[Training] fire and ice

Deimos Contrary to her belief, Deimos thought he was ample amounts of fun. The snicker widened along her exasperation, rooted in those conspiring rounds of mischief eternally laden in his juvenile expanse. And perhaps they could’ve returned to the game, rounding out torrents of flame back and forth, forth and back, but it wasn’t the point of the day. After, maybe, he could be a little more indulgent. Unaware and ignorant of her circumstances, history, scars, or parallels between vines, heathen jungles, and misshapen plants, he found her reaction surprising. His brows knotted together as she conformed to the barrage, as she went towards her newfound adversaries with speed, to build up the inferno – And then it was panic. The widening of her eyes, the horror of some other fragments he couldn’t see. He stilled the vines and roots for a moment, but didn’t pull them away – because this was another experience she’d have to learn and go through. He’d witnessed the same calamity on the battlefield, as soldiers froze, as warriors fell, as war drums echoed and bounded and collided in the back of his mind. Sometimes he felt it in his nightmares. Sometimes he could picture outlines of decrepit things and the fathoms of his grief come to surround, choke, and strangle him. A breath inhaled, exhaled, and everything remained calm, even as she tumbled down into water and shouts. Aurelia was permitted to be frustrated, vexed, and exasperated, but not to the point where she remained locked and tethered. Not when there were other things, other moments, other monsters, other people – the horizon bleak and ominous, glimmering and emboldened. “You cannot give up,” and he didn’t know who he was saying it to – maybe both of them. “Try again.” Patience, composure, a breadth of calm when the world threatened – thrown to the wolves too many times, and finding the heathen shackles normal. Out of sight and out of mind Make everything alright So let the sky and sea collide Just not in our lifetime