I'll be a stone, I'll be the hunter,
The tower that casts a shade
***
The tower that casts a shade
***
It was more difficult than Raymond liked to convince Ruth of the wisdom of staying hidden in the Arma Mountains. There was still so much of the headstrong and incorrigible kitten thriving inside the great beast that, now that no tether could possibly hold her and no threat could possibly coerce her obedience, even reason seemed a feeble weapon against her desires. The moment he'd expressed a desire to follow through on an old promise and pay a visit to the desert kingdom of Solterra, the furious debates had begun in earnest.
Logic did eventually win out - but not his logic, which should have made him proud but primarily gave him a headache.
I can carry you.
Ruth.
You're slow.
Ruth, no.
And so the conversation went back and forth with all the progress of a tennis match, until the red stallion caved more for the sake of his own sanity and offered a compromise. That was how he ended up lying cradled inside a cage of massive talons, his instinctive reservations about heights slowly giving way to intrigue as he watched the miles slip by under the Tarrasque's impressive stride.
She could indeed carry him - as easily as he could carry a feather - and the journey through the mountain ranges of Arma and Veneror took hours when it ought to have taken days. Only when the golden expanse of desert stretched out northward on the horizon and the mountains gave way to sandy foothills and the distant scar of Elatus Canyon did Ruth set him down again with a low, grating huff. He didn't have the heart to complain how the ride had left him sore in places he didn't even know existed, but she could probably tell anyway.
Thank you, my dear. That had been the compromise: that she would not enter Solterra but at the most desperate end of need. With the tip of her siege-breaking tail switching irritably in a most feline fashion she retreated, a wash of unhappily clashing color pouring through the link, and Raymond turned to face the desert alone.
Much had happened since Teiran had offered Raymond a tour of the desert kingdom, and he wondered if she would even remember as much should he saunter in from the wilderness. But the red stallion was not one to go back on his word, in this world or any other. He'd said he would come, and he'd come. Whatever happened next, he'd find his way through one way or another.
That's what he'd always done.
With a bit more stiffness in his step than usual, Raymond worked his way north toward the canyon's edge, eyes trained for the silhouettes of dangerous desert beasts on the horizon.
Logic did eventually win out - but not his logic, which should have made him proud but primarily gave him a headache.
I can carry you.
Ruth.
You're slow.
Ruth, no.
And so the conversation went back and forth with all the progress of a tennis match, until the red stallion caved more for the sake of his own sanity and offered a compromise. That was how he ended up lying cradled inside a cage of massive talons, his instinctive reservations about heights slowly giving way to intrigue as he watched the miles slip by under the Tarrasque's impressive stride.
She could indeed carry him - as easily as he could carry a feather - and the journey through the mountain ranges of Arma and Veneror took hours when it ought to have taken days. Only when the golden expanse of desert stretched out northward on the horizon and the mountains gave way to sandy foothills and the distant scar of Elatus Canyon did Ruth set him down again with a low, grating huff. He didn't have the heart to complain how the ride had left him sore in places he didn't even know existed, but she could probably tell anyway.
Thank you, my dear. That had been the compromise: that she would not enter Solterra but at the most desperate end of need. With the tip of her siege-breaking tail switching irritably in a most feline fashion she retreated, a wash of unhappily clashing color pouring through the link, and Raymond turned to face the desert alone.
Much had happened since Teiran had offered Raymond a tour of the desert kingdom, and he wondered if she would even remember as much should he saunter in from the wilderness. But the red stallion was not one to go back on his word, in this world or any other. He'd said he would come, and he'd come. Whatever happened next, he'd find his way through one way or another.
That's what he'd always done.
With a bit more stiffness in his step than usual, Raymond worked his way north toward the canyon's edge, eyes trained for the silhouettes of dangerous desert beasts on the horizon.
***
Raymond
And at his feet they'll cast their golden crowns
When the man comes around.
Raymond
And at his feet they'll cast their golden crowns
When the man comes around.
@
aut viam inveniam aut faciam
