if all this falls apart, he will never know what you are
Everything else slips away.
Like the tide changing guard under the watchful moon, so too does he change again. His role evolves and grows at the same time that it shrinks. Because he had been the champion of Nerine for a spell, the guardian of many. It isn’t something he ever asked for. It isn’t something he ever wanted. So when Hestia vanishes from the salt-soaked shores, so too does the badge of responsibility she’d once pinned on him. He has a bigger (and yet smaller) call to arms. With Djinni, he becomes they. And then with Rivka, they becomes family.
And oh, how he loves them.
Walter circles the north shore like an albatross, shivering at the last bit of bitter winter air that gathers under his wings. From his vantage point up high, the wavecaps look like they are racing each other towards the sand that splays out in welcoming anticipation. He knows if he were to follow the progression from churning water onto the sun-bleached sand, he’d find his daughter somewhere beyond, likely looking out over both. The girl had been born and raised in the steely kingdom, bathed in the bitter brine, and ran with the roar of the sea in her ears. She probably already knows the land better than he does. As much as her birth had been a surprise to both her parents, Walter can’t imagine life without her now.
He is such a different man than he’d been Before.
The palomino pegasus drifts lower lazily and finally touches down on dry land. Condensation clings to his golden hide stretched over ropy muscles, muscles that certainly did not exist before his stint as Champion and Alliance contender. But as those days grow farther away from the present, Walter finds himself growing restless once more. He needs another outlet, or at least an adventure – something to sink his teeth into and anchor his wandering feet to again. As much as his appreciation for Nerine has grown like a swollen wave off the shoreline, he is truly only here for
“You,” he says, coming up behind her and resting his whiskered chin on the curve of her hip. She smells of other places and he wonders where she’s been. A small part of him wishes she would have asked him to go, too, because of course he would go anywhere with her. But that small part is vastly overshadowed by his desire to see her free and unencumbered. It is what has always attracted him to her, this wild independence, for it is mirrored in him as well. “Tell me what is on your mind.” He hasn’t moved from his spot. From here, he can see the tell-tale rounding of her stomach, the exaggerated valleys and peaks he has helped create. Again. He reaches forward and presses his grey lips to the widest point. Soon, they will be four.
and he will never know why the sun in my eyes burns like her
@[Djinni]