They seemed to share a fondness for violence that could only get them into trouble. It seemed that no matter what there would be trouble in store for the pair. That was their shtick so to speak. Hell, what was a shtick, anyway? That was a question Anath wouldn’t really bother answering right now—it fit. The strangest things fit the pair. They fit each other like a well-worn pair of jeans. They may be a little battered, a little worn, a little rough around the edges but each seems to understand the other. It simply works.
It was funny, the concept of angels. Anath believed that the title was reserved for the dead and the gone. Each one of her ghosts, passed on or not, had become the little angels and devils that rested on her shoulders. There were the voices she could remember, crisp and clean, telling her their wisdoms just as they did when they were breathing and standing beside. They were the same wisdoms, of course, for only those that suffered from the clinical sort of mentality could hear the dead speaking to them. No, they would simply stay saying the words that had come out of their mouths before. Broken records, all of them.
The pair was made of mixed signals. While Thane was standing in a way Anath read as fight or flight, she was on the defensive. This was her home, and the way her hooves dug into the ground it was clear she wasn’t going anywhere. While they could be friends, she would stick on the stallion like jelly on toast—no one would be pulling any shit on the Peak. The trust their friendship held was fragile, a gossamer web of emotions and attachments that could unravel at the slightest tug. The dun mare wasn’t sure if she could hold up much longer if she was in that strange loneliness. Though she wouldn’t admit it, she needed the awkward companionship of the Lagoon king.
It’s funny how neither of them allows slack in the air. There’s an infallible energy that hangs in the air, coloring everything that exists in their little bubble. Life is that odd thing that hangs in their air. While they’ve never touched in a friendly manner something exists… a distrustful sort of trust? If such a thing is possible, then that would be the name. Yes, that’s it exactly.
It is awkward to Anath’s ears, the way the stallion asks. All in the same, maybe it’s a comfort. The champagne skips a beat, an outward fumble that could be missed if you didn’t know what you’re looking for. ”Only if I may touch you.” There are dirt spots and a dull sheen that cover Thane’s coat. While he smells of other mares, a casualty of the autumn season, no one has reciprocated the touch. Anath knows she should resent what he’s probably done behind locked doors, she grew up around men. She knows how they become casualties of the changing trees. Boys will be boys.
It’s odd hearing her name on his lips. She can’t find a way to describe it, not in her mind. There’s nothing to compare it to, no way to think of it. Anath forgets what it’s like to hear herself called from the mouth of a friend… how long had it been since she’d hand a friend to stand on the same ground as she? Not a lover, not a brother, not an inferior officer—a friend. Her ears fix forward, the communication shifting to the sort that doesn’t need words.
Anath "HEROES GET REMEMBERED LEGENDS NEVER DIE " |