Beryl's life has been a series of disasters and it shows in the serious lines of her face. She comes to the forest because her shadows love it here, but like those shadows that dim the path, drifting between the trees does little to lighten her mood. She is lost in thought, and even though it has been so long, she cannot help but flick through her Shadows for impressions of that flaxen girl she remembers running terrified along the river, golden-red and glowing. Guilt squeezes her heart.
Aela.
She remembers. The name is burnt into her memory. The lost child, swallowed by Beryl's own shadows in an ill-fated rescue mission.
She remembers and fails to watch her step, but the shadows have never tripped her the way she has seen them do to others. They eddy at her feet like cool water, still but for the ripples she makes as she passes through them, and so when one of them does not move out of her way, she stumbles awkwardly against the dark wall of it with a grunt and an affronted "What?" Her curled ears lace back and for a moment she wonders if it is another shadow-spinner playing tricks, but it is not that at all.
No, instead her flashing eyes fall on the broad back of the dark stallion that she has stumbled directly into, bouncing off his side like a beetle throwing itself against a tree, or like an acorn dropped from the trees around them to ricochet off the ground. Probably more like the acorn, it has less purpose.
"Oh!" She retreats backs hurriedly, irritation giving way to way to embarrassment, then leaping back again to puzzled irritation.
"Why are you standing across the trail like that?"
Aela.
She remembers. The name is burnt into her memory. The lost child, swallowed by Beryl's own shadows in an ill-fated rescue mission.
She remembers and fails to watch her step, but the shadows have never tripped her the way she has seen them do to others. They eddy at her feet like cool water, still but for the ripples she makes as she passes through them, and so when one of them does not move out of her way, she stumbles awkwardly against the dark wall of it with a grunt and an affronted "What?" Her curled ears lace back and for a moment she wonders if it is another shadow-spinner playing tricks, but it is not that at all.
No, instead her flashing eyes fall on the broad back of the dark stallion that she has stumbled directly into, bouncing off his side like a beetle throwing itself against a tree, or like an acorn dropped from the trees around them to ricochet off the ground. Probably more like the acorn, it has less purpose.
"Oh!" She retreats backs hurriedly, irritation giving way to way to embarrassment, then leaping back again to puzzled irritation.
"Why are you standing across the trail like that?"
@[Cassian]