Falls

Sterre sighed.

Het Vuur’s response was no surprise to her. He didn’t want her pity, her empathy – he didn’t want her to remind him of what had passed. She didn’t want to pity him either. There had been a time when mercy from Sterre would have been unthinkable – when she would have laughed at the very idea – but many things had changed since then.

They had changed since then.

It would not be so bad, she did not think, if they had not once been so great. If they had lived average lives this would just be a low time in the grand scheme of things. But for them – who had been so magnificent, so powerful – it was like falling from a pedestal higher than a mountaintop, and the ground was littered with daggers made of rock.

She was quiet a moment, contemplative as she considered what might distract Het Vuur best – what might make him feel powerful once again.

There could be only one answer.

She drew closer to him, bumping her nose gently to his cheek first so that he knew exactly where she was. Then, slowly, she ran her velvety lips down along his neck, pausing to nip lightly at the waves of his mane before continuing down his spine. She pressed her body up against his as she moved alongside him, and she could feel his warmth through the damp layer of hair between them. She ran her teeth over his rump, in that slightly aggressive way she had of displaying affection.

“There are other things we can waste…” she murmured, her tail lifting slightly as the words trailed off into nothing.

this thing of darkness
I ACKNOWLEDGE MINE