I'll settle for the ghost of you.
He had not visited the ruins today. Needing a break from the pressure in his head and the stifling heat that was even starting to get to him… He had decided that a long soak in the river was overdue. Overall it had been a good decision, the cool water over his sweat-drenched back had been remarkably refreshing despite the amount of gnats and mosquitos buzzing in the shallows. Luckily his flames came in handy yet again, smoldering coals that hovered over the water’s surface and sent up enough smoke to keep them away. There had been a moment when he had caught the sea in the distance, where land had once been. He is quick to turn his head and keeps that view behind him for the rest of his visit. Until he knew for sure, he couldn't stand to look at it.The sun had just started to fall towards the horizon when he finally removed himself from the rushing water’s embrace and began the short trek towards Pangea. It would have been easy enough to let fire run along his body and wring out his coat but he decides on the natural air-dry method instead, wanting to cool off just a little longer. By the time he hits the meadow, it’s as if he had never been wet at all.
He had paused amongst the congregated but a quick glance tells him there isn't a familiar face among them, he quickly moves on. There is a tiredness that seems to be catching up to him, similar to when he had woken up on the Isle’s beach. All this searching with nothing to show for it… It registers at the corner of his yellow eyes and wrinkles his forehead. Signs that someone so young shouldn’t be wearing. Sickle had been the only one he had come across and his hope was beginning to spark out.
His frustration and growing dread have him distracted, his gaze downwards towards the well-treaded path before him as he fights the creeping darkness that begins to envelop him. That little voice that reminds him that he should have always expected terrible things to happen around him. Bad luck follows the terrible. It hisses and then that pounding at the back of his brain that makes him see stars. That force that just wants to COME IN. You know who you are. You know what you ARE.
At first he thinks the flickering of light is from that blinding pain behind his eyes but then a figure comes into focus, gentle light shimmering around butterfly wings. He halts, pistons slowing in motion as his daggers churn into the earth, just as she turns to look at him and judging from the expression on her face, he thinks she might be more startled then he is. Uncertain flames leap up along their familiar path down his spine as he looks at her, not knowing what to say. He hadn’t been expecting to run into a stranger tonight. The jaguar stallion glances behind her, where the bone-dry canyons lay tantalizingly close. Yellow orbs flick back to her as he offers a faint smile in the last of the dying light. Not realizing how fiendish this may appear with the fire dancing across his back. “Are you…” He pauses, trying to get his thoughts in order as he tosses a tendril of crimson-brown forelock to a less obstructing position. “Are you headed there?” He finally asks, his muzzle gestured towards the desert wasteland behind her.
FYR
@Allaire