It is not so unusual that he does not recognize her- he has a keen memory for everyone he's ever met, but he has not met many in Solterra. In fact, by this point he almost has more acquaintances away than he does at home.
(that word again, home-- don't let us get started)
This winter he's tried to keep himself to Solterra, helping repair the keep and ever so slowly learning to read. Still, most of the court is a stranger to him, and he is not particularly eager to get to know everybody. His ears prick forward, her words low and rough against the shrill whistle of the wind.
Yes..it is. Solterra is never forgiving it would seem.
Eik nods his head automatically in agreement, yet after thinking about her words his thoughts diverge. "Yet we stand, sheltered. She has given us that much." He sometimes takes for granted the comfort the earth provides, but he's always felt intimately close with her; it is his relationship with Solis that needs help.
He tries not to sigh as he thinks of how long the storm will last. He is used to spending his nights alone and beneath the stars, not sharing a cave with a roof so low he could touch it if he reached out. He's always enjoyed unexpected company before, but that might be because he's always had the option of leaving whenever he pleased. The situation makes him feel coltish- whiny and vaguely uncomfortable, as though he isn't used to his body. He draws his attention back with a deep breath, focusing on the smells around him and the air within him to keep his mind from running away down a dark hallway.
Breath by breath, we learn to live with ourselves.
An introduction is in order, and she graciously goes first. Artesia. Is that the name of a flower? "Eik." He replies, leaving thoughts of flowers behind. The single syllable of his name suggests a simplicity that his parents wanted for him. Eik. The name of a tree. Would that he could stand here a thousand years, know the secret names of everything, grow deeper and deeper into the earth until time swept him away.
Would that we could do a thousand things, be the thousand faces we feel but all at once, separately, instead of clamoring for attention one by one. Wouldn't life be simpler, if only you could chase after every desire instead of hungering after so many that you never catch a single one?
"What happened to your eye?" He asks simply, in the offhanded way soldiers may talk about their wounds.
- - -
There is no better way to know us
E I K
than as two wolves, come separately to a wood
@Artesia
Time makes fools of us all
