The thick tangle of dark chestnut hair zooms around the musty corners, the only discernable feature of the small girl at this speed. At her heels thunders the gangly gait of a half-eagle half-lion creature, their combined panted breaths echoing off the tight, narrow corriders and sounding like a entire herd of rampant children. Eventually the halls break open into the sunlit battlements at the castle's apex and she sprints toward the heavy wooden door, stretching her fingertips toward freedom.
With a grunt, she throws her entire weight against the door, which crashes not at all inconspicuously against the outside wall with protest. She waits exactly two seconds for her gryffon to spring free from the castle before scrambling to slam the door into it's orginal place with a crash as equally large as the first one. Small shoulders sag in relief and both girl and gryffon slide to the ground, lungs working in overtime to compensate for the burning lack of oxygen their dash has caused. She waits - one minute, two - but no one comes. They have sucessfully manages to escape without pursuit and Mara pushes herself up from the stone in triumph, a very cat-like smirk lighting her tiny face.
"Told you it would be easy," she gloats to the gryffon who is shaking out her golden feathers like a dog shaking water from it's fur. She uncurls the fist that is so tightly clutched against her chest, lifting what is held preciously there to the light for inspection. There in her palm three perfect cookies are nestled, every one somehow having survived damage from the panicked run from the kitchens.
"Cookie?" Boadicea asks hopefully in her single word way of speaking. Mara's fist tightens a bit around the stolen treasures as she eyes her familiar sternly. "Gryffons don't eat cookies. They eat meat. You're supposed to be a great and powerful hunter," she says reproachfully, turning her back to stride away from the beast with her nose snidely in the air. Bodie bounces along at her side, not at all detered from the snacks in her fairie's hand. "Cookie!" she says more insistantly. Mara scowls at her in an exact mirror of her father and shoves the nudging eagle head away from her arm.
"You have to wait. Fairies get to eat cookies first. Familiars have to wait. You're supposed to do what I say, not the other way ar - HEY! You're in my seat!" she cries, noticing for the first time the dark haired boy who is so rudely occupying her seat on the ledge. She hisses, quickly growing angry not only because of all the work she has done to sit here and enjoy the cookies so rarely baked now a days, but also because until now she has lived under the impression that this specific location was secret and special and known only to herself and Boadicea.
The gryffon only feeds her frustration as instead of flying into an attacking frenzy as she should, the beastie tilts her feathered head and chirps curiously at the large green dog (who is no where NEAR as pretty or cute as Elle is, in her opinion) who sits near the strange boy.
"You have to move now. I need to sit there," she orders, crossing gangly arms over her chest and planting herself firmly in the boy's personal space. "Please," she adds as a final afterthought, not wanting to be rude afterall.
s t e l l e m a r i a ;
you were nothing but you wear it so well
image by CasheeFoo@deviantart
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