[open] you say you want your freedom, any

[starlore]

( this world will have the wolves outside your door
make you leave all that you love to fight a war
and never tell you what you're dying for )

His heart thumps out something panicked.
He swallows hard and takes a half-step toward the voice.
There is nothing inherently sinister about the voice but the boulder had shattered and he struggles to reconcile those two facts in his mind. If the stranger comes in peace as they claim, what explanation was there for the explosion?

He drags in a shuddering breath and tries to carve the last dregs of his courage out of the depths of his gut. For as fiercely as he’d claimed to not be afraid, his knees tremble something terrible as he searches for whatever bravery will carry him across the rest of the space that separates them.

He can barely make her out through that terrible darkness, guided by the pale green glow of her wings. She is not familiar and he wonders where she’s come from. From what he can make out, she does not appear to be much older than he is and he is immediately filled with a new worry. She shouldn’t be out here by herself. No more than he should be out here by himself, he thinks. (But there is the nagging thought that she had been responsible for the exploding boulder and he should be wary of her even if she does not appear to be one of the monsters who belongs to the darkness.)

“Who are you?” he asks, trying still to sound much braver than he feels. He has no responsibility to protect his home against interlopers, that’s what the viper’s for, but he has his suspicions about those who prey on weakness.

“Why did you explode that boulder if you come in peace?” he demands, his voice still shaking.

starlore

@[Cheri]