YOU'RE ONLY AS SICK AS YOUR SECRETS
A year ago, Skandar hadn't been here.
And before that, things had certainly been different. Aela gave the orders and Skandar followed them. And now, everything is different. Skandar is here and he walks across the Pangean clay (proud, assured, arrogant) leading her. Aela stares a line of fire at his back, hoping that he feels the way her blue eyes bore into his skin, wishing that they could burn him the way that his had her. Her thoughts focus on other things: keeping the light around her slender legs from erupting (a sure sign of her imperious temper), making sure that she didn't immediately turn into a blaze to burn them both.
Not yet, anyway.
While she attempts to keep control of her volatile emotions (and to keep them from showing), it doesn't take long for her to notice the way that Skandar's skin dances. There are ripples of shadow, disrupting his star-marked hide and that takes the edge off her anger. What was happening? Was he trying to shift into something else? It was like something was beneath the surface of his skin, attempting to claw its way to freedom. As they move into one of Pangea's caverns, it becomes harder to see, and her momentary concern moves towards looking at the navy-eyed stallion.
His voice comes out rough and graveled, while hers comes as smooth as silk, the result of hours practicing, Aela's determination, and Straia's Magic. "I did," she replies, murmuring it but there is no competition between Aela and the soft sounds of the cave surrounding them. Her blazed head lifts and her blue eyes narrow slightly, staring down the skinwalker. She wants to be angry with him. It would be so much easier to be furious with him.
"Forget you, @[Skandar]?" Aela says with a slight scoff. Like him, there is no softening such a defined face. Not when it is full of ambition and foresight. But something in her expression changes at the small smile he gives and the palomino tilts her pretty head, feeling her own coy smile coming in reply. "I should think the same of you," she says and then takes another step towards him. Her mind is full of memories - an accusation and a reminder for Skandar - as she replays their first meeting, that delightful game they played as they both discovered exactly how terrifying he could become. Another memory of Straia attempting to change Pangea and being swallowed, a price of her ambition and a warning to all. That dark time next to the husk of a burnt tree, still daring to aspire anyway, as they spilled each other's blood.
Her blue eyes linger there, when she comes close enough, to the part of Skandar's throat that he had offered her that day.
Tentatively, she reaches for it, wondering what it might feel like not make him bleed but beg for something else. It's a heady thought, one that gives her pause and so she moves her gaze upward to meet his navy eyes. "I have news," she whispers instead.
