[private] our veins are busy but my heart's in atrophy

[Pteron]

and since you’re the only one that matters,----------------
----------------tell me: who do i run to?

There is the same sort of instability in the Forest as in all the common lands. It sets Pteron’s bones to aching, pushing him away from this fitful impermanence. Soon they will leave, he thinks. But each day the edge of Aegean’s slim barrel grows wider still, and soon feels a little bit farther away. Pteron knows nothing about pregnancy, and less than that about magical conception. It had seemed a sweet thing to say in the haze of autumn, a tender whispering in his lover’s ear of his longing for a daughter with Aegean’s purple eyes and a son with Pteron’s wing. Yet now the consequence of that grows larger every day, and come spring will take their first breath, inescapable evidence of the bond between Pteron and Aegean.

Sometimes when he thinks about it, he is terrified.
Sometimes when he thinks about it, he tries to recall exactly what they’d done so they might do so again and brood an entire flock of children.

Most of the time, though, he is thrilled.

He had been excluded from much of Adarra’s childhood, and the paternal affection he felt was instead given to Halcyon. Aquaria had never begrudged him time with her son, and for that Pteron will be eternally grateful. Ischia had been an escape for him in so many ways. Escape from the tight confines of the Taigan forest, escape from the strict rules of when he could interact with his child, escape from his marriage. Pteron is not proud of himself for all of his choices regarding the island, but he had always been proud of Halcyon.

He remembers this all in a rush as a larger tiger rushes toward him through the wood.

“Halcyon!” he calls back, his grin widening as the span of his defensively flared wings narrows. He is keep patrol while Aegean rests, but he need not defend against this predator. “You’re not a cub anymore, are you?!” Pteron reaches toward the tiger’s shoulder, rubbing his blue muzzle affectionately against the thick striped fur. “What brings you so far from Ischia?”

@[Halcyon]

-- pteron --