The silent solitude of Sylva surrounded him. With every drop of a twig his muscles tensed in anticipation. He was weary. The last stranger he’d met on the road had left him unusually drained. She’d left her scars upon him, liking the raking of talons upon his usually thick hide. He was no stranger to the characters that filled Beqanna. For years he’d watched them from his place on the outside, glad to be detached from the mundane droll of their average lives. The confinement alone would have driven him to insanity.
Just as he was turning to leave a voice quipped from behind. Feminine and tantalizing, his eyes lit up beneath the scruff of his forelock. Slowly he turned, making a show of his fit physique. Pleasantly surprised, the stranger in his midst was undeniably beautiful. Vibrant she stood before him, her stark white coloring almost identical to that of the snow that blanketed the ground. Set apart only by her pale pink points and the fiery ombre of her hair. She was winged, like many other creatures throughout Beqanna, but she held a fascination for him that caught him by surprise.
Ever so carefully he climbed down from his perch and aligned himself before her. Unashamedly he allowed his eyes to wander across the expanse of her body. She held herself well, confidently almost as though she were royalty. Of course, Arithmetic had no actual way of knowing if she was, in fact, royalty. He paid very little attention the kingdoms and their ever-changing leaders. People were fickle and easily bored. There was no point in learning the name of one self-proclaimed king or queen when he knew they would either be replaced or overthrown quicker than they could be succeeded. He decided to keep that point to himself.
”It depends, love,” he replied flirtatiously. ”Who do I have the pleasure of stumbling into this fine wintery morning?”
Truthfully, he was surprised by how populated Beqanna seemed these days. He could hardly sneak through a kingdom these days without being noticed or approached. Not that he minded, of course. Some of those happenstances had played out much in his favor, but still. There were some days when he wished to sneak under the radar. But kingdom dwellers had grown overprotective and rarely let him escape without challenging his intentions. Admittedly, they had a reason to be slightly concerned by his presence. He had no qualms with stealing the innocence of one or two daughters. Not that, that was an intention of his on this particular pilgrimage.
@[Sabra]