momma didn't raise no fool - anyone

[ichor]

The press of his shoulder to hers is a distraction. It is a distraction that Ichor welcomes as they tread water for the time being. He seems to be far away in his thoughts, to a place that she cannot follow him to as the brisk wind whips over their faces and necks. She hadn’t realized how much warmer she’d been submerged in the river until facing the prospect of leaving it now. It is that very idea that causes a hitch in her breath as he leaves her side and scrambles up the riverbank, the confidence in his reply not lost on her as she gives him a wry smile and follows him out of the water.

Definitely colder here!

She barely repressed a shudder against the wind that whips cold and wild against her wet flesh. Her wings hang sodden at her sides but they’ll dry, like the rest of her. Everything will dry in time. But he is talking again, forever a distraction from the isolation of her own thoughts as her eyes meet his or his meet hers, it matters little - their gazes lock, his face looms into focus as his lips move and ask her what is perhaps the second most important question in her lifetime. It seems phrased as if it is an undeniable idea that has taken root somewhere inside her own mothy brain.

“Yes,” she breathes the utterance as her heart goes still at the caring brush of his head against her wing. That lone touch cemented Ichor’s lack of resolve to do anything but follow him. How could she deny him now? He’d been right about her gills and the river. No, it was more than that - she just couldn’t deny him and she never thought to question the how or the why of it. Not Ichor who knows moonlight as intimately as a lover, who can name her favorite nectar-giving flowers scientifically and commonly so that even those dumber than her can understand what she is talking about and now this, she is certain that he could not steer her wrong down this path unfolding before her unseen but felt.

“I’d like that.” it is as bold a statement as any that will ever come from Ichor as she smiles back at him, daring to brush her small nose against his scaled shoulder.

@[Ivar] ok, I go post now to Kindred & Ivar! Just wanted to wrap this up for timeline's sake I guess? lol