08-06-2019, 03:07 PM
Her voice is sweet like honey earned without a single sting from the hive, he notices when she greets him back. It warms him and he’s delighted when she doesn’t pull away from his sudden touch despite her surprise. He can’t help but laugh – a glowing sound that feels like fire after a day in the snow – when she grows timid beneath his questioning. But he is careful not to be cruel and so he turns so they are standing side by side, lightly bumping his cool shoulder to hers in reassurance. Water still drips from him and he either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care on a day so hot as this.
“I don’t mind, really. I think I liked it,” he says as he watches her curiously, exploring the finer movements of her face as she speaks. He watches how they line up with her thoughts and he’s flattered that she finds him so regal in comparison to her. But perhaps she doesn’t realize how lovely she is also?
His smile loses some of its luster when he reaches her thoughts of Loess and its wars, the one that nearly ripped his father from them all. He remembers the blood and the sleepless nights after. Malone is drawn so easily to dark thoughts like these that he nearly forgets to pry himself from them before they drag him under. Besides, she seems to find it exciting that he comes from the ‘forbidden’ kingdom.
“Larke,” he repeats, and the name draws a smile back into his expression. He turns to face the river once more when she questions his plans and he wonders if he should explain that his sister is missing. It sounds far more dire than it really is, he thinks, considering she breathes fire and gleefully sinks her teeth into anyone who gets close enough. “My sister wandered off while I was supposed to be watching her. This isn’t anything new, though.”
Still, Malone finds himself searching the tall grasses for some flash of pastel pink or those sunshine wings bobbing and weaving as she navigates the meadow. The wild child of the family is most likely back in Loess eating some bugs she found under a log, knowing his luck, though.
“She’s pretty, like you, but she’s a biter.”
“I don’t mind, really. I think I liked it,” he says as he watches her curiously, exploring the finer movements of her face as she speaks. He watches how they line up with her thoughts and he’s flattered that she finds him so regal in comparison to her. But perhaps she doesn’t realize how lovely she is also?
His smile loses some of its luster when he reaches her thoughts of Loess and its wars, the one that nearly ripped his father from them all. He remembers the blood and the sleepless nights after. Malone is drawn so easily to dark thoughts like these that he nearly forgets to pry himself from them before they drag him under. Besides, she seems to find it exciting that he comes from the ‘forbidden’ kingdom.
“Larke,” he repeats, and the name draws a smile back into his expression. He turns to face the river once more when she questions his plans and he wonders if he should explain that his sister is missing. It sounds far more dire than it really is, he thinks, considering she breathes fire and gleefully sinks her teeth into anyone who gets close enough. “My sister wandered off while I was supposed to be watching her. This isn’t anything new, though.”
Still, Malone finds himself searching the tall grasses for some flash of pastel pink or those sunshine wings bobbing and weaving as she navigates the meadow. The wild child of the family is most likely back in Loess eating some bugs she found under a log, knowing his luck, though.
“She’s pretty, like you, but she’s a biter.”
malone