Life had a funny way of bringing about unexpected change. The speckled mare mused on this thought as she observed the sprawling sea of reds and golds before her, the majestic trees dwarfed by the distant peak. Her skin tingled with residual adrenaline, muscles nearly quivering with exhaustion under her own weight. She was distantly aware of the fact that, soon, the sun would be sinking lower in the western sky, heralding the arrival of night. And with night, came - well, there wasn't even a need to say it, was there? Every horse knew all too well what lurked in the shadows after nightfall.
Pausing among a copse of smaller trees, Himawari considered her options, quickly coming to the realization that they were, in fact, extremely limited. After all, her entire life leading up to this point had been nothing but easy. She had never step foot outside her father's territory and now, miles from home, she was faced with the realization that she was truly alone and truly lost. There was no going back, even if she wanted to. She felt small, suddenly, in the wake of this situation, like a little filly separated from her mother for the very first time.
There was nothing she could do but sit and wait. For the first time in weeks, she wished she could be back home. Would I have been better off? she asked herself, If I had just stayed? Would she have been able to survive any longer with her mother, subjected to constant criticisms and moods capricious as the weather? For four years, Himawari had bitten her tongue in an effort to keep quiet, bearing the weight of her mother's baggage, trying to be the perfect daughter. But shit, that was hard - and she could barely live up to her own expectations.
The wind picked up, the brisk breeze caressing her spine. The rattle of dying leaves seemed to echo through the quiet meadow, a once-comforting sound that, now, did nothing but remind her that she was by herself.
((ooc: quick post is bleh, I'm still working out her character a bit. Next ones will be better :3))
Asterion does not know what lurks in the shadows after nightfall.
He has a rough idea: he’s heard the stories, begged for them through his spindle-legged colthood. And at Ravos, he saw a touch of darkness, felt the feral magic churning underneath. It strove, perhaps, to become more - if it had, perhaps then the bay would have learned.
But its darkness manifested instead as a rift, and after a coward’s period of waiting the boy had followed his fellows into it. It had not taken him where it had put them.
So Asterion, ever a wanderer, has no qualms regarding wandering Novus as the late autumn day hurries on toward evening. As he goes he plays the game he always does: imagining his worries washing out with the tide, drifting further and further until they are out of sight.
He’s in the midst of this exercise when a splash of color draws his dreamer’s eyes; late-season leaves turned to fire by the lowering sunlight, reds and golds that gleamed like gems. It is only because his attention has been so captured by the stand of trees that he notices the movement within them; his dark-eyed gaze drops to the mare and he pauses, considering.
Likely she has already seen him, and he wonders if she’s hiding. It tugs a wry smile from his dark lips, to consider anyone hiding from him, and he discards the notion before considering it from her point of view. Asterion has been a pilgrim for long enough to know the look of someone far from home.
As the wind rises, stirring his thickening coat and ruffling his silver-shot mane, he moves toward her, ears forward and limbs loose and easy. He pauses a few lengths from her, letting the rattle of the leaves quiet above them, before offering a quiet sort of smile. “Forgive me if I’m wrong, but you look like I felt when I first arrived here. I’m Asterion – this is Novus.”
She needn’t know, yet, that he is a poor guide; he’s been here less than a season, himself, and the Dusk Court is not yet home.
The burgeoning sense of relief that comes with this knowledge makes Himawari want to weep, but she will not allow a stranger, of all others, to see her cry. And so she grits her teeth and swallows back against the lump in her throat, breath stuttering as she inhales in an attempt to calm her frantic heartbeat. She feels as if she may jump right out of her skin as her eyes meet his, a peculiar mix of anxiety and trepidation bubbling within her soul. Her skin tingles under his swart gaze, the sensation creeping down her spine. There's a minuscule part of her that wants to step further into the coppice of young trees, suddenly feeling unprepared for company. But he's here, and he's talking to her, and - oh, he's talking to her.
"Forgive me if I'm wrong, but you look like I felt when I first arrived here. I'm Asterion - this is Novus." The stranger - Asterion - offers her a half-smile, and it is out of mere habit more than anything else that she smiles back, acknowledging his introduction with a simple bow of her head. "Yes," she rasps, her throat suddenly feeling like the driest place on earth. Coughing, she speaks again, clearer this time: "Yes, I seem to have gotten myself a little turned around." It's an uncharacteristic confession, one that might normally make her flinch. But she is far too fatigued to care about her pride right now.
"It's nice to meet you, Asterion. My name is Himawari. Thank you for stopping to help me." The words carry a grateful tone, falling from her lips as she bows her head further in gratitude. It seems an unnecessary gesture, but she knows no other way to express just how relieved she truly is, lest she turn herself into a stammering fool.
"I'm sorry if I seem on edge. This is my first time away from home, and... well, you've already figured out how that's going." The laugh that follows is nearly as dry as the leaves beneath her hooves; the same ones that produce a satisfying crunch when she shifts her body into a more casual stance.
Aspen eyes meet his, and she wants to ask so many questions, but the words turn to a jumbled mess of syllables on her tongue. So instead, she sighs and settles for something simple, something she knows her clumsy tongue can handle. "Are you from here? Novus, I mean." It's an awkward attempt at small talk, her uncertainty discernible in the tone of her voice.
Until she smiles, he can’t quite tell if she’s glad to see him. He’s about ready to look away when his gaze catches the corner of it, and the gesture is enough to make him relax a little more, to duck his chin briefly to his chest in echo of her own nod.
Asterion doesn’t miss her cough. Politely he averts his gaze, looking out at the rolling hills beyond her little copse of trees, where bison dot the yellowing grasses – but he knows what that rasp means, and wonders how long she’s been journeying. On top of that, he wonders if anyone planned to come to Novus, or if they all, like the two of them, found themselves here entirely by accident.
“I know the feeling,” he says lightly, meeting her eyes again. “My pleasure, Himawari. I wasn’t going to leave you for the buffalo.” He likes the way her name rolls off his tongue; it puts him in mind (a little whimsically, but then he is a fanciful sort of creature) of the hills around them, all smooth dips and valleys.
He shakes his head at her apology, waving it off as the wind rises again, leaning on them, rattling the leaves. For the first time, he thinks of the strange stone walls of the Dusk Court keep as appealing. “Not at all. If it puts you at ease, from what I’ve seen so far, this place is…very safe.” The pause is perhaps misleading; it’s not borne of uncertainty but of something akin to disappointment.
Asterion was too young, too full of stories of heroes and knights, to want a world that was safe. Her next question only further reminds him of it.
“Not remotely,” he answers, and the smile on his dark lips slips into more of a rueful grin. “It was an accident. But I’ve found it’s a good place. Do you think you’ll be staying?” He asks the last gently, unwilling to drive home the point that she is not, perhaps, wherever she’d meant to be.
Growing up, Himawari had always dreamed of the world outside the borders of her home - of what she might discover there, should she choose to wander. But it had never really occurred to her that things might be different - or at least, just how different they might be.
But the promise of safety helps to put her anxious mind at ease, the tension in her muscles seeming to melt away with a sigh. "Safe is good. I like safe." An unusual statement coming from a girl who had, perhaps, done one of the most unsafe things she could think of.
Funny how that happens.
She's well aware of how his voice goes soft on the last part, how the question is presented to her with a hint of hesitation. She shrugs, a flippant motion for such a question.
"I don't know," is her initial answer, and it's the only answer she can give that's completely honest. "How can I? I've been here less than a day." She wants to say yes, but the word feels heavy on her tongue and in her soul. The weight of it causes her to shy back from giving a definite answer, fearing the repercussions of a life lived too hastily. "Although, there must be something nice about it if you got here the same way I did and haven't left yet." She replies, her lips quirking into a playful smile. Perhaps she should take it as a positive reflection of this Novus.
She shifts her gaze away from him then, peering out from their shaded vantage point and across the empty meadow. It's hard to believe they're still alone, though she's thankful for his company. The distant sound of the wind fills the empty spaces of their conversation, and she finds the sound comforting, familiar; autumn had always been her favorite time of year.
"Is it always this quiet?" She finally asks, motioning to the empty space around them with a sweeping arc of her nose. "Back home, things were much more... lively, you could say. I'm not sure I could ever get used to this."
Patience was a virtue she did not possess.
@Asterion aww I'm glad you like her <3 more apologies for my not-so-great posts, she's still so new!
“It’s alright in moderation,” he answers with a little grin. Ordinarily he would prefer much less safe, but things here are still new enough – and foreign enough – that it keeps that restlessness from eating at him like the river ate the bank until was forced to move.
His expression turns musing at her response to his question, though it would have been surprised if she’d said anything else. What she says next, though, coaxes a laugh out of him, soft as the evening. It makes him think of the discoveries he’d made in his first days here: meeting Aislinn, like a girl from a dream, and Florentine, the half-sister he’d not known of. “Nice is a word for it, yes,” he says, and glances at her with clear humor. “You might be surprised by what you find here.”
Following her gaze out to the plains, he leans into the silence between them. It’s comforting to listen to the birds call to one another, to watch other creatures going about the general business of survival. For all that he likes it here, he is still a foreigner to so much of his life coming from interactions with others.
When her question stirs him so aptly from his thoughts, he smiles.
“Here, it may be,” he says, tipping his ears toward the landscape around them. There is something barren about it, wild in a mellow, half-lonely kind of way, despite the bison and the birds. “But this land is not claimed by any Court. There are places where horses gather in great numbers – I live in one called Terrastella, a few hours south of here.” So much of it still feels strange on his tongue, and he wonders if she can hear that newness; the strange word court, the idea of having a home at all, much less one was strange as Dusk.
This place, windswept and gray-edged as it might be, reminds him much more of the places he came from. Perhaps that is one of the reasons that drew him, though he would never examine himself so clinically as to consider it.
There is a pause as leaves drift down between them; there is a question pushing at the back of his teeth but he is hesitant to voice it. Occasionally, Asterion is so polite in his unwillingness to presume or offend that it works against him.
Finally he glances at her, a half-smile that verges on sheepish taking shape on his dark lips. “I was headed back there, in fact, if you’re interested in joining me.”
Himawari stares up at her companion, observing closely as pensiveness, followed by mirth, flicks across his features. A smile of her own pulls at the corners of her lips in response, and it is like a ton of boulders that a sudden feeling of hope hits her. Hope that, maybe, this whole thing hadn't been in vain - these weeks of unyielding loneliness and uncertainty. She is rapt with attention as he continues to speak, her own tongue feeling paralyzed by this sudden tidal wave of emotion.
It is when he extends an offer to accompany him home that she is finally broken from her silence. Blinking at her companion several times, her lips in a futile attempt to grasp at words that just aren't there. "Well... I mean..." she stumbles, feeling foolish; how many times must she end up the blubbering fool?
"You want me to go home with you?" She finally manages, and despite her struggles to say it, the statement appears to amuse her. She turns her face away from him, the laugh that falls from her lips disappearing into the autumnal air around them. "You sure like to take things fast." Her gentle teasing does a superb job of concealing the anxiety that bubbles just beneath her skin. She's unsure if she has the strength to follow him there. She feels spent of energy, stamina depleted by her poorly planned maiden expedition. She fears if she stands any longer, her legs may simply give out. But the distant promise of a new life - or at least the possibility of one - makes her feel revitalized.
"Well," she begins again after a long moment, "given my current circumstances, I'd be hard-pressed to say no." Her eyes flicker towards the horizon - the sun will be setting soon, and the pair will have to travel against the burgeoning night. But if he will guide her, she will follow.
(( @Asterion so sorry for the crap post ;w; I wanted to wrap this thread up so I could throw up that open one in the Court. ))
They way she says it, so bluntly, would make him flush if he were able; for all his starry eyes and dreamer’s head and concerning pattern of falling into first-glance love, Asterion knows nothing of romance. There are so many things he has had to learn in his relatively short time since leaving the beach he grew up on; Asterion is only just finding how to navigate friendships and family. Anything beyond that makes his heartbeat pick up at the thought of it. He’d shy like a wild thing if he didn’t know she was joking.
Luckily he does – he is not quite that obtuse – and his smile grows to a grin even as he ducks his head. “I just don’t want to get caught in a snowstorm,” he says, though he has no idea if the gray-edged horizon holds the promise of bad weather. The bay has never seen a winter, not really.
If they were as bad as he’d heard hinted at, maybe it was a good thing they had a castle and everything that came with it.
He follows her gaze to the horizon, but his eyes drift again to hers before he sets off into the fading daylight. “Hardly a vote of confidence,” he says, but his smile from before is lingering, soft as the edges of the clouds. “But good enough for me. I’ll tell you what I know as we go, though it’s not much, yet.”
Together they set off, the wind sighing around them.
@Himawari no worries! my post is garbage xD they'll have to thread again soon, I think they'd be good friends :)
