06-27-2021, 10:13 AM
a bright and dangerous spark
Ledger was right: Cheri needed practice. If she was going to find herself in similar situations from here out, she was going to have to learn to keep her temper in check. That was the problem with growing up in a place like Taiga, with parents like hers and bountiful cousins who became fast friends. She had only ever learned to be herself. If she’d stayed in the redwoods with Targaryen there might have never been a reason to change, but instead she made the choice to come south and learn what it was like to truly divulge herself in courtly life - and she was still getting the hang of it.
Like her fairytale games as a young filly, Cheri grew up to realize that living amongst vipers required one to grow their own set of teeth in defense.
Obscene and Aela had already been practicing their whole lives. Ob had moved quickly since the two of them had first met, from a nobody to a stallion who walked past Cheri without a second glance so he could walk alongside her Queen as a ruler himself. And Aela … as much as Cheri wanted to view the rich golden mare through a lens of her own making, (and not a polite one at that) she had to admit to herself that perhaps the little irritant was more cunning than she let on.
Her musings could easily be overlooked; her comment about Obscene, however, could not.
“Less golden, shorter ears.” Cheri replied in place of Aela, finished with her snack. She turned a soft smile on the pair of horses some feet away from her, burying the annoyance at having to remember. “He grew up among the fey as I recall, so it’s really no surprise that he became more like the family who adopted him as their own. I think it suits him.”
And that was no lie.
Luckily for her, she had the opportunity to direct her attention elsewhere. Cheri nodded a silent goodbye toward Ledger after that, declining Oceane’s offer to join the Loessian pair as they went about their business. Like her elders she, too, had the ability to pick up on subtle cues when she looked hard enough, and the energy she was reading between her Queen and the one-eyed stallion was palpable enough to keep her away for the moment. She watched them go with a conspiratorial expression, reminded of her own paramour waiting in the gully cavern she called home.
In truth, she longed to cut her time here short so that she could be reunited with Targaryen, but she swallowed her desire painfully and left the grazing area by the hot spring instead, headed for Aela’s company. “Would you like a guide?” She felt forced to ask, hiding the discomfort she felt at the idea of being a third-wheel among the Pampas visitors.
Like her fairytale games as a young filly, Cheri grew up to realize that living amongst vipers required one to grow their own set of teeth in defense.
Obscene and Aela had already been practicing their whole lives. Ob had moved quickly since the two of them had first met, from a nobody to a stallion who walked past Cheri without a second glance so he could walk alongside her Queen as a ruler himself. And Aela … as much as Cheri wanted to view the rich golden mare through a lens of her own making, (and not a polite one at that) she had to admit to herself that perhaps the little irritant was more cunning than she let on.
Her musings could easily be overlooked; her comment about Obscene, however, could not.
“Less golden, shorter ears.” Cheri replied in place of Aela, finished with her snack. She turned a soft smile on the pair of horses some feet away from her, burying the annoyance at having to remember. “He grew up among the fey as I recall, so it’s really no surprise that he became more like the family who adopted him as their own. I think it suits him.”
And that was no lie.
Luckily for her, she had the opportunity to direct her attention elsewhere. Cheri nodded a silent goodbye toward Ledger after that, declining Oceane’s offer to join the Loessian pair as they went about their business. Like her elders she, too, had the ability to pick up on subtle cues when she looked hard enough, and the energy she was reading between her Queen and the one-eyed stallion was palpable enough to keep her away for the moment. She watched them go with a conspiratorial expression, reminded of her own paramour waiting in the gully cavern she called home.
In truth, she longed to cut her time here short so that she could be reunited with Targaryen, but she swallowed her desire painfully and left the grazing area by the hot spring instead, headed for Aela’s company. “Would you like a guide?” She felt forced to ask, hiding the discomfort she felt at the idea of being a third-wheel among the Pampas visitors.
@Obscene @Aela