11-18-2018, 08:34 PM
the taigan
"A few days?" she repeated softly in question, a shade of understanding and compassion passing over her eyes. He prickled anyway, head lifting slightly. He would not take pity, though she didn't seem to be offering it. He was not weak and would not be mistaken for it.
But he knew she hadn't meant it that way.
It was so hard to be the kind man she knew. So steady and gentle. Now he was as hard and sharp as the ice throttling his veins, needling his heart. Just as frosty cold as the merciless Winter storming inside him, ready to thrust forth at a moment's notice.
"No one claims ownership," she replied, pulling herself to her full height. He was wary of that response, that it said more than the words themselves, and his head turned slightly as he eyed her in steady silence. "I won't let them. Taiga is free, independent of ruler or kingdom." It all sounded so far as how the Taiga was meant to be, should've been. He listened closely as she continued.
Until there was that.
"...Taiga is mine to protect. Mine to defend. She is, I hope, as Romek once dreamed for her."
He bared his teeth and snarled. Nobody claims ownership but her, she meant. She claimed it was unruled and in the same breath claimed it for herself, that it was hers. She even continued as if to invite him and his family to stay, as if it were hers. As if this was not already his home as it always had been. How dare she invite him home to stay in his own damn house.
"Your father was a King," he reminded her sharply, his voice growling. He had nothing against his once-king, respected him greatly, but the words she'd spouted were contradicting herself in a number of ways. If she wanted it as Romek would've had it, then she was indeed claiming this forest. If she deemed it hers to protect and defend then she was indeed claiming this forest. Which was not what she'd said she wanted for it just a breath before.
"If Taiga is free and unruled, then why is it yours. Why do you make yourself a Queen." Because that is exactly what she'd said she'd done. Just as Romek would have it.
He was never one to beat around bushes. He had always been direct and called things out for what they were and his affection for her as part of his family would not save her from it.
