Maea
The worst of all blessings
Ah, she had done that, now that he mentioned it. Waved her tail in his face as though daring him to yank it, or complain about the heat as she passed him by. "Ugh, sorry - " Squirming and mortified at her behaviour, pale hands covered her burning face. He could laugh - Liam wasn't the one who'd acted like a brat over a simple lingering gaze. "Why were you looking so much, anyway?" she wanted to know - fully aware that he might not remember after so long.
Washing dishes was perhaps the furthest thing from Maeas mind right now. Night had blanketed the forest in a peaceful stillness, the day's heat lifting enough for a cool breeze to stir the curtains through the open windows. An owl hooted and was answered from far away; the rustle of moths against the porch lanterns a subtle background noise nearly drowned out by the steady rhythm of Liam's pulse against her ear. She could hear him breathe in the stillness, heard the small swallow before he spoke, the deep drone of his voice. Her surname sounded different when he said it. More respectable somehow, as though she was made more than a sheep farmer's daughter from a backwater land. Maybe it was the Breaker accent. Maybe it was simply because he remembered it.
Closing her eyes against any reminder that time even existed, she hummed thoughtfully to let him know she heard the question. It was a difficult one. So many things could fall under that umbrella, and she quietly sorted through wild dreams, discarded plans, projeects begun and left unfinished. Scratching an itchy spot by the root of a horn, she dared to slip her arm across his chest so she could fit herself better against him, and finally said, "I think... being in charge of something." Which sounded vague when she said it aloud. "I never tried to make anything that was my own. After my family died, I tried running it like we used to - how my parents and grandparents had done it. I joined a guild run by someone else, then attended a school headed by another. I tried to help a friend open a bar that she would own, worked under various rulers..." Trailing off, she considered. "Maybe that's why I never stuck to any of it. Because I never felt like I was... needed, or necessary." She glanced up at Liam at last, curious as to what had prompted the questions. "What about you?"
Washing dishes was perhaps the furthest thing from Maeas mind right now. Night had blanketed the forest in a peaceful stillness, the day's heat lifting enough for a cool breeze to stir the curtains through the open windows. An owl hooted and was answered from far away; the rustle of moths against the porch lanterns a subtle background noise nearly drowned out by the steady rhythm of Liam's pulse against her ear. She could hear him breathe in the stillness, heard the small swallow before he spoke, the deep drone of his voice. Her surname sounded different when he said it. More respectable somehow, as though she was made more than a sheep farmer's daughter from a backwater land. Maybe it was the Breaker accent. Maybe it was simply because he remembered it.
Closing her eyes against any reminder that time even existed, she hummed thoughtfully to let him know she heard the question. It was a difficult one. So many things could fall under that umbrella, and she quietly sorted through wild dreams, discarded plans, projeects begun and left unfinished. Scratching an itchy spot by the root of a horn, she dared to slip her arm across his chest so she could fit herself better against him, and finally said, "I think... being in charge of something." Which sounded vague when she said it aloud. "I never tried to make anything that was my own. After my family died, I tried running it like we used to - how my parents and grandparents had done it. I joined a guild run by someone else, then attended a school headed by another. I tried to help a friend open a bar that she would own, worked under various rulers..." Trailing off, she considered. "Maybe that's why I never stuck to any of it. Because I never felt like I was... needed, or necessary." She glanced up at Liam at last, curious as to what had prompted the questions. "What about you?"
The most beautiful of curses
Base by Skylark
