feast your eyes on this

mama bore a girl with a gun for a mouth

If Melita was at all nervous about this dinner party, she did her best not to show it – both Sunjata and Iskra been receptive to the idea, and this could be, potentially, just fine. Given how much they had all lost over the years, the mere thought of connections, safe havens, and bonds was its own form of shelter, and trying to extend those branches and brambles was precarious, but worthwhile. Sure, there was the gaping unknown about Ru and the Flood, but uncertainty over that prospective fallout wasn’t going to diminish the possibilities of the present (she’d given the Abandoned fair warning). Still, her chattiness might have been over-compensating for the nerves, babbling on about anything and everything until they made it from skyship to Sunjata ’s designated door at the House of Midnight. “Remind me to tell you about the banshee hunt,” she threw over shoulder towards Iskra as companions trailed alongside; the aroma of the carried foods drifting up and infusing with her senses, trying not to be distracted by everything altogether. “Gods, I am fucking starving,” came along a smile, the crab rangoons infused with cream cheese and crab, the various skewers and kebobs, and the grilled chicken with a sweet soy-ginger glaze all concealed underneath the piles of food in her arms were tempting. It’d be easy to just bite into them now.

Instead, she withheld on that impulse, and used her elbow to knock on the door, followed by the loud proclamation of her voice, nothing melodic to add to the nuances. “Hey, we’re here!” Fangorn and Sila both announced their presences by way of grumbling or trilling, and she winked at Iskra, taking a deep breath. “Ready?”

Melita

of both beauty and battle cries