in his subtle mouth a smile as
hungry as the sun
The cold spell that fell upon Luthien did not have the strength to permeate the tangled thorns to reach into the heart of the Thicket. There, Starscream tried his best to make sure that Naydra wanted for nothing, and spent much of his time teaching their son how to keep safe, and how to be strong. Before he slipped into the frigid water, not long after he’d spotted a brief glimpse of what he thought was a distantly familiar figure coming around the headland and heading for the Common, Starscream had slunk all the way back to the Thicket along the border between the Forest and the Savanna, and had sought Farosh out. “Watch your mother, and look after yourself. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” And then he doubled back and braced himself against the biting cold of the winter water, and followed in the dark figure’s wake. He was confident enough that his queen and heir would be safe, for the Savanna and Forest stood largely silent, and the king of the northern Prairie, Naydra had assured, was no threat.
Starscream dared not fuss over Naydra, just because she carried his child did not make her incapable of defending herself any longer. On the contrary, he believed she’d be ever more fierce, a frightening thing to behold, the violence she kept so well controlled fuelled by hormones and instinct to protect her unborn. The bronze stallion would pity whatever creature dared to provoke his mighty queen.
He made short work of the swim, motivated by the cold not to spend a moment longer in the water than he had to. As he alighted upon the sandy shore, he cast a glance over one striped shoulder. Everything he did was for himself, first and foremost, but Farosh was of his blood, and nothing mattered more to him than his son (and the mare that had carried him into this life). So, in a sense, everything he did was for them too, even if they would never quite understand how.
The figure he thought he’d glimpsed was one he’d seen before. Deep in the tangled Thicket, he’d seen her shadowy form, with her scattering of clustered stars gleaming pure white. A whole galaxy, painted upon her skin. The cunning copper stallion had tried to approach her, but he was not near so familiar with the twisting paths between the towering trees as Naydra was, nor evidently this mare, Titania, whom was no stranger to this land. Even Farosh knew his way better than Starscream, and it had rankled the stallion a little to accept that.
In the end, it seemed that the appaloosa mare had taken her leave before Starscream had the chance to find his way to her side. There were things he’d wanted to ask her.
And this was his chance.
But shortly after making landfall, he realised that her scent trail, once he’d caught a trace of it, was lost to him somewhere over the barren flatlands at the base of the mountain. With a frustrated snort, he followed the general trajectory in which she’d appeared to be heading; south, away from the reaching shadows of the snow capped Peak.
For several days, he watched and waited, patient for the quarry he sought, despite the bitter cold of winter’s end. And then, on the darkest of nights, his dogged devotion was rewarded. The faintest mark of her scent, growing ever more captivating as he followed it along the trees bordering the meadow. There she appears before him, but she is no longer alone. Starscream stilled in the darkness where he remains as yet unseen, swallowing down the growl that rolled viciously at the base of his throat. A moment later, a smile flashed across his lips and then vanished.
The bronze-haired stallion would have to be extra careful now, about how he tailored his approach. He so loved a challenge, and a chance to test his wits and wiles.
Circling about so that he’d approach from upwind, and his scent would be carried to her - the scent of the trees of the thicket, whose sharp, herbaceous scent Starscream used to cover over Naydra and Farosh’s scent each time he left the Thicket. A precaution he took to protect them, should he ever run afoul of a stranger who named themself an enemy. But he laid his hopes on Titania recognising the scent of the darkest of Luthien’s territories, and hopefully, she may have come across his scent there, mingled with Naydra and Farosh’s, and recognise him by it now.
“Titania?” he called, voice pitched with concern as he stepped nearer, knowing her name from one of the many conversations he’d had with Naydra when night had fallen and the world around them was quiet.
“I’m glad I found you,” he continued as he drew even closer, hoping to discern something of her wellbeing, and from the corner of his eye, glean what he could of the situation by scrutinising the older stallion’s posture. He’d been too far to overhear anything that might’ve already been said between them, and didn’t want to risk jumping to conclusions, or provoking hostility, so he did not seek to make eye contact with the stallion, nor did he engage in any sort of posturing. No, he reigned all those instincts in to play his part of a concerned, well-meaning friend. With little more than an ear flicking briefly toward the silver bay stallion, he stops a small distance away from Titania and sets worried eyes upon her.
“You slipped away without saying goodbye, and with the winter being especially harsh, we were… Concerned for you.” They had not ever said hello, but the stranger didn’t need to know that, and Starscream wasn’t wanting to give anything much away to the unknown stallion, of where he came from and who was waiting for him there. Inwardly, Starscream was very much on edge as he waited for a reaction or reply, recognition or rejection. Would Titania even recognise him, or discern his presence here for what it had become? A way out, if she needed one. He did not miss that her belly was near as heavy as Naydra’s - she had not been pregnant when she’d left the Thicket, of that much he was certain.
Did the child belong to the stallion hovering over her?
Starscream had no way of asking without possibly endangering her, or giving away where she might have been sheltering since she’d left the Thicket. Too, he was well aware that it might be something of a sore spot, and altogether a little personal for a near-complete stranger to pry into. He did not want to stir her wrath either - he was discerning enough to tell; the way she carried herself, it wasn’t so different from his dear Naydra. She carried the strong spirit of sovereignty within her.
More than ever, now that he was finally standing before her, and not just stealing glimpses between the trees as he prowled after her like a wildcat on the hunt, he wanted to have her all to himself. Just for a moment. Just to ask – He reaches for her, expression earnest, but in the night, his ember eyes flicker, and when he speaks, his words ever so carefully weighted, with one ear turning almost imperceptibly toward the darker male, he means so much more than his hushed voice implies. “Are you okay?”
love,
STARSCREAM