The things he says dig deep into her, like honeyed thorns as they pull at the strings that stretch between she and he. She hates these words, sickeningly sweet and yet, she finds herself craving them for they are everything she has wanted to hear. He speaks of
wanting, of
needing, of being
unable or
unwilling to forget - is this not, she thinks, all that she has sought in life? It made her mad, though, to think that she had been unable to provide those things for herself. Yet, wasn't a handsome stranger just as good? Did it not give her a flustered feeling, a sense of excitement and adventure? He was something not only she had lacked but rather, her entire life had lacked: the unknown, the untameable, the wild things in the world. It made her skin crawl.
And so, she dove and ducked away from him, evading each movement and yet, from time to time, she would allow him to brush alongside her or for his muzzle to gently graze her. She did the same; she edged her shoulder into the dark of his fur, reached out and nipped at a dark ear, orbiting him. He, a dark planet and she, a dull star. It felt too right for her.
Then suddenly, she pauses. She sways on the spot, dreamy and disheveled as her fur falls around her like a halo in the faint light. "Elara," she finally says with a gentle nod, her eyes drifting over him and towards the sky, "born of the stars and that, my Jackdaw, is where you shall find me." She speaks cryptically and yet, she hopes it will make sense to him: go where you can see them, she thinks, and he will see her too. The fields, the river - the sky is dark and vast. It is where she finds herself each night, desperate to find some sense in the light above. "And please, do find me. Don't let me become nothing more than a game of chase." There is a sadness in her voice and yet, she smiles. It is broad and gentle, genuine and then, she turns to dash away with all the grace of her blood and all of the beauty of a connection formed between two souls. She feels him with her now and she thinks, for a moment, that he has always been with her - he was, after all, as dark and graceful as her very shadow.