love comes slow and it goes so fast; nayl

[magnus]

“Indeed, it is different,” he mused, his inky lips pressed together as his head tilted to the side. “And yet, I do not think it is too far different.” A soft laugh as he kept pace with her. “Both are as wild as the women who call them home so while vastly different in appearance, perhaps they are the same in spirit.” He considered her words for a moment. Home? At first, he had not thought it possible to find a place that would feel like home in this wild new world; everything was too new, and that newness had made him resentful at first because it had been forced upon them. They hadn’t chosen it. The new was penalty.

But, still—

He had found himself coming to appreciate the smoke that curled from the volcano, the strength of their land, the rich vegetation. He had come to love the way the land was at once wild and rough with vast openness and soft, the green plains bleeding into beaches with secret nooks and corners. “Yes, I know what you mean.” He nodded. “Tephra took some getting used to, but it has managed to become home”

At her prompting, he continued after her, his tail flicking at his haunches. She was both cold and open, and he found that fascinating, her personality a kaleidoscope of fierce and friendly. He was quiet as they made their journey, but his mind was not. He soaked everything in—from the narrow paths to the roaring of the tides to the silent, deadly edge of their Queen. When they reached the crevice, he paused, giving them enough space although he was used to closeness. He enjoyed casual touch, the comfort of a brush against the neck, the friendliness of an embrace, but he felt that she perhaps would not enjoy it as much.

And thus he respected that with distance.

“I have a feeling you were never someone of no importance, Nayl.”

His smile was charming but genuine. “Someone of no importance could certainly not lead the Amazons or carve out a kingdom here the way that you have.” He didn’t believe in falsehoods or false praise, but he would have to be blind to not see that she was strategically positioning Nerine to be a major player on the diplomatic map. He could respect the shrewdness in her eyes, the calculated behavior. “Regardless, I am glad you are being seen, heard,” he paused, one corner of his scarred mouth rising, “felt.”

out of the blue out into the loneliest place that you'll ever know
I carried the world just as far as I could but the damage had taken its toll