the darkness falls around me at night
"I might take you up on that fur in a bit," I admit, brushing snow off my arm. "Once all this sweat cools into regret."
I follow as he moves forward, crunching quietly through the snow behind him. My muscles are starting to ache in earnest now, a delayed reaction to adrenaline wearing off—but it’s nothing compared to the way my chest swells when he says he remembers them.
"You really heard of them?" I glance over, surprised, then caught up in something that feels almost too big to speak on. "Most people don’t. Not anymore. But yeah—my mom brought Ronin back all that time ago. I was little, but I know the story.”
I smile, proud and a little awed still, warmed from the inside despite the cold. For so long, those stories were everything—campfire myths turned into the only map I had for who I might become.
Then he wrinkles his nose, an overburdened war hero pretending he’s just a guy. It makes me laugh—quiet and quick, carried on the cold air. "Right, sure. And today is just a regular day. Air magic, stabbing and being stabbed by void-beasts, fighting next to a legend, a unicorn with perfect hair. Super normal."
But the laugh fades, replaced by something more honest. I nod. "Even if it feels normal to you… what you all do, what you’ve kept safe—that kind of effort isn’t average. It’s not supposed to be."
My breath curls visibly in front of me as I scan the trees, still half expecting more hooves. "I hope I get there." Maybe I’m still ignorant to the sort of sacrifice it takes, sheltered from the horror of loss and hard decisions, but something had to change.
I follow as he moves forward, crunching quietly through the snow behind him. My muscles are starting to ache in earnest now, a delayed reaction to adrenaline wearing off—but it’s nothing compared to the way my chest swells when he says he remembers them.
"You really heard of them?" I glance over, surprised, then caught up in something that feels almost too big to speak on. "Most people don’t. Not anymore. But yeah—my mom brought Ronin back all that time ago. I was little, but I know the story.”
I smile, proud and a little awed still, warmed from the inside despite the cold. For so long, those stories were everything—campfire myths turned into the only map I had for who I might become.
Then he wrinkles his nose, an overburdened war hero pretending he’s just a guy. It makes me laugh—quiet and quick, carried on the cold air. "Right, sure. And today is just a regular day. Air magic, stabbing and being stabbed by void-beasts, fighting next to a legend, a unicorn with perfect hair. Super normal."
But the laugh fades, replaced by something more honest. I nod. "Even if it feels normal to you… what you all do, what you’ve kept safe—that kind of effort isn’t average. It’s not supposed to be."
My breath curls visibly in front of me as I scan the trees, still half expecting more hooves. "I hope I get there." Maybe I’m still ignorant to the sort of sacrifice it takes, sheltered from the horror of loss and hard decisions, but something had to change.
Theea
and covers me in silence so bright
