so sweltering hot that my body nearly gave in on so many of them.
But here I will make new ones. I don't visit the prairie often. It's too open for my liking, I've always lived under the cover of trees and mangroves, and I feel a sort of unease when all I can see overhead is the sky. I'd intended to go back to the mountains today, but I spoke to the acolyte in the foothills to tell him to come back tomorrow. I was exhausted, and worried that I wouldn't be able to make it all the way up, even with his help. So I'd come to the prairies instead, despite Picoro's protests that I should go to shelter by the lake. I.. don't know what it was, or why but something was just telling me to come here instead.
Yara walked calmly beside me through the barren field, while Mithra waltzed ahead. Recently Picoro had taken to being on her back instead of mine, and though sometimes it saddened me to feel him so far, I knew it was only because he could get a better grip on her fur, and lessen the burden on my back. It was while we ambled a long, our shambled quartet, that I caught it on the air. Just a touch, of that familiar spark, one I hadn't fell in so long. One I thought had died out long ago. And I thought, that I must have been growing feverish, and it was time to lay down. It was just like when I had been in Dusk, and I kept thinking I could smell LIatris in the air. I hoped now that it was just the fever talking, and not my past following me to Denocte as well.
I found a spot, a place where the grass was long enough to hide me completely as I laid on the earth. "Mithra!" I called, raising my voice higher than I would usually, trying to ensure she heard me over the winds that whistled uninterrupted over the prairie. She romped over at her own pace. Yara laid on one side of me, and Mithra joined me on the other, while Picoro crawled from her back to mine.
"What's wrong?" his voice is always soothing, even though it's almost always used to growl some sort of warning at me
"Nothing"
"Luvena we are one in the same mind... I know when you are troubled and when you are not"
"I..." I hesitate even with Picoro still, to tell him what I am thinking "I know it's just the fever talking but... I thought for a moment I felt it, that spark of familiarity, like before. Like Elysium and the waste, and all of it all at once"
"You don't have one Luvena"
"hm?"
"You aren't feverish. Not yet at least"
I lifted my head, brows furrowing. So I had let it follow me to Denocte then. I let out a soft sigh, but before I could say anything further I could hear rustling through the grass far ahead, nearly hidden by the wind. The girls pressed in tighter. I stood up slowly, not feverish apparently, but still tired. It took me a moment to see ahead, blinking into the sunset ahead. I still found myself blinking rapidly as they did clear.
A million emotions tore through me at once. Surely I was hallucinating? I could see a million images racing through my head, comparing to the figure ahead. The antlers and striped coat, one I had only ever seen against a stark red backdrop. I could feel my heart hammering in my chest, pounding so loud I could hardly hear the wind anymore. "Kodarki?" the words came out as a strangled as my heart felt. I was still unsure if what I was seeing was real, or all in my head, and so I stayed put, my feet planted unsteadily underneath me. I hadn't asked the girls to steady, yet both of them leaned up against me, not letting me sway either way.
@Galileo
AH
Table © Camy
