Gilded eyes remain wide and alert as he continues forward, but after the first step, Ulric finds that he doesn’t venture ahead alone. At either side of him stand Florentine and Somnus, and together they seek to investigate the source of the mystery sound. At Florentine’s comment, he shoots her an incredulous look and barely resists the urge to fire back his own jocular remark in favor of zeroing in on their unseen company.
What hellish creature could be lurking right around the corner, ready to tear into them with elongated claws and rip them apart with serrated teeth? Would there be one or would there be many? Ulric had seen many a strange thing in his life, monsters among them, and only briefly did he wonder why on earth they were actually getting closer rather than getting the hell out. No, he was not a coward, but the roan did value his life, though he valued the lives of his friends even more.
However, it soon is made clear that the prodigious sound hadn’t come from a monster of any variety; it was a feline, a simple cat that leapt from out of the dense hedges. It’s a small thing, harmless and looking more disgruntled than anything, but its sudden appearance from the bushes still causes the roan’s muscle to grow tense, breath hitching before realization settles in. Lifting his head, Ulric heaves a steady breath and closes his eyes for a brief moment. What a relief…
“At least I chose the fun way,” he dares to say after another second had passed, casting them both a buoyant grin and eyes positively dancing with amusement. “I think that if a cat can make its merry way through this maze, then we’ve got nothing to worry about.”
Yes, I've had the pleasure of meeting Charlemagne. He's a good, studious fellow.
Florentine’s lips curl, where once they might have made a picture of disdain, they now only draw a look of impish humour.
“Studious…” the flower girl muses as she sways towards Ulric, to better cast an amethyst eye over Somnus and be close to Ulric when she continues playfully, “I can see that you two would get along magnificently.” A look, full of dark mirth, slides its way to Ulric from beneath her veil of flowers. The curve of a wing, bony and only just smoothed by orange feathers, nudges into the soft muscle of Ulric’s shoulder.
Yet her gaze is fleeting, for it pours back to Somnus like water. “Take me to see your pink dolphins, I should like to see them!”
And that was all that Dusk’s girl managed before the hedge began its rustling, before she crept forward beside Ulric, her gaze flitting between her adventurer boys and their potential foe.
Somnus, golden and suddenly sharper in this moment, steps forward to draw level with his companions. His warmth eases the flower girl’s frayed nerves and there is little between them and the hedge but silent and crackling twigs. Oh the leaves rustled like soft whispers, warning whispers and for each moment that passed, for each second that the rustles grew louder, they widened Florentine’s brilliant eyes.
Her breath snagged within her throat, her heart stopping as for one gloriously selfish moment she thinks just how she is not ready to die here, how she does not exist in nearly enough timelines yet to have explored both time and space in their entirety. She was, ultimately, too young to die… again - yet here the flower girl is, bold and brave and so wonderfully foolish.
Her heart is a drum, and its beats are the fluttering of wings that carry it up, up to her throat. The flower girl swallows, her every muscle tense, her long limbs poised for flight. Her wings flare, her breath a quiver in her nostrils that expels with a harsh, startled huff as a ginger tom erupts from the foliage at her feet.
Her wings flare, feathers reaching for the boys like fingers upon clothes; she sought comfort, she sought protection and yet it is the slender, raised limb that suddenly reaches forwards to watch the cat closely. Those searching feathers fall away from the boys, suddenly braver since the realization of their miniature foe.
“Oh,” Florentine sighs, enraptured, “Isn’t he adorable?” She steps closer as Ulric chimes his reply. Even as she pursues the cat along the maze, Flora casts a look back to the roan, “I applaud your choice. You found us a cat.” She walks on, following as the cat leads them deeper and deeper into the maze. It is only as dark begins to ebb in, as the shadows from the walls stretch and begin to writhe and settle for slumber that the girl hears the call of dusk.
The sun summons her gaze and obediently she watches where it has fallen toward the horizon. “I think it may be time for me to go.” The flower girl murmurs as she turns to the boys beside her. “Can we adventure again? I very much enjoyed it.”
Her lips curl into a smile and carefully she tucks a lavender sprig into each of their tangled manes. “Come visit me sometime. I shall show you some secrets of the Dusk Court.” And with that the only thing that remains of the flower girl is a swirling flurry of petals and the breeze of airborne wings.
@Somnus @Ulric and Flora is out -weeps- get me another thread with them asap, before I get withdrawal symptoms.
Unceremoniously, Somnus gave a mighty harrumph of displeasure. The cat had given them all quite the fright, pulling at the dredges of innocent imaginings, fathoming and creating a monster of gigantic proportions of the likes none of them had ever seen only to leave them feeling quite foolish. Regardless, it was simply a cat, and the tri-colored feline had come and gone with as much animosity and offense as only one of their kind could muster.
The golden tactician's emerald gaze trickled back to his two adventuring companions, watching their varying reactions, and despite it all, he chuckled. "It was a rather adorable cat. A cat-astrophe avoided."
Together, the three continue through the maze with the cat as their guide. As one they venture within the depths of the twisting and turning shrubbery, losing the cat along the way but never losing the camaraderie that had since formed between them. There were jibes and jokes, petulant statements and eager admissions, and Somnus promises, once more, that he will show Florentine the magnificent pink dolphins that he had seen within the freshwater river that flowed through Delumine.
Eventually the sun began to set beneath the mists that veiled the Maze from the rest of the world. The day began to recede, dusk taking its place, and far too soon, their journey seemed to come to an end. Florentine is the first to admit that their journey is over. She is warmth and joy and familiarity now, and Somnus is pleased and grateful to have met her. Despite the stresses of the day, the anxieties fueled by the unknown maze they had valiantly traversed, it was all worth it, and he was grateful. Somehow, seemingly effortlessly with her innocent charm and joyous laughter, the golden flower girl had wormed her way within his heart, and there, she would remain, a stalwart friend amidst a land still so new and alien.
His kinship with Ulric had been older, years older, but their journey that they had taken today only seemed to solidify the friendship shared between them. Once serving a mutual home before separation sent them on different paths, they were together once more, and Somnus was grateful to have him. Hopefully they would share many more years to come.
"I would wish for nothing else, Florentine," Somnus murmured in agreement, for another adventure, or simply another meeting would be just what he would like to see happen, "And I promise, once more, that I will show you those pink dolphins."
As she stepped forward and tucked a lavender bloom within the stringlets of the advisor's cream mane, he smiled, dark lips upturning in humble joy. How very thoughtful, to leave them with tokens of their meeting, and their apparent friendship. Just as their companionship, he would cherish it. Verdant eyes are warm as they regard her, pleasure dancing within the depths of emerald lakes, and when he speaks, his lilted accent is gentle. "Thank you. Fly swift, good Florentine. Until we meet again."
Eventually, she was gone, leaving behind only a swirling vortex of lavender petals in her wake. Somnus' gaze remains upturned for some time before turning his head to regard Ulric, and he smiles to his old, vast friend, reaching out to press his muzzle into the warrior's sturdy shoulder. "We should follow her example and return to Delumine before dark settles in. Quite an adventure, wouldn't you say?"
Soon enough, much too soon for his own liking, their adventure draws to a close. The most fearsome monster of all may have only been a common cat, at least that they had encountered, but despite what may seem to be a rather uneventful journey, it had been anything but. The roan had been given the chance to catch up with his old friend, and they had both forged a new friendship in the form of fair, sweet Florentine.
He accepts the colorful flowers with a smile - they match they ribbon hanging from his withers almost perfectly - but that happy look is quick to fade when it becomes apparent she's leaving.
"Thank you for the adventure," he speaks warmly, "We'll have to be sure to meet up again soon, and for longer, if we can." Perhaps they would make their way for the Dusk Court some day so that they may learn more of it as well.
Ulric watches with a dash of sorrow as she spreads her wings and takes to the sky, gone just as quickly as she had come. Turning his head back towards Somnus, he offers his golden friend a tender look and a nod of his head. "That it was," he remarks as he takes the first steps back towards the south from which they came, but not before ramming a shoulder playfully against Somnus' own. "And we didn't even get eaten."
@Florentine @Somnus Soooo sorry for the wait, but thought I'd try and finally get this completely closed up!
HISTORY HAS ITS EYES ON YOU ➳ allcontact is permitted and encouraged
