Starscream waited until dusk, in the usual manner, and crept partway up the Peak’s lower slopes, along a trail he’d come to know by heart, so that he could walk it with his eyes closed. The bronze stallion did not know if it was by chance that the line of this ridge was overlooked as it was - for in all his comings and goings, it had never held traces of any scent other than his own- but he rather liked to think it was by design. Naydra was the most cunning and intelligent soul he’d ever met, after all.
As was his habit, he paused at the mouth of the small cave tucked away amongst the crags, and listened for the sound of her breathing. There was only silence, punctuated occasionally by the subtle shifts in the earth and stone, one that a romantic would consider the heartbeat of the mountain. A smile curled across the stallion’s mouth, and she slunk into the darkness, to lie in wait.
She did not keep him waiting long, and so his thoughts had not yet had a chance to turn from how much he desired to see her, toward deeper machinations. He greets the silver-maned mare with open affection, pressing tender kisses along her jaw, before ducking his head to scrape his teeth over the delicate skin of Naydra’s throat, though not with the intent to draw blood.
“Greetings, my dear,” he purred in one of her delicately curled ears. Starscream pressed in close, hungry to be near her, risking her wrath as he so often did, even knowing that with the change of seasons, she may very well set her teeth to him, to remind him of his place. “I will not be leaving again, Naydra,” her murmured, draped in shadow.
What he meant by this was that his own schemes had largely come to an end - or, at least, the part he would play in them. And as for what his intentions were, here?
“I will not leave again, except at your bidding,” the stallion continued, his voice low, husky. “Yours, and no-one else’s.” As if he would ever find an equal amongst the other mares that called this mountain home. Starscream shivered in the dark and sought to press ever closer, craving the warmth of the woman who would always be a queen to him, more than willing to share the heat of his own body with her in turn. The air was cool here already, made even colder by the stone of the mountain.
He was quiet for some time, then, just drinking in her scent, basking in her presence, but eventually Starscream stirred, trailing his muzzle along the curve of Naydra’s neck, to weave his scent through her moonbright tresses. “So, when do you think I can follow you to the mountaintop, so we can watch the dying light bleed across the island, like that very first evening we met?” Because he wanted nothing more than to stand by her side as he had, when they’d tucked themselves away in the tangled heart of the Thicket.
Their time there had served a purpose, providing refuge so that Naydra could raise their sons in secret and safety. Starscream did not miss the forests of Luthien. What he missed was this, of being with her. He had been truthful in what he’d said - he wouldn’t leave again. Starscream may not have always told Naydra the whole truth of what he’d gotten up to in the times they were apart, but he’d never once told her a lie.
And the truth of this moment? If Naydra told him to stay hidden here in the dark a little while longer, well… So long as she kept him company during the long and lonely nights, Starscream wouldn’t mind being her secret for the time being. |