[AW] gone with the fallen leaves

[Asterion]

Asterion in sunshine and in shadow* “It’s alright in moderation,” he answers with a little grin. Ordinarily he would prefer much less safe, but things here are still new enough – and foreign enough – that it keeps that restlessness from eating at him like the river ate the bank until was forced to move. His expression turns musing at her response to his question, though it would have been surprised if she’d said anything else. What she says next, though, coaxes a laugh out of him, soft as the evening. It makes him think of the discoveries he’d made in his first days here: meeting Aislinn, like a girl from a dream, and Florentine, the half-sister he’d not known of. “Nice is a word for it, yes,” he says, and glances at her with clear humor. “You might be surprised by what you find here.” Following her gaze out to the plains, he leans into the silence between them. It’s comforting to listen to the birds call to one another, to watch other creatures going about the general business of survival. For all that he likes it here, he is still a foreigner to so much of his life coming from interactions with others. When her question stirs him so aptly from his thoughts, he smiles. “Here, it may be,” he says, tipping his ears toward the landscape around them. There is something barren about it, wild in a mellow, half-lonely kind of way, despite the bison and the birds. “But this land is not claimed by any Court. There are places where horses gather in great numbers – I live in one called Terrastella, a few hours south of here.” So much of it still feels strange on his tongue, and he wonders if she can hear that newness; the strange word court, the idea of having a home at all, much less one was strange as Dusk. This place, windswept and gray-edged as it might be, reminds him much more of the places he came from. Perhaps that is one of the reasons that drew him, though he would never examine himself so clinically as to consider it. There is a pause as leaves drift down between them; there is a question pushing at the back of his teeth but he is hesitant to voice it. Occasionally, Asterion is so polite in his unwillingness to presume or offend that it works against him. Finally he glances at her, a half-smile that verges on sheepish taking shape on his dark lips. “I was headed back there, in fact, if you’re interested in joining me.” @Himawari <3