TORIELLE
It's only me who wants to wrap around your dreams
The trees of Viride had become as close to home as Torielle dared believe in a home as her time continued in Novus. Even more so she found comfort in the halls of the library where the branches wove tightly together to keep out even the chill of the winter snows. It reminded her of the catacombs of the Sage’s temples and the many nooks where she had often studied. She found herself spending more and more time among the carefully crafted shelves, though if they were carved by earthly beings or by some unseen force, she never could tell. It felt to her a little bit of both- trees shaped by needy hands to hold tomes and then healed and continued growth. It felt like a perfect microcosm of symbiosis. It was one of the few things that made complete sense to her and she welcomed that. The smell of the forest lingering with the ancient taste of dust in her mouth from long forgotten volumes put her at peace.
She didn’t often see other figures wandering the halls, and those she did were usually of a scholarly lot. It was a rare thing to find a youngling; though perhaps by Novian standards she should be considered one herself- a thought for another day. As she meandered through the shelves looking for nothing in particular, a shape in the distance caught her eye. She paused, watching the figure as they did the most peculiar thing.
Though their frame was sturdy, save for a set of wings that seemed perhaps a slight too small for them, it was hunched over a pile of loose pages. Perhaps some kind of set of research papers? This assumption was quickly dashed though, as she realized that they were not studying them, but rather… nuzzling them? The figure seemed to grow tired of this and after admiring one of the many hanging lanterns, turned and made themselves comfortable upon a pile of blankets.
The page nuzzling behaviour was so bizarre, Torielle felt compelled to speak to them. She had to know what the figure was thinking. She enjoyed the smell of old tomes as much as any scholarly type, but she had never thought to put her nose to the pages. At least, not in a way that could have been so publicly. The rustling of coins that decorated her person and the bells woven into her antlers sounded her approach. As the mare grew closer she realized the coat that she had believed to be painted or chimera in nature at a distance was actually quite burned. They didn’t seem to mind this so much, as they scratched the itch of their horns rather than the flesh of their body.
She smiled, her features gentle. The woman remembered when her antlers were still coming in- no tree or rock was safe from her. Torielle stopped at a sociable distance, her banner flicking pleasantly behind her.
“Hello.” Her tone was soft, inviting and curious. She didn’t want to startle the creature. Up close she could tell that they were quite young, still growing into their features. Beyond the blackened flesh, she saw toned muscle that spoke of strength similar to the mountain tribes of her home. Wherever this person had come from they had some experience on rocky cliff-faces, of that she was almost certain. It brought her some kind of great hope, that perhaps she was not nearly as alone in Novus as she had once thought.
“Enjoying the library,” she asked, unsure what else to say to them, but knowing better than to be completely tactless and ask about either their healing injuries or the paper sniffing.
art by the-day-of-shadow character by scapeh table by sunny
