[open] when it falls into place | popinjay, any

[Gale]

Gale this is going to break me clean in two -- this is going to bring me close to you Though no one comes to greet them, Gale knows that they are not alone. Does the fire that keep the monsters away, Gale wonders? Or does it draw them in, so that they circle it at a distant, light-drunk and dizzy. Far below, the water crashes hard against the granite cliffs, and the wind that pushes at his back and sends his hair and feathers into disarray has no hint of spring at all in its cold fingers. Gale shivers, and draws his wings closer to him. Erne suggests returning home, but Gale has not left his island undefended for this long to return empty handed, and the pair of them continue to wait. At last something emerges from the darkness, so large and dark that at first he braces for a clash with a Monster. Instead, the enormous bird is a mare when it lands, a mare with red-streaked wings and more lightning in her dark eyes than Gale has ever seen at once in the sky. He’s not seen anything quite like her before, and combined with the relief that he will not (at least immediately) be fightning for his life against one of Nerine’s skinless monsters, Gale is rather delighted by her friendly welcome. She smells like lightning too, Gale finds, but she feels solid against his nudge of greeting. “Is this your fire?” He asks when he pulls away, casting his blue eyes for just a moment into the darkness around them to ensure that they are alone. There are some monsters that appear from shadows, so Gale chooses to keep his back to the fire so that he might see any that rise up before they are too large to avoid. They are not the worst of the monsters, the shadow-risers, but Gale is not eager to experience the cloud of melancholy that so often comes with them. @[Popinjay]