you wouldn't be the first renegade to need somebody
Flora chuckles, the sound a husky note of warmth against the cave’s chill. "You know," she murmurs, stepping over the tattered remains of a leather boot with its foot still inside, "I was starting to wonder if you'd figure out that it was me that day on the beach." Her grin flashes quick and crooked as she glances his way, curls haloing her face in the lavender light. "I'm glad you did."
She lifts one hand with a flourish, fingers waggling in a loose, lazy arc to indicate the various rings on her slender fingers. "Lucky for you," she says, eyes bright, "I’ve got a healing touch." If he did truly find himself wounded, by her words or anything else, the queen was quite sure she could make it up to him.
It’s teasing, lighthearted, but there’s tension beneath it. The kind that coils between footsteps and hums under skin. Ahead, something groans—a slow, slithering drag of weight across stone, too heavy for anything small. Flora stills. Her hand drops back to her side, fingers brushing the hilt of a feathered blade. "...Did you hear that?" she asks, all levity draining from her tone, her body stilling like prey scenting the wind. The tunnel dips again, darkness pooling like water where the violet light no longer reaches.
She lifts one hand with a flourish, fingers waggling in a loose, lazy arc to indicate the various rings on her slender fingers. "Lucky for you," she says, eyes bright, "I’ve got a healing touch." If he did truly find himself wounded, by her words or anything else, the queen was quite sure she could make it up to him.
It’s teasing, lighthearted, but there’s tension beneath it. The kind that coils between footsteps and hums under skin. Ahead, something groans—a slow, slithering drag of weight across stone, too heavy for anything small. Flora stills. Her hand drops back to her side, fingers brushing the hilt of a feathered blade. "...Did you hear that?" she asks, all levity draining from her tone, her body stilling like prey scenting the wind. The tunnel dips again, darkness pooling like water where the violet light no longer reaches.
