The sovereign stood in silence, or rather, complete confusion as the coal-coloured lioness cursed her way across the grassland. At this angle nothing but the sway of her hips and cropped tail remained visible to Maxence, though still a smirk had found it's way to his face - were she to turn and meet her eyes with his it would be a completely different story. Avdotya had a horrifying effect on him, the kind that made him wonder if he had any kind of effect on her. "Avdotya, come on!" the king boomed after her when she began to curse her own wound or not clotting in a timely manner. "Slow yourself, give yourself time to recover" He knew he certainly needed a few more minutes, and still his breaths were escaping in heavy pants. With a groan he took a great, heavy step forward and lurched along in her footsteps, seeking to catch up to her slinking dark frame.
At first he said nothing and instead resorted to inspecting her countenance for any hints of stopping, snapping, or even a smirk. That's what he would expect of Vesper - a child - though. Still the sovereign remained silent as he trailed along near-to her side, perhaps seeking to annoy her more than accompany her, but truthfully perhaps in the bottom of his heart it was only out of concern that he did wish to remain close to her at all.
tags; @avdotya get im gurl
by blair of shine, translated to html by meverrnind
you think i'll be the dark sky so you can be the bright star?
I'LL
SWALLOW
YOU
WHOLE
Had she seen the smirk that twisted itself upon his face, she surely would have wiped it clean off. Fortunately for Maxence, she hadn’t, and instead she was just a whirlwind of burning ire storming off towards Solterra’s border.
She did not acknowledge his words as they came billowing from behind her with the distinct sound of footfalls following suit. Given what she knew of him already, the woman was not necessarily surprised to hear him coming after her; however, she certainly wasn’t pleased about it. She quickened her hobbled pace and craned her neck to deliver a burning glare in his direction. “I am no child, Maxence,” she spat, “I do not need you telling me how to handle myself.” It was somewhat odd, she thought to herself, how angry she had become. Many a time did she encounter near-serious injuries, yet she shrugged them off with careless ease. What was it about Maxence that sent her over the edge?
Avdotya disregarded her thoughts shortly after they began to stray too far into a territory she did not know. Emotion was not something she knew well, particular that of the warmer variety. Her focus swiftly shifted to getting back to the Mors, and she would be back there with haste- Maxence at her tail or not.
Her rigid gaze fell back to the sovereign the moment she could feel his presence alongside her. "You look like an overgrown sand fly from this angle." The mare stated, returning her eyes to the treeline that lay ahead. She vaguely recalled the route towards Elatus Canyon, but it all looked the same to her- Solis forbid she could navigate an empty desert, but the unfamiliar lands that surrounded Solterra were a whole new story. Of course, she was not prepared to admit that given the current situation with Maxence.
notes: *u*
tags @maxence
by blair of shine, translated to html by meverrnind
Her rage was a brontide, so why did he feel as though he wished to charge into the eye of the storm? Each word was laced with something that to him was hotter than fire and more poisonous than a snake's venom, so why did he continue to walk at her side?
In truth her reaction had confused - and, to an extent - cut him. Why did she intend on making a few scratchees into an attrocity or a thump to her legs a war crime? Should he tie his noose right this instant? "Avdotya," He bellowed for the last time, her insolence soon grating at his last whit and nerve.
"Stop!" it came as a roar; the lion's demand, and as he halted in the grass hoping she would obey his order, he soon found his eyes lingering from her wounds. They would not near her face and he dare not look to her eyes even as she hooted some kind of insult. Instead they lingered on her scarred muscles, for the first time wondering hat on earth had caused such damage - or rather, what had dared. Perhaps he did not just gaze with wonder but also with want, though it was not a thought he could allow himself to entertain.
tags; @avdotya ooo
ps. any ideas on how to close the css tags let me know
by blair of shine, translated to html by meverrnind
you think i'll be the dark sky so you can be the bright star?
I'LL
SWALLOW
YOU
WHOLE
He spoke her name again; commanded her to stop, even. Avdotya flattened her ears at the sound of his order as he barked it, nearly tempted to quicken her pace out of spite for his demand. She bridled her stubborn desires, though, and spun on her heel abruptly to turn and face him as he so wished. There was no retort, no sharpened comment to cut into him... instead, the woman was silent, awaiting whatever drivel he had for her about the tantrum she'd thrown. Much to her confusion, the air between them remained stagnant with a pregnant pause, roused only by the rustling sea of grass that tickles at their hocks.
Her breath was still heavy when she noticed his eyes tracing the scars that cut across her body, studying them as though it was the first time he'd seen them. She turned her own head to look down upon them. She often found pride in their presence upon her hide, as though they were trophies to be flaunted- but they also incited hate and even shame through the memories that lurked there. Those scars brought with them the sinister cackle of a boy-king, the horrifying roar of a battle-worn grizzly. There was so much more to them than the bare, exposed skin left behind and only one man knew the entire truth to them.
The regent's eyes lingered on her scars for a moment longer until she turned her eyes back to Maxence, trying to decipher the look on his face while he stared. Self-disgust burgeoned from within her heart and in her chest and it showed in the half-second she was unable to look the stallion directly in the eye, her gaze flitting to the ground. "I've had them since I was two." Her voice was but a quiet echo of its normal, resounding confidence.
Oh, how oblivious he was.
notes: well that took a turn
tags @maxence
by blair of shine, translated to html by meverrnind
The words that were spoken next seemed to reach for a string in his heart, and for once he found himself not just admiring but questioning how each one had been cast upon her skin, the pain inflicted, and how someone could do something to a two year old; a child. The bonze-coloured king absently stepped forth in a set of half-steps, the king that allowed him closer to the woman but only on the edge of her space. It was then that the puzzle became complete; and how silly he was for not connecting the dots earlier.
The bear.
The image was a disturbing one, though still he wondered how a two year old could end up among bears in the desert (she had spent her whole life here had she not?), and so came the next question upon his tongue. "How did it happen?" Maxence murmured, barely louder that the whistle and rustle of the sea of grass at their knees. In his time as a warrior the commander has seen scars of all shapes and sizes from burns to missing limbs entirely, but somehow the claws upon Avdotya's flesh remained just as frightening to him as they were beautiful. He had never wished to know more about them, about her, than he had with any other he had crossed paths with in his lifetime.
Still, he would avoid her eyes of molten and fire; afeared to be burned.
tags; @avdotya oolalaaaaa
by blair of shine, translated to html by meverrnind
you think i'll be the dark sky so you can be the bright star?
I'LL
SWALLOW
YOU
WHOLE
She did not react to his subtle advances, but instead pondered the details of the answer to his coming question. The mare presumed he would ask of her scars after they had been brought up, seeking the details of their origin. Far from prepared to indulge him entirely, Avdotya mentally pieced together a vague picture of her past and breathed a soft sigh. "I was abducted from my herd by a filthy excuse of a stallion, collected like a trophy for him to display upon his mantle," she divulged with disgust in her tone, "I did not submit to him as he demanded, so he threw me to the pits for death." Her lip curled at the thought; she could almost smell the hot, wretched breath of the grizzly at the mere mention of her time in the fighting ring.
Where she left off would have been enough for Maxence to figure out the rest. The bear, among other exotic beasts, was just one of many victims of a rich man's sick pleasure and she did not fault it for the marks that it gouged into her. The animal simply did what she and every other being had done in those dusty pits: tried to survive.
Avdotya remained quiet while she swam through all the thoughts that were suddenly running through her mind. Other than Velorca, Maxence was the only other man that now knew of her past (that she knew of) - vague as her telling of it may have been. She was unsure of what it was that drove her to provide him such information, but it prompted the woman to begin to acknowledge her emotions as she never had before. This was unfamiliar territory for a mare who rarely felt a shred of anything, and that was more than enough reason for her to push away whatever it was that she was feeling.
"I am sure mine is not the only story of woe, it means little now." She shirked the significance of her time in the capitol as if it were just a small chapter of a bigger story, a frivolous detail to be overlooked. Avdotya no longer cared to dwell on those times, particularly because she had already dealt with the reason for her suffering and that was nothing for Maxence to know of. Not yet.
notes: sry this forever omg
tags @maxence
by blair of shine, translated to html by meverrnind
The eyes of a bottomless sea watched and waited, guesses of her response beginning to swirl upon his own mind in anticipation for the tale he would presently hear. How had she ended up in the midst of a bear's tooth and claw? How had she killed it?
What he was told was altogether different from what he had anticipated, a hideous and ire-fuelling tale of woe taking shape within his minds eye. The description fit only one stallion; the boy king, and just the thought of the former emperor maintaining any kind of ownership over Avdotya caused his skin to twitch and shiver with discomfort. "Zolin" the commander breathed hatefully, eyes of an ocean draining to reveal a hidden flame. His hooves subconsciously dug at the earth beneath like a hand tightening around the pommel of a sword, teeth gritting with a distant, drumming fury for the last emperor of Solterra.
The only relief was that here Avdotya stood telling such a tale. She belonged to no one and certainly no man; not even Solterra or Solis could claim her, so it was with that thought that the new king relaxed his firey muscles and took a half-step back to acknowledge her space. "You were brave to return" He would then speak, through most of all he was glad that she stood beside him as regent and would never be owned by a man with the likes of the boy king again.
With both their fires reduced to ash, Maxence swivelled upon his hind legs and opening his wings like sails to the sun. The dusk had begun to close in on Ruris and Solterra called him home.
tags; @avdotya notes; NP me hearty! i'll close this here :P
by blair of shine, translated to html by meverrnind
