06-05-2017, 09:13 PM
He trails after her, and this is a first. Usually he leads them, but she is changed - he can see that now, it is in the way that she walks, more decisive than she has ever been. Is he changed too? No, he thinks not because he is nothing like her, and she is less like him then she has ever been for all that they shared their mother’s womb together. He cannot guess at the thoughts in her head no more than he can guess the patterns of river or wind. She seems more wild now, untouchable almost and it makes his heart squeeze inside his broad chest at the thought that she is almost but not quite unapproachable now.
Spear & Spark
She can hear him clopping along behind her but he keeps back apace and this too, does not surprise her. Spark is aware that on some level, she has frightened him and he has begun to fear this new version of her that has been remade of flame from the inside out. She can feel it arcing through her, anticipating her need of it and like an itch, it begins beneath her skin and moves along her bones, licking and lapping at every bit of her until she longs to shed this self for that other - the one of fire that burns as much as her heart beats.
What she doesn’t know is how it still came to be, so far removed from their conception or anything momentous like the Mountain changing the landscape beneath their feet. It had just happened, and it seemed the catalyst had been her terrible and fierce love for Giver combined with her anger at him. In the collision of the two, something had happened to make her feverish and dull, to go deep beneath the pull of sleep and dream until… until Spear had called her back, and she sighs at the memory of it as they come closer to the loose throng of horses that surround the big black in their midst. Looks like their father is taking up the King’s mantle again, trading in ice for sulphur this time.
Spark comes to a halt, and he halts beside her.
(He seems dim for all that he is the bigger of the two, more like their father in build then she is. She seems small and delicate, but there is something new and fierce about her…)
Some faces are familiar to them, and some are not.
It is hard to remain still, the fire moves along her muscles and bones and begs her to burst back out of that shabby skin that keeps it in. She almost gives in but it is like Spear knows her, knows the sweet cajoling voice of the fire within and he touches his lips to her hip. It stops everything for a moment - just a single moment, and she rolls her red eye back to him as he moves closer to her, his flesh crowding her own and making it twitch in both love and disgust, which is new for her to experience. She has never felt sick at her brother’s touch until now, and it is the fire in her that rebuffs him and his familiarity. It is all she can do to keep from erupting into that shape, but she manages it - all but her mane, it goes up in flames and stays that way.
Both of them look at the gathering, at their father in the midst and nod to him.
He assigns rank and important to some of them around them, and they can only stand there next to one another as a show of silent support.