03-21-2021, 06:09 PM
choke them on the ashes of the dreams they burned
She is a mess of emotions, so many of them twisting and tangling around each other that it is difficult to discern what they are, or where they came from. He wants to pull on a single thread and follow it, unravel it until he gets to the core — because that is where she keeps it, her sorrow. She keeps it armored away, beneath a shield of softness and light, but he can still smell it. It wouldn’t be hard to coax out of her, he thinks, but he is not here to feed, and so he does not. Not yet, at least.
She asks if this is his part of the forest, and he shakes his head, noticeable only in the way his gleaming red eyes bob in the dark. “Not anymore,” he says, and somewhere in the smoke of his voice there is a smile. “I was born here. Ether and Briseis are my parents,” he cannot hide the note of longing in his voice, as he looks past her and to the shadowed paths that he is sure would lead him to where his parents still called home, and likely all the new siblings he has never met. Ever since he was returned from hell-like underground tunnels he mostly steered clear of his family; to see them happy and thriving was like a knife twisted between the ribs, to remember the way they had all turned on him in that hellscape. He could not bear the way Briseis looked at him now, with the kind of grief only a mother could know.
Mostly, he could not bear the way her grief made something inside of him rumble with hunger, and while there were so few that he considered off limits, his family always would be.
“I haven’t lived here for a very long time, though,” he continues as his eyes are drawn back to hers, noting the bright blue of them. Even cast in shadow they are vibrant, and he finds himself wondering what she looks like in the sun—something that he so rarely thought of or considered. “I’m Torryn.”
She asks if this is his part of the forest, and he shakes his head, noticeable only in the way his gleaming red eyes bob in the dark. “Not anymore,” he says, and somewhere in the smoke of his voice there is a smile. “I was born here. Ether and Briseis are my parents,” he cannot hide the note of longing in his voice, as he looks past her and to the shadowed paths that he is sure would lead him to where his parents still called home, and likely all the new siblings he has never met. Ever since he was returned from hell-like underground tunnels he mostly steered clear of his family; to see them happy and thriving was like a knife twisted between the ribs, to remember the way they had all turned on him in that hellscape. He could not bear the way Briseis looked at him now, with the kind of grief only a mother could know.
Mostly, he could not bear the way her grief made something inside of him rumble with hunger, and while there were so few that he considered off limits, his family always would be.
“I haven’t lived here for a very long time, though,” he continues as his eyes are drawn back to hers, noting the bright blue of them. Even cast in shadow they are vibrant, and he finds himself wondering what she looks like in the sun—something that he so rarely thought of or considered. “I’m Torryn.”
torryn
@[lilliana]