He wanted to tell her that no, he certainly couldn’t ask her an easy question to answer, even if he hadn’t intended it to be difficult. He liked the time he had to watch her openly while she thought over her answer, as if he was just a good conversationalist keeping his attention on her while he awaited her response. In truth, it was giving him precious moments to study her up close. He could see the soft fan of her lashes that brushed her cheeks whenever she closed her eyes; or how lovely the color of her irises were this close; and how striking the broken white stripes running down her neck and body were against the deep black of her coat. He felt that all-too-obvious something stirring in his stomach (some would call them butterflies) the longer he looked at her.
In tune with her movement, he slowed too, right on cue with her so they continued to walk side-by-side. As she stole looks over their surroundings, Nephilim tried, but simply found his blue eyes drawn back to her.
Her answer enchanted him and he compared it to the blink in time during Tinuvel’s autumn before the weather turned where he’d awake to the first frost settled over the world and listen to it crunch softly under his hooves as he started to walk through it. Now he allowed himself to look away from Vervain so that he could glance across the wide expanse of her home and try to envision it like that. “I can only imagine how beautiful it looks,” he commented with some wonder, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen frost cover an expanse quite like this one.”
A child born of the northern island, Nephilim knew it was quite silly, but the fact the moment Vervain chose to speak of was a colder one made him happy. Not everyone appreciated the cold (understandably) but he’d always loved it himself.
Vervain looked at him just as he’d glanced back at her and, when their eyes met, he gave her an equally bashful smile, like she would read his mind and know what he was thinking. “Oh, me?” He asked, and shouldn’t have been surprised she turned the question around and that she wanted to know what he also loved about the places he’d been. So far, while he’d traveled, lived temporarily here and there among Crossing Isle for a few seasons, and now been situated in the Ruins alongside Chati, there’d been many places he’d seen…
Maybe it was homesickness, but it was only the Arch that came back to him. He smiled faintly. “Most horses would say late spring or summer are perfect on Tinuvel, and they are nice,” fair weather, greenery all around, a striking difference from the rougher seasons, “but I honestly always loved the turn of summer into autumn back home in the Arch. There was always something beautiful about seeing the subtle change of the leaves further inland, some trees already gone yellow, going red, others caught somewhere in between. The way the fog lays heavy over the shoreline for most of the day gives it a sort of…” Nephilim trailed off, thinking, and smiled wistfully before concluding, “enclosed feeling even when you’re on the beach, which can otherwise feel endless at times.”
His grin widened. Nephilim hadn’t been thinking much about home lately, given how upset he was by the events occurring there and how his mother reacted to his decision to stay with Chati, but thinking of it now and talking about it with Vervain was… nice.
“When the fog is really thick, it can almost be impossible to see the namesake of my home, the rock archway in the ocean, and then suddenly it’s coming up out of the swirling clouds and it’s just… magnificent.” He breathed the last word as he glanced sidelong at her and, before he could think of the implications of what he said, offered, “Maybe one day I can take you to visit the Arch, and you’ll be able to see for yourself.”
Before he could rush into clarifying that he wasn’t trying to push her into anything, a loud happy whinny of excited surprise split the air. Castillon - Nephilim whipped his head to glance off toward the distance where his cousin/psuedo-brother was trotting up, black hair snapping back off his golden neck. He smiled apologetically at Vervain, realizing their conversation was going to be quickly and abruptly interrupted as Castillon rushed in to greet Nephilim with hearty chuckles, even offering a brief touch of his muzzle to Vervain.
“Thanks for bringing this trouble-maker my way, sis,” Castillon teased and winked at Vervain.
Nephilim blew a hard breath. “If anyone is the trouble-maker out of the pair of us, it’s you, Cas.”
At that, Castillon only grinned wider, well aware that was the truth. Completely unaware he’d just bulldozed into their private moment, as his eyes brightened on Nephilim’s he quickly asked, “How’s Chati? Is everything okay?” He’d turned a bit more serious and worried as he questioned Chati's well-being.
“Yeah, it’s okay - I just -” He glanced at Vervain and smiled somewhat apologetically for how quickly it seemed their conversation was going to end. “I’ll… hopefully get to see you before I leave?” He asked her the question as Castillon, still clueless, looked briefly between them both.
|
