black and blue bird [se] [open]

it doesn't matter where you roam, when no one's left to call you home

The ocean breeze held a chill, but the air was warm enough for the alchemist to be without a shirt. The smell and weight of the salty surf was heavy in his large tawny wings, as they stretched out from his shoulder blades, spread wide to catch the sunlight. But that festival was over now, Safrin's catching of the sun. Now was a time for ghosts and those lost.

Staring out at the horizon line, knee-deep in the shallows, Remi took a deep breath and tried to clear his mind. But a busy and messy mind had ever been the norm for the alchemist, and so obtrusive thoughts invaded the peace he was aiming for, just as surely as the waves continued to hum against the shoreline. Wandering fingers tapped at the mass of scar tissue on Remi's stomach where he'd been speared-through with a massive shard of ice, and for a moment the sweat on his skin felt like Aoife's blood.

i might have strained a bit too far, i'm countin' all the moonlit stars