I know that love is all about the wind; any

[leliana]

leliana

she said “oh, I know that love is all about the wind
how it can hold me up and kill me in the end”

Her heart cannot decide on an emotion when she sees him.

His presence is an immediate electric shock and she feels that immediate, instinctual flood of love—that feeling of home, that feeling of belonging. But it doesn’t last. Not alone, at least. Because his presence isn’t one of safety anymore and that feeling of comfort is immediately chased by a deep-rooted fear. It is terror that she feels next as it works its way through her, chased close behind by a cacophony of horror and empathy at the sight of his mangled face, an inhale at the desire to do what she could to heal.

But none of it shows in the blank canvas of her face.

Nothing shows because the true edges of her have been dulled by heartache and her time in isolation; she is nothing but worn smooth, exhausted by the effort that it takes to continue breathing. She doesn’t notice the crimson dahlias that have begun to bloom in her mane and tail, their sweet scent captured in the small quarters of the cave. She doesn’t notice anything but the sight of him walking closer and closer.

Once upon a time, she would have met him. She would have stepped into his embrace and pressed her lips into the curve of his neck, would have explored the smoothness of his scales and the muscles beneath. But now she can only tremble, her legs locked as his chest comes to rest against her own.

Her wings curve and pull into her closer and she closes her eyes.

Tries to find some balance in her hitched breathing.

She focuses so much on it—tries so hard to not think about how painful it is to remember, how easy it is to pretend that nothing has happened—that she almost doesn’t hear his voice. She almost doesn’t heart his confession. But she does and her head spins with it. She blinks and takes a deep breath, her body still shuddering slightly, the physical contact painful when it had once been only sweet.

“Is this a trick?” she finally asks, her voice small. “Are you just trying to hurt me more, Vulgaris?”

Was it so easy to forget her? Forget their love?

Was he just trying to find another way to break her?

She closes her eyes and feels the familiar saltwater on her cheek.

“Why am I here?”

@[vulgaris]