12-17-2019, 06:02 PM
Somedays, he felt more deaf than mute.
Deaf to the love of two brilliant women, either of whom would be a perfect match for him. Deaf to the shift in Beqanna (one came around every decade or so). Deaf to his inner feelings and to his intuition.
As always, the once-prince stagnated. Crowned at birth and raised in perhaps the most loving family known to Beqanna, Rhaegor represented the epitome of squandered potential: he lost love, he lost family, he lost social standing. He alone remained. Doomed to the whim of his consciousness, he fell often into comatose states, unable to process the life that fell to the wayside.
Today, he awoke in Tephra.
It smelled like home.
The prince raised his head, flared his nostrils; ash greeted him with an unexpected fondness, warm and granulated against his skin. The memorable scent of Magnus no longer traced these lands; instead, an unfamiliar female scent marked most of Tephra's jagged folds and edges. Intrigued, Rhaegor lurched from where he stood and moved to investigate further.
Time passed -- more time than he anticipated. When he again took note of the time, the sun set instead of rose; the nearby Kilimanjaro Impatiens seemed to burst into flames from the star's red illumination. Rhae, as though for the first time witnessing the beauty of the world around him, bent his neck and inhaled. The blue of eyes bowed to his lash-laden eyelids, the brown of his forelock a frame for the Arabic curvature of his head; frozen in that moment for some time, he once again appeared to be the Prince of Yore.
A scent mingled with the flower's, this time familiar. More than familiar: womb-bound. Startled, Rhae tossed his head and half-reared to face the opposite side of the glade he found himself within. Sviko! He projected, weight oscillating as he bounced from left to right, anxious and confused. How many years had passed since he'd last seen his younger brother?..
How would he tell Sviko about their sister's death?
SVIKO!
Deaf to the love of two brilliant women, either of whom would be a perfect match for him. Deaf to the shift in Beqanna (one came around every decade or so). Deaf to his inner feelings and to his intuition.
As always, the once-prince stagnated. Crowned at birth and raised in perhaps the most loving family known to Beqanna, Rhaegor represented the epitome of squandered potential: he lost love, he lost family, he lost social standing. He alone remained. Doomed to the whim of his consciousness, he fell often into comatose states, unable to process the life that fell to the wayside.
Today, he awoke in Tephra.
It smelled like home.
The prince raised his head, flared his nostrils; ash greeted him with an unexpected fondness, warm and granulated against his skin. The memorable scent of Magnus no longer traced these lands; instead, an unfamiliar female scent marked most of Tephra's jagged folds and edges. Intrigued, Rhaegor lurched from where he stood and moved to investigate further.
Time passed -- more time than he anticipated. When he again took note of the time, the sun set instead of rose; the nearby Kilimanjaro Impatiens seemed to burst into flames from the star's red illumination. Rhae, as though for the first time witnessing the beauty of the world around him, bent his neck and inhaled. The blue of eyes bowed to his lash-laden eyelids, the brown of his forelock a frame for the Arabic curvature of his head; frozen in that moment for some time, he once again appeared to be the Prince of Yore.
A scent mingled with the flower's, this time familiar. More than familiar: womb-bound. Startled, Rhae tossed his head and half-reared to face the opposite side of the glade he found himself within. Sviko! He projected, weight oscillating as he bounced from left to right, anxious and confused. How many years had passed since he'd last seen his younger brother?..
How would he tell Sviko about their sister's death?
SVIKO!
![[Image: rhae]](https://66.media.tumblr.com/c013fae479a9e0c775688ff921306b4e/tumblr_pivbqpgHuG1xsr748o1_250.png)