[open] you say you want your freedom, any

[starlore]

( this world will have the wolves outside your door
make you leave all that you love to fight a war
and never tell you what you're dying for )

The child knows so little about politics, about the viper who looks after the Cove. He has never felt any need to wander any further than the border and his parents have never felt any need to warn him about Gospel, so he merely shrugs, his golden mouth turned down at its corners in a thoughtful frown. He is too young to know much about consequences either. (Except, of course, he knows that there are monsters that lurk in the dark and he’ll feel real guilty if any harm finds her because he let her wander off on her own.)

He squints into the shadows that seem to stretch on for eternity, as she insists that she can’t stay. He hadn’t really been suggesting that she stay forever, just until she built up enough energy to fly home. He wrinkles his nose and turns his focus back to her.

“Well, you don’t have to stay but you probably shouldn’t wander off on your own either,” he says. He tilts his head, his halo following the movement, tipping low on his brow. “Listen, Cheri, I’m not going to forgive myself if something bad happens to you while you’re here and you said you were tired, so at least let me walk with you until you’re feeling up to flying home.” 

Had he been aware that he was capable of being so bossy? He’d bossed his sister around plenty but they had a tendency to steer clear of most of the other children in the Cove, mostly because the other children were vipers and dragons and were pretty scary. 

He stands there, holding the filly’s gaze as steadily as he can, trying to convey his seriousness with his eyes. 

starlore

@[Cheri]