Though she had heard the clamor of battle, Djinni had stayed away. She had no desire to see the war, let alone participate. She felt the magic shake the kingdom to its very core, and tucked her head against a tussock of moss and went right back to sleep. The politics of the kingdom have changed; she has not seen the paint mare or her ravens in weeks.
She does not miss them.
So the cawing that rouses her at dawn is met with a scowl, and a wish for the raven to find itself unable to make noise. It continues to caw, mouth stretched wide, but no sound emerges from its beak. Pleased, Djinni rises to her feet. She stretches her pale yellow legs, and nibbles at an itch on her gradient caramel barrel. She’d dreamt of a sunrise on a world with no water, and the colors are reflected in the pale flaxen chestnut pangare of her coat, and in the hot whiteness of her eyes.
Djinn is still blinking the sleep from her eyes when she hears the familiar voice, and she is smiling when she turns to see Walter.
“Good morning,” she replies, the final syllable muffled by a yawn that bubbles up unexpectedly. It drowns out his first statement, and she hears only his offer to show her around more.
“ S’too early to look around,” she says, leaning across the space between them to nestle her jaw into the warm breadth of Walter’s back. Drowsiness has made her throw away caution; she forgets their awkward physical dance as she waffles into the soft pale hairs of his mane.
His smell is strong this close, and the novelty of that is what finally rouses Djinni from her sleep-addled. They’ve never been this close this long, and she draws back so quickly that she accidentally teleports herself a few yards away.
“Sorry.” She says as the golden shimmer of her magic fades away around her. She refuses to meet his eyes, and slowly fades to dun and white as she hides her grey eyes behind the natural black curtain of her mane. “Sorry.”
I AM SO TERRIBLY SLOW BUT I DID IT
I POSTED