Reach for the Stars, but be Prepared to Fall

by **Azmere** on May 4th, 2017, 11:46 pm

Azmere was suddenly aware of their closeness. The way her small body rested against him brought about a warm comfort; a sense of belonging but it also swirled other thoughts into his mind that he couldn’t grasp or understand. The sensation of her ear and hair against his chest and the scarred squares made the hair on his neck stand up. His hands hung awkwardly along their sides now that she had pulled away from his grip. The ankal gently placed one hand flat against the middle of Taurina’s back and pulled her tight against his body as she made a promise to never leave their family. The soft words she uttered did not meet any resistance on its way to his ears or his heart. Azmere brought his other hand up and stroked the brown locks down against her cheek and neck. It might seem silly but the warrior used the same technique as he would to brush out Skylla’s mane. The action felt natural and spread the warmth that was growing inside of him.

The blue and gold eyes closed slowly as Azmere clutched the emotionally tumultuous Drykas to his chest and stroked her hair. He lowered his chin and turned it to one side so that he could rest his cheek upon the top of her head. The ankal took deep breaths of her scent and swayed softly as a breeze kicked up and nudged him into a back and forth motion. Time seemed to stop.

While nothing actually changed around him, Azmere had a moment where he slipped from his physical body into the web. It wasn’t intentional but it happened. He spun around the image of Taurina cradled in his arms with her head on his chest. The sight was something he would never want to forget. Years ago, the ankal would have thought such a scene would have implied weakness or that something was missing. The man’s awareness floated on a tether to his body and the great epiphany that struck him gave him an actual pull to return to his body. This sort of embrace was not an indication of brokenness or the absence of strength. It was the opposite.

The stoic man was now brutally aware of how much he had been missing by neglecting to nurture the relationships in his life. The things boys are taught as weaknesses become strengths when the heart bonds with another. It’s the emotional ties that create a family just like the web and it’s that web which keeps everyone safe and drives an individual to be more that he could ever be alone.

This amazing revelation washed over the Drykas repeatedly as he hovered around his body and the smaller frame of the Eth that was tucked into his embrace as if she’d been carved to fit. A sudden and beautiful wisp drifted in front of Azmere’s vision which caused him to turn his head. Starfire’s mane. A smile spread over his scarred face and the awareness rejoined its body. Azmere stirred and cemented his return with a tightening of his hold upon the young woman. He lifted his head and used the hand which had been stroking her hair to cup her face and lift it to his gaze. She was so close that he could feel her breath and even the wind from her eyelashes. For a tick, his mouth trembled as he tried to force words despite the urge to do something else. Ultimately, his ankal side won out and the baser man was held at bay.

“I have something for you.” The man drew out his dagger and walked over to his yvas blanket and sawed away at the edge. When he had a piece that was an inch wide and about a foot and a half long, he turned and walked back to Taurina. Azmere offered it to her with his half-grin. “This is a wrap –something that your shift can’t remove once you weave it into your hair.” Once she took it, he would place his hands upon her shoulders and turn her around where Starfire was absentmindedly stomping at a clump of grass. The ankal put his face next to hers so that they were cheek to cheek. “Put in the wrap then take him for a ride through Endrykas. Show off your powerful stallion and let him parade around his beautiful Drykas.” His big hands shifted from her shoulders to her upper arms and he gave them a squeeze as the excitement built in the whispered tone that he was using. “Striders choose their riders for very specific reasons.” Azmere turned his face just enough so that his lips barely touched the back of her ear and his words were no more than the rustling of the grass. “I know why he chose you.”

Without any warning, Azmere made two large steps back and began to gather up his things from earlier. When Taurina would turn to him as she undoubtedly must- most people are curious enough to react to a statement such as the one the ankal had just made, the watchman would simply reply. “You need to find out for yourself.” From that point on, he would no attention to her. She had been given a task by her ankal and he expected it to be done. The warrior had excellent peripheral vision and would make sure to watch her ride away once she started out of camp. After the experience that he had just been through –how could he not? Azmere knew why Starfire chose Taurina. Now, he just needed to figure out what it meant for himself.

Textbox courtesy of Firenze

by **Taurina** on May 8th, 2017, 7:11 am

An arm wrapped around her, a hand placed upon the center of her back. The Ethaefal curled inward, molding to the body she was pressed against while keeping her head exactly where it was against his heart. Fingers intwined with her hair, stroking gently and causing a sensation like a multitude of raindrops to spread throughout her being. The warmth Azmere felt was not felt alone. It spread through the Ethaefal like a blazing wildfire. Beautiful. Destructive. A purging of all the darkness to make way for something new, bright, and maybe even beautiful within her. She did not have words for what the feeling was, just that she enjoyed it and she did not want it to end.

They swayed with the wind. Two people separated from time and existence for all of the moments it lasted. Taurina found her comfort here in her ankal’s arms with his cheek pressed against her head. Caramel eyes shut and she allowed herself to get lost in the bubble they had created around themselves. The world surrounding them, the time that passed.. It was all just ashes in the breeze to her. Her breathing synced with his, her mind playing in time with the beat of his heart. Her grief was chased away from even her soul to make way for something else. A love that she did not understand or know to describe.

His awareness left his body, but she did not realize it for his warmth never left her. She stood molded against him as if that was where she was always meant to be. They became still, his hand resting in her hair though no longer moving. The Ethaefal did not mind. She was too lost in her own mind to care. Could they just stay here, in this moment, forever? Taurina found that to be her wish. She had promised to never leave and he had promised to always be there for her, but life was messy and their home dangerous. What if fate or the gods stole him them from each other? She did not think she could bare it. There was so much she had been forced to bare, but this.. to loose him or to loose her Strider, those were things she would not survive.

“Don’t take this,” her voice was made of the softest whisper, barely heard by even herself.

She did not wish for Azmere to know that the plague that was her fear interrupted even now. All she wanted for him to know was that this was a moment she never wanted to forget. A moment in which the world had stopped spinning and time ceased so that they could simply exist. Her heart was full, her sadness gone, and all she ever thought herself to need was right here. Starfire and Azmere, the sources of her newfound happiness, hope and peace.

It was the ankal who brought an end to the moment. His breath picked up, his grasp tightening around her in a tick, and the weight of his face pressed against her head lifted. The fears were forgotten as she felt his touch move to her cheek and she allowed her own eyes to open so that she could meet his dual colored gaze. His face was so near. She watched the tremble of his lips, the battle for words. Her own face was curious and almost hopeful, waiting for him to find what he searched for.

When he parted from her, a promise of a gift having found his lips instead of something else, Taurina found her arms empty and the space he left cold. While she remained curious, she wanted him back wrapped around her. She found herself desiring for something else to have found his lips and for the moment that had just passed to return. He had carried on, however, a blade pulled out and yvas blanket being sawed away at. What was he doing? Taurina found herself watching, her curiosity captured as her own arms crossed over her chest. It was no match for the warmth and comfort Azmere around her had brought, but it gave her somewhere to put her hands instead of letting them hang limp at her sides.

The strip was cut and the ankal presented it to his family member. Taurina reached out and caused her fingers to gently grasp the clothe as if it were the most precious thing in the world. For to her, it was. As he spoke of it, the way it could never be taken from her like Starfire could never be taken from her, Taurina felt her lips pulling into a small smile. The way he understood what had broken her this day touched her soul and while this did not truly replace the lost windmarks, it was enough for her. A gift from the one she believed cared for her most. A sign to all that she belonged here and that she was one of them. She had a beautiful strider and no one could ever take him from her because she had been chosen.. Chosen for a reason.

Taurina’s smile grew a little, her cheek pressed up against Azmere’s as she looked at her glorious white stallion. He was beautiful. Perfect actually. The windmarks did not matter, them disappearing had not taken him from her. Why had she not seen it sooner? Her ankal was speaking in a riddle, his lips tickling against the edge of her ear. Starfire had chosen her and Azmere… he claimed.. he claim…

“Wait.. What do you know?!” Surprise filled her voice as she turned to the one who had pulled away from her so suddenly, her confusion written over her expression.

Though he claimed to have the answer, he did not speak of it. Instead the ankal gave her the quest to discover the answer on her own. Put in the wrap and take her beautiful strider out for all to see. Let them come out, look and speak of him. Let him show off his rider, the one he had chosen, and maybe through it all, figure out the why. What made her so special? How did she get so lucky that Starfire chose her above of all the rest?

The Ethaefal yearned to learn the answers to her questions and Azmere had turned away from her to busy himself with other things. Her task was all she had as a clue, so she did as told. Though it was not great work on her part, she took the wrap that had so quickly become more precious to her than most objects and began to weave it through her multi-colored hair. The braid in the end was a messy thing with pieces poking out and the wrap twisted and bunched in some places. Without a mirror or a brush or any talent, it would have to do. Then she went to Starfire and pressed her cheek up against his.

“You ready my Starfire? You ready to show them who you are? You ready to show me why?” Taurina murmured against his coat before pressing a kiss against his face.

The Ethaefal left Starfire and Azmere for only a chime to retrieve her yvas. The Drykas “saddle” was placed upon the large stallion and fastened just tight enough. Taurina mounted him then, taking several chimes to get to where she was comfortable. Without Azmere by her side today, they would not fly. They would likely not even rise to a trot, but they would go together and tell all of Endrykas of the bond they now shared. No one could take it from them. No missing windmarks, not spiteful Drykas, and in Taurina’s mind, not even the gods. Starfire was hers and she was his. So after a last look towards Azmere, a smile given, Taurina directed Starfire to go and their journey to discover began.

Determination and curiosity drove her. All fears were buried deep or forgotten about. Her heart was full and her soul bursting. Something had been in that moment with her ankal, something she desired to feel again. Something she wanted to find the words for and share with him. Something that would have to wait for another day for this day she had a different quest and it had begun. The rest of the tent city stretched out before them, those milling about stopping to get just a look or to murmur a whisper. It was time to show them all the stallion that had chosen the Ethaefal for his rider. The stallion that had made her apart of their people fully, not half or just in the past, but whole from now into the future.

Forever a Drykas. Never again a soul lost without a people.

Common | Pavi | 'Thoughts'

Boxcode credit goes to Azmere