how come I never got used to the feeling of sleeping in a cage?
too long driving, too damn hungry; a tied-up hound but nothing stays
Valdis observes the smile Litotes adorns when he glances down to Erio. She suppresses the urge to usher the boy away, to dismiss him while she speaks with the Pangean leader. Erio looks back over his shoulder at her with his hazel eyes lit with fascination. A step inches her forward, but she takes pause and decides against it. Admittedly, she has sheltered him often throughout her deciding whether to keep him or abandon him in the forest.
But weeks have passed and he still remains clutched to her side.Seemingly, the decision has already been made for her.
The intensity of her stare lasts another heartbeat before it softens and lifts back to Litotes. He is kind – more so than she expected. Concern furrows his brows when their eyes meet. It’s in this moment that Valdis truly scrutinizes him – every curve, every chiseled muscle, every grin – and considers him as something more than just a name spoken on the lips of many women. A smile feebly lifts a corner of her mouth. ”Barren,” she spares a glance toward the Cliffside and naked landscape before returning to him, ”yes, but at least the company is nice.” Valdis hasn’t yet made enemies which is a change for the better.
A sigh slips quietly from her lungs and her shoulders roll in a way far too similar to her father. ”Sinner is surely ambitious,” and she helped feed him his hopes and reassured him that she would even betray her own family if it meant getting ahead. They complimented each other and yet here she is in Pangea after not even fighting the midnight steal. War and turmoil is spreading across Beqanna and she is away from home. ”I’m sure there would be a greater reaction from him if you stole Mary,” the tension between the two women is nearly tangible, yet Valdis speaks with a level and stoic voice when she mentions the Sylvan Queen, ”or their children.” Multiple heirs. It sickens her.
Truthfully, Valdis wants to laugh when Litotes comments on Sinner’s absence then how she must have other suitors. It would be a laugh of amusement and pain, of confusion and loss. What should she be feeling? She wants so bad to be vacant and unfazed, but her heart hammering against her chest confirms otherwise. There’s still something simmering beneath the surface that she doesn’t quite understand. ”He broke down my wall,” she finally confesses after blinking and looking down at Erio again, ”and has been the only man to ever touch me.” It took months until she finally melted into his embrace. It was a power she held over him, but it has since slipped between her fingers. ”But we are nothing,” and will likely never be anything she doesn’t say. It would be too honest of an answer to share with a stranger.
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Valdis
@[litotes]