that's all there is
He doesn’t hesitate to respond, not exactly, but he treats the question with the gravitas it deserves. They are, after all, virtually strangers. Something has led Noah to trust him, to take him at his word that he will leave the Brilliant Pampas to her when they have finished sheltering in it, to stand beside him against Arthas even when her own insides quaked with fear. But it’s a tentative trust, not much stronger than the gossamer strength of a spider’s web or a butterfly’s wing, and they are careful yet around each other.
Noah is bemused to hear that Loess had been Arthas’s, before it was Wolfbane’s, but that the intriguing gold stallion had eventually become more than the old silver one, but not exactly surprised. Arthas had not struck her as a powerful creature, nor one worthy to be followed, but yet she had instinctively trusted Wolfbane. It makes sense that others would have felt the same. She hesitates on the thought of mercenaries, but turns the idea over and over in her head, considering. She supposes there was a freedom in being fighters-for-hire, a freedom in knowing that you never had to join a fight unless you wanted to, unless you believed in it. It could be a dangerous group, under a leader with no honor, but she does not feel that is who Wolfbane is. And he speaks with love for his Kingdom, she can hear it in his voice.
He laughs, and she turns from her thoughts to watch him, slightly startled because she hadn’t thought he’d said anything funny. But whatever it is that amuses him, the laugh brightens his face and she admires the way it lightens his whole façade before it fades, and he turns to her to bounce the inquiry back. She was preparing for this, because it is only fair she be willing to answer the question she’s asked of him. But what does Noah want? She’s not sure how to put the feeling into words, so she takes her time, shaping the softly spoken words with care.
“I’ve never had a home,” she begins. “I just had my father, and now they’ve killed him.” There’s no anger at that, no spite, as one might expect. Just a deep sadness, a bone-deep weariness that speaks of an expectation of loneliness to come. She doesn’t speak of Pangea – of the nightmare quest she’d done for her grandfather, or the way she’d been drawn to the sick land in some unnatural way. That magic longing had ended, the spell broken when she was forced to watch her father beaten to death before her eyes by an angry mobbed summoned by that same grandfather. She had dreamed of bringing life back to Pangea, of calling it home for them both, and now the mere thought of the dark land makes her shiver and brings the nightmares back. “He used to speak of the land where he was born, where he was a child before he was separated from his family. It was a beautiful land, with green fields and a laughing river and a waterfall. But more than that, it meant family to him. Somehow his family was tied inescapably to the land, and when it was destroyed when Beqanna changed, he lost all hope of finding his family again.”
There had been many things driving Rhonen to live, but just as many things that made him want to not live. Noah suspected if he hadn’t stumbled across her mother and then had Noah foisted on him to raise, he may not have walked amongst the living even as long as he did. “That’s all I want. I understand eternal peace is unrealistic, and there will never be a solution to every problem. But I want to build a family, and I want to be able to give them a home.” Perhaps compared to his dreams, hers are simple. But they are honest.
noah
@[Wolfbane]