Of all the questions that Rory could have asked in that moment, Jigano hadn’t expected the simplest and most basic of them all. But where else should they start, now that they’d found a new beginning? As much as he cherished their connection, they only knew each other in the present. In stolen moments and touches and actions, and a few words shared by a hunter to a fox who couldn’t speak back. It was more than enough to know that he wanted to know more about this man who had touched his heart in spite of his best defenses.
And, more frightening, that he wanted to be known by him.
He flicked his ears uncertainly, wishing he could leave his fingers tangled in his friend’s hair a little longer, but he was afraid his hand would start to tremble. He ran his thumb lightly over the hunter’s cheek in an impulsive caress before he let his hand fall slowly back to Isuma’s soft feathers and his Rory’s hand. A safer contact, and in truth any touch of skin to skin was a balm and a breath of exhilaration he barely recognized.
”I come from a place called Numeria,” he said, smiling a little down at the lightly-snoring gryphlet. ”A northern country of steppes with long winters and short, beautiful springs.” His expression sobered a little as he looked up to meet Rory’s eyes again, feeling a pang of… not homesickness, and not relief, but something that held a bit of both, that the hunter would never see his homeland. ”It was a harsh place, ruled by a distant sovereign. I was born in a town called Torch which was the closest thing to a freetown our country had.” And how did he explain the eponymous torch the town was named after, that burned as hot and constant as the heart of a star? …until the day it hadn’t, anymore, and five of the town’s young people had gone into the caverns beneath the town to find out why. ”My father was a smith, and my mother an Oracle of Life. A… healer and a wisewoman, I suppose she might be called on Caido. I had no siblings. And… my parents died when our town was attacked in retaliation for something I had a hand in.” It hurt to admit even now, but for all that he kept his past held close-
afraid that he would be cast out if they ever knew why
-Rory had been one of the first to see behind the human mask he had shown the world for almost his entire life. The first on Caido to accept him as something – someone - other than human.
The very first person he had been able to accept having that knowledge, without fear or shame.
”Will you tell me about yourself, too?” he asked softly. ”Your family, your favorite things… whatever comes to mind?” he added with a little smile, hoping that even if some memories were painful that others would bring joy.
And, more frightening, that he wanted to be known by him.
He flicked his ears uncertainly, wishing he could leave his fingers tangled in his friend’s hair a little longer, but he was afraid his hand would start to tremble. He ran his thumb lightly over the hunter’s cheek in an impulsive caress before he let his hand fall slowly back to Isuma’s soft feathers and his Rory’s hand. A safer contact, and in truth any touch of skin to skin was a balm and a breath of exhilaration he barely recognized.
”I come from a place called Numeria,” he said, smiling a little down at the lightly-snoring gryphlet. ”A northern country of steppes with long winters and short, beautiful springs.” His expression sobered a little as he looked up to meet Rory’s eyes again, feeling a pang of… not homesickness, and not relief, but something that held a bit of both, that the hunter would never see his homeland. ”It was a harsh place, ruled by a distant sovereign. I was born in a town called Torch which was the closest thing to a freetown our country had.” And how did he explain the eponymous torch the town was named after, that burned as hot and constant as the heart of a star? …until the day it hadn’t, anymore, and five of the town’s young people had gone into the caverns beneath the town to find out why. ”My father was a smith, and my mother an Oracle of Life. A… healer and a wisewoman, I suppose she might be called on Caido. I had no siblings. And… my parents died when our town was attacked in retaliation for something I had a hand in.” It hurt to admit even now, but for all that he kept his past held close-
-Rory had been one of the first to see behind the human mask he had shown the world for almost his entire life. The first on Caido to accept him as something – someone - other than human.
The very first person he had been able to accept having that knowledge, without fear or shame.
”Will you tell me about yourself, too?” he asked softly. ”Your family, your favorite things… whatever comes to mind?” he added with a little smile, hoping that even if some memories were painful that others would bring joy.
