Ramiel smiled when Dahlia’s first answer was that she would return to gather her twin. He glanced toward Raziel, noting the way his brother watched the trees with suspicion. The matching blue of his eyes softened and, were he able, he would have liked to give Raziel a reassuring touch to pull him from his worrywart thoughts. Unfortunately, he couldn’t reach, and it needed to be too subtle a movement to him to risk stopping where he walked to do it. Ramiel’s eyes returned to Dahlia and his ears turned toward her.
“The Peak?” Ramiel said with a grin, “that’s a good one.” He wished he could tell her how his aunt had been a General of the Peak, and she’d fought for the good of all the horses living across the islands. Ramiel liked his aunt Oswin. She forged her own path and championed for the good of those who could not. At times she and Mariael butted heads, but their hearts were in the same place at the end of the day and a compromise could eventually be found.
“That’s the perfect philosophy to have!” He said enthusiastically, letting the disappointment at not being able to share stories of the Peak with her slip away. “Oh, I don’t know,” he breathed with awe, mind skipping through everything he knew and everything he couldn’t tell her he knew. “Anything and everything, I guess.” He glanced Raziel quickly and then looked back to Dahlia. “I can’t believe islands of such different variety are so close, it’s nothing like the Mainland. I wish I could see it all.”
The pale ear Raziel had turned toward the conversation flicked and he glanced away from the watchful patrol duty he was taking quite seriously and toward them instead. Ramiel didn’t turn to meet his eyes but fought a little smile as he felt his brother’s gaze on his. He shouldn’t have let it slip that he knew there was a variety of islands here, or that he knew anything at all… but he was so very bored of behaving. What was the harm? He could play a semi-clued-in character, couldn’t he? He could be clever enough not to give their life’s story away but not feel like he was lying to her with every sentence he spoke.
Ramiel noted the widening of the path ahead as the mixed fresh and stale scents of horses invaded his nostrils. He snorted and drank in a deep breath. He and Raziel feared no battle, taught by their mother and father how to fight in tandem with one another as they did. This confidence let him refocus on Dahlia while Raziel lifted his head and narrowed his eyes, concentrating with his stare cast around the wide opening to gauge for any threats.
“See anything?” He asked in a small, curious, hopeful voice, glancing out toward the Commons.
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