A S T E R I O N
in sunshine and in shadow*
It is remarkably easy to stand beside her and bear his feelings; Asterion is not sure if it is the drink or the night but he suspects it is something about the girl herself. The flowers nestled bright in her hair, the gleam of her eyes, the gold flecked across her feathers. He is charmed, and he hangs on every lilt of her voice.
“You have a way with words,” he says with a smile, an echo of what Eik had told him not long ago, beside the sea. He thinks that she is much more deserving.
Their hearts never brave enough to settle. This more than anything strikes him, and he looks away, his smile drifting, too. He has never considered it this way, has always thought himself brave for his wandering – like a knight, like a hero. Is it not more cowardly to stay than to go?
He closes his eyes, tight tight tight against the sounds of the evening, and thinks of the lion-hearted unicorn, of her conviction. He thinks of the water-god No and his quiet suggestion that Asterion consider belonging.
He has never realized how many kinds of courage there are, how different they might look. How some kinds aren’t found in stories, but are no less heroic.
Asterion thinks that it is time he stops being a boy and becomes something better, something more. He pulls in a breath perfumed with smoke, with paint, with flowers and wine, and he opens his eyes to find her grin.
“Will you?” he asks her, his dark eyes full as the sea. Maybe he still has a piece of his water-magic; there are tides pulling him, but they are pulling him home. “Will you help paint me in Verspera’s colors?” It is the first time the goddess’s name has crossed his lips and it surprises him, how natural it sounds.
Asterion does not know if he believes in the gods of this place (he is used to gods he can see, gods who perform wonders and speak like men) but as he looks from her to the laughing foals, flecked bright with a dozen colors of paint, he thinks that he can believe in this. It is enough; it is home.
@Cyrene this post is poop but yaaaaay! they'll get to names eventually xD
