Even in her wildest dreams - the ones brought to life by her mother - she could never have fathomed the still silence of a forest. It is so unlike the volcanic peninsula that has become her homestead; the trees themselves stand like stoic sentinels frozen in time. She feels safe beneath the fractured and twisting branches that crisscross in a thatched canopy above her, even when the rays of the sun aren’t able to pierce through the leaves and touch the deep gold and navy of her skin.
The winged girl walks cautiously over underbrush and bramble, her thin and dark legs carrying her slowly and precisely. She is tired, her bones ache and her lungs burn, but the soft flutter of heart keeps her moving forward - the forest enchants her, more so than any of her daydreams could ever.
A familiar, steady voice hums deeply in her mind.
We should rest, Olena.
She huffs, her obsidian wings ruffling at her tawny sides in objection. But she does come to a halt, much to her disappointment. Rilian is often right.
The large and regal bull elk shifts somewhere in the shadows beyond, always close by. Olena lifts her thin face to the sky that she cannot see beyond the trees, her dark-lined ears flickering to listen to the sound of his large body shifting through the place he knows so intimately. She can see the menacing shadow of his large form, his antlers proud and somewhat terrible as they protrude from his crown (a sight that still makes Olena’s insides run cool, knowing he has used them for many battles before they had bonded).
Rilian snorts unhappily with a grunt, surveying the darkening forest with an equally dense gaze, allowing Olena her peaceful visit to his home - one she had been looking forward to for quite some time. He had worried about her ability to travel, but part of him knew that she would make the trip with or without his guidance. Even now his dark gaze flickers over her subtly, unable to keep himself from watching for signs of her ailment physically revealing itself. When he looks to her, though, her dark navy eyes are lost in the tangles of the canopy (daydreaming, no doubt, as she always does) and he is sure that thoughts of her own health are not at the forefront of her mind.
The raven-winged girl does not notice her companion’s eyes when they glow ethereally, but she does notice that quiet feeling of uncertainty that suddenly curls up tightly within her. When her face lowers, those blue patterns across her delicate cheekbones only punctuate her soft expression of surprise, concern hardening the edges of her features as something like fear pricks the back of her neck.
There is a pause in the shadow where all movement ceases and Olena can feel her breath catching in her throat. She can feel the familiar sensation of her disappearing; it always begins in her legs, wavering and falling into nothingness to allow her to phase through the trees and away from any danger.
Then, breaking the quiet, comes a voice that is not Rilian’s and causes Olena’s dark mouth to open in a gentle gasp as her eyes quickly find the boy who had found her. She blips out of sight - but only for a second - before she reappears a moment later a few feet further away from where she had been, phasing through the tree that had been directly behind her.
As Olena smooths her raven-like wings against her abdomen and peeks her slender head out from behind the tree, the stag appears beside her at once in near silence. His head lowers threateningly, taking a sweeping step before Olena to hide her frail body behind the bulk of his own. The winged-girl shifts to the left of him by taking a few dainty steps, peering around his shoulder cautiously with curious, navy eyes. She steps around Rilian, dismissing his menacing stance with a touch of her dark muzzle to the sharp musculature of his shoulder. He snorts sharply, lifting his great antlered head with a ripple of his lips into something like a snarl, subdued by Olena herself but not keen on investigating the one who borrowed his sight.
“It’s just me,” she replies quietly, so soft and uncertain, ducking her head slightly when she realizes this stranger would have no idea who ‘me’ is. Her eyes trace him carefully, her heart fluttering excitedly as the white of his wings seem to glow angelically in the shadow of the forest. She has yet to see the rough scaring that runs jagged across one side of his face and even if she had, she doesn’t think it would have been something that stops her from taking a few more precise steps towards him. “Just Olena.” She smiles when she says her name, though it is somewhat sadly.
Behind her, she hears Rilian shifting his weight, grunting and then moving further into the wood - to observe this stranger from another angle, no doubt.
“Are you looking for someone?” It’s a question that always rests on her lips for she, as always, was looking for adventure despite the odds always being stacked against her.
OLENA
all the stars go dark
@[lumos]