From being an Abandoned who had rarely left the Hollowed Grounds, to embracing the call of adventure, to dying and being reborn first as an Ascended and then as an Ancient, Maea has gone through quite the amount of changes in her life. One thing remains common, though, in her attempts to find out just where she belongs; she’s always had a craving for knowledge which has brought her to so many places and to meet so many people here in Caido. We can’t wait to see what else is in store for her!
Congratulations, Maea!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
Skinning and hosting by the epically talented Kaons, and functionality fanciness by the coding magic of Neowulf. If you ever see either of them around, make sure to show them some love!
She wriggles her toes just enough in response to his squeeze for him to feel it in return, amusement resting on the arches of her lips. Ru is very accustomed to being patient, lying in wait, stalking and surveying. It is a lesson she is more than happy to share with Talyson in hopes of teaching him the same.
His tension and anticipation is palpable, and though she cannot feel his emotions like she might of another Attuned, her own limbs tighten restlessly in turn. She commands the cougar another few steps closer, focusing on the magic, the detailed scope of it. “Watch just to the side of her, it will be easier to see when she moves,” she suggest in soft, vibrating undertone. A trick she has used when shifted to hunt all manner of prey in the dark. Waiting for Tal to give her the sign that he’s got her. The moonlight shifts through the boughs, and the cat’s eyes reflect it like silver coins.
a princess with lips made of glass and a voice cut from steel
Hotaru has a passive magic that makes her glow with an internal golden light; it makes her appear youthful and her hair seems to look like moving sunlight. Can only subtly illuminate dark spaces.
A ghost of a grin tugged at the courier's lips as he felt Ru's toes wiggle but he refused to give in to a full smile under the circumstances. Patience was a virtue, but it wasn't usually one of his. He lived his life by keeping moving and going fast; this whole 'sitting around on his butt waiting for things to come to him' was as antithetical to his nature as a Torchline Longheat.
But for Safrin and Ru, he'd try.
If he had to.
Pale eyes narrowed behind smoked glass as the shadows gathered together and took on more definition. The flicker of moonlight off a whisker. The ghostly gleam of the cat's eyes. The blacker curve of a shoulder against the darkness. At Hotaru's recommendation he stopped trying to stare straight at the big cat and shifted his eyes to the side. He squeezed Ru's foot again and then, in a moment's inspiration, lifted his other hand and stretched it out to the side, wiggling his fingers in the dark to see if the cat's gaze would follow the motion.
He watches the cat, and she watches him. Though his eyes are concealed his body speaks a language all its own. Expressive, untrained in the art of deception and control. She would not have him any other way, so young and untried by the world, and she appreciated the opportunity to simply observe him. Tense, focused, eager.
The hand as it rises is tracked by the cougar’s eyes, a wonderful tactic. The moonlight strikes the slitted pupils, and the predator’s presence becomes all the clearer because of it. “You have her,” she murmurs, pride suffused in each syllable. Waiting to see what Tal would like her to do next now that he’d beaten the challenge.
a princess with lips made of glass and a voice cut from steel
Hotaru has a passive magic that makes her glow with an internal golden light; it makes her appear youthful and her hair seems to look like moving sunlight. Can only subtly illuminate dark spaces.
Tal had been shaped by the elements and by Halo's rugged terrain and hazards. By running from ursur and cannibals, fighting off wolves, and facing lethal blizzards with only himself and his dogs. But people? He'd kept his interactions with people brief by choice as much as necessity. People were complicated. People lied. People had their own hopes and dreams and fears that were far harder to understand than those of his hounds.
People left. Sometimes even when they were still physically right next door.
Animals, he liked. He could understand them; not as well as an Attuned who could be one and speak with them, but better than people. Animals were straightforward and Tal leaned forward eagerly to study this new creature that Hotaru had called into reach.
And when Ru's murmured words - praise, or as good as to his ears - affirmed his success, Tal flashed her a grin of white teeth in the darkness. Fingers dipped into his pocket, closing around one of the squares of reindeer jerky that he kept there for dragon treats, and withdrew. He tossed it lightly towards the big cat, a little above its head, still watching to see how its eyes would track the reward for its patience with their game.
His teeth are pale flashes even to human eyes, and with her eyes shifted to feline slits, it is even brighter. It’s wonderful to see. Her own eyes follow the jerky just as the cougar’s do, instincts close to the surface and needing to track and hunt. The cougar does much the same, prompted by Ru’s command - launching to a lower branch to track down the treat.
Hotaru laughs softly, foot wriggling where Tal’s other hand still holds it. “Good job,” she praises softly, the world feeling small and comfortable in the moonlight, and she takes the opportunity to watch the cougar from her own perch. Witnessing what she herself appears as from an outsider’s perspective, and appreciating the physical expression her soul had taken. It’s a peaceful moment, and she’s glad to share it with Tal.
- Fin!
a princess with lips made of glass and a voice cut from steel
Hotaru has a passive magic that makes her glow with an internal golden light; it makes her appear youthful and her hair seems to look like moving sunlight. Can only subtly illuminate dark spaces.
