She longs to meld her form to his, to make the seams of them fit together in perfect harmony. That one touch wasn’t enough for her and a hunger built for more inside that poked at the pit of her belly, making the sleeping bear grumble just a little. Keeper swallowed back the noise that threatened to leave her throat like a mix of grizzly rumble and equine whicker. It would have been a noise caught somewhere in between a sob and a shout, something that knew of sadness and glee.
Around his smell is the cave air that reeks of stagnation and dampness. There’s stone and moss on it too, and it has never been a scent to curdle the stomach but there’s something off-putting to it now. Almost like a sweet underlying stink of rot like death lurks in the back. It is enough to raise the hackles on the bear inside her but Keeper refocuses all of her attention on the blue roan stallion, on Balto because in the end, he’s all that matters.
None of the things that lurk in the deeper dark scare her. Perhaps they ought to but she has always had an unshakable trust in him that no harm could befall them as long as they were together. That somehow, as a pair, they’d combat all the ills in the world that came for them. It’s probably a silly notion, the kind that fills the heads of moonstruck fillies more so than grown mares but being around him always made her feel happily reckless and outside of the restraints of time.
His hesitation the moment the light touches him is heartbreaking. It makes her wonder when the last time was that he stepped outside the cave. She hopes it wasn’t that night when she coaxed him outside into the moonlight, and at the same time, does hope it was that secret sacred moment that they shared together. But it’s a selfish thought and she has to push it out of her mind because she’s not an altogether selfish creature until it comes to him, then perhaps she is.
She hears him sigh at her coming, at how the dark doesn’t scare her from him and sees the resulting shivers that course across his blue skin from her shy touch. Keeper wants to touch him again, not to make him shiver but to make the shivers stop until her touch is as welcome as the shadows are. She wants so badly to be the light in his darkness and hold the shadows at bay for just a little while.
Then he speaks and she’s lost in the warm disuse of his voice as it surrounds her and fills her up with the familiar sound of him. He embraces her then and she leans back into it, relaxed and happy as her heart gains wings and begins to soar right through her. “Always,” she echoes back with a smile on her lips; it might be his cave but she’ll always be able to find him here or some trace of him to give her unending hope.
She remains close after their embrace, especially as he lurches toward her for more of that comforting closeness as the dark creeps in. Keeper hugs his shoulder with her own so that nothing can between them; their barrels and hips will touch in small intimate brushes of skin to skin so that it will be hard to tell where one of them begins and the other ends. It keeps the smile fixed to her face to feel him this close, to know that she can nose his nose or tug on the inky strands of his forelock.
Her head bobs in laughter as it spills out of her mouth in an exultant rush of assurance, “I’ll always look for you here and I’ll always find you. How could I not?” Indeed, how could she not? The very idea seemed preposterous that Keeper would not seek him out - he was her true north, and like the needle of a compass, her heart pointed her towards him.
Even as a bear, she sought out this part of the forest as if the bear knew the roan stallion and would still love him. Not that she was a stranger to interspecies love, but that she knew even as a bear she’d seek him out because the heart wants what the heart wants. It screamed inside her that it wanted him, beat its wings bloody against her ribcage just to say those three precious words that meant the world to her, that stayed quiet and pent up inside.
“Balto…” she began before trailing off, not quite able to meet his eyes until the grizzly swiped a huge paw through her and she felt the claws undo all the fear and hesitation. “I love you,” she murmurs into his ear because that’s where her mouth has climbed before sliding back along his neck, trailing heartfelt touches and little sniffs of his scent until she just stops, drops her head back to its original position near his nose and waits for which seems like an eternity building up in that suddenly small cave.
@[Balto] omgerd she said it finally! lol