[AW] The Night Is Illuminated By Firelight

[Eik]

He came not knowing what to expect, having never known food nor drink nor dance like this. In a word he would call it lavish-- and of course, he enjoys it. But he can't help but feel like he doesn't understand what is happening, and where he belongs in all of this. There are a few familiar faces he looks for in particular, hoping for some sort of anchor in this sea of strangers. He lingers towards the outskirts of the festivities, which in some ways are rowdier than the center, but less crowded.

His wandering brings him to a small floor where a group of horses dance in a blissful, flowing way. The only comparison he has is to a river. Naturally, he is mesmerized. With wide eyes he accepts a drink from a giggling stranger in a red veil, followed by an unusual pastry that leaves a sticky powder on his lips. She twirls and melts away before he can ask who she is and what it was she gave him. A warm feeling grows outwards from the pit of his belly, followed by a rush of anxiety as he questions what is happening to him, and then the warmth overtakes him and he feels... good. Really good, for the first time in as long as he can remember.

He laughs, and isn't sure if he's laughing out loud or not or on the inside- the laughter seems to be everywhere, yet upon listening- nowhere. Fears and troubles melt away and he's weaving through the growing crowd, where once he would shirk at the touch of another. He's following fireflies, their warm glow reflected in his dark eyes, when he realizes that they aren't fireflies but embers, and he is standing before a fire where quiet conversation hangs lightly on smoke-filled air.

When he meets their gaze time falls away and it is summer and he is the oak tree, the great oak tree he was born beneath. He feels his roots deep beneath the fertile soil and each and every leaf soaking up the sun and the tough little acorns slowly (or is it quickly? time is odd here) growing. He remembers his birth from an acorn not so different from the ones growing from him, and he reaches even further back, to remember being the oak that grew the acorn that was him.

And then time comes rudely barging back in, and Eik is Eik again, horseflesh and blood and bone. 

"Oh." He exhales. Rootless. 

It feels suddenly as if he is missing a part of him, but this is a thought he will ponder later, when he wakes drenched in sweat and head pounding.

He feels safe and warm and thinks it must be the magic of their kind eyes. He smiles at them, the warm spell of the simbelweed pastry turning him into an extrovert. Surely tomorrow his throat and lips will hurt from all the speaking and smiling he's done tonight. "Are you summer?" He calls across the fire, for the first time not at all afraid of the flames.

-     -     -
There is no better way to know us
E I K
than as two wolves, come separately to a wood

@Seree hope you don't mind me sticking delirious Eik on you! Its really the only way to get him to stay at a party xD