build me up from bones, wrap me up in skin
hold me close enough to breathe me in
Her name spoken in the pre-dawn air between them by him sends an unfamiliar rush of warmth into the pit of her stomach. She pauses to examine it, because the feeling is so new to her. Momma had told her that there would come a day when she would yearn for more than just the company of her brothers and sisters. She had said that the games they played wouldn’t stop but they would change, become more complicated over time. Dad had said adulthood would be its own evolution of sorts, akin to the animals and plants that had to similarly adapt over time. It had made sense, then, as a lesson she only had to hear about still wrapped in the bliss of childhood. But now, she realizes the weight of those truths – feels their tickle as they settle inside her guts.
Evolution is here and now, she concludes; she is growing up.
To his credit, the young man says nothing after her lips run free seemingly of their own will. Buffered by his lack of disparaging response, she meets his metallic-tinged gaze with her own chipped-amber. The brightness in the corner of Ivar’s eyes does nothing to quell the butterflies he sets free in her stomach. Butterfly boy, she thinks again but for far different reasons, her lips quirking sharply at the thought. He hadn’t appeared to appreciate the moniker before, but she must admit it is appropriate.
Radiant follows Ivar’s gaze upward and into the winter-bare trees. Pink fingers of light reach across the sky above them, pulling dawn over the land in a brilliant display of color. She’s never seen a sunrise from anywhere besides Tephra (never been anywhere so far from home, in truth). She imagines it is beautiful here too, only different. Here, there are no foamy wave caps to be gilded by the sun. The billowing smoke from the volcano won’t kaleidoscope from red to orange to yellow as the morning spins on. He says he doesn’t frequent the meadow but he does reveal that he’s visited her home before. It is enough to draw her interest back down from the heavens to search his face for a review. She doesn’t see one, but the red roan girl hears instead that he feels much the same.
“Magma, she says like there is something sour on her tongue, “fire is not my favorite. She snorts, inhales the clean scent of the pines and then remembers the sulfur of home. And I apologize if I smell – I’ve heard it would be enough to knock Carnage over well before he ever reached our border. I can’t imagine how it must affect a mere mortal like you.” Radiant laughs easily and nudges the colt’s shoulder, feeling the smooth scales her velveteen muzzle brushes across. Like a rat snake, she observes. Those hadn’t been there before, had they? But then, it was impossible to remember every detail of every child she played with that day. “And you? Where do you rest your traveling feet, Ivar?”
