[Fire Emblem 10] Responsibility
Jun. 23rd, 2011 01:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
runicloreResponsibility
Author:myaru
Fandom: Fire Emblem 10
Prompt: temporary
Word Count: 572
...................................................................................
"You shouldn't walk any farther with us," Nailah said, pausing by an oak and turning her gaze up to the spangle of light between the branches. From there Serenes broke into a series of grassy enclaves before the trees thinned and gave way to the open fields that stretched to the Ribahn. Volug hovered a few strides ahead at the edge of the shade. Nailah couldn't breathe past the sun-baked grass and the lingering of Rafiel's scent, like pine trees and stark white flowers. "Tibarn told me we'd be on our own past this point, and that means you should go back home."
You were caught out here, she thought of saying. You told me about this place. How many trees grew twined together like the two at the center of the clearing?
"Ulki followed us," Rafiel said in his damnably mild voice. He took her hand, spread her fingers over his palm. They looked so stark side-by-side, lily white and wooden brown. "I'll meet him on the way back. For now, I want..."
Rather, it was what he didn't want. He didn't want to part here; Nailah hadn't wanted to leave him at the center of the forest, couldn't even let go of his hand, when she knew someone would approach him to fill the void she left by returning to Hatari. Every time she turned to him to speak, words leapt to her tongue unbidden and she had to throttle them down again: you can always come back with us right now. The others will figure something out.
Nailah liked to think of herself as a woman with priorities. Once the war ended and Serenes was safe to live in, hers had shifted of necessity. Almost two years had passed since she left home, and tensions were already running high back then - water shortages, creeping sands, it all hit them at once.
And Rafiel-- he had his own responsibilities.
"Listen." She turned to him, squeezing his hand as hard as she dared. His wings folded back, his nails dug into the back of her hand, but Nailah couldn't let herself be swayed by a frown, or the wet glitter in his eyes. "This is only temporary. You promised your life to me, remember? If you stay too long I'll send Volug back to grab you."
"I know," he said. "I wouldn't have it any other way." Rafiel bowed his head, and she couldn't help but think of how she would miss his silky hair, the way it tossed in the wind and tickled her calves - how obediently it slipped around her fingers in golden coils, rings of promise. His white wings gleamed where the dappled light caressed them. Stupid poetics about herons and holy light cluttered her head, and by the way he smiled and peered up at her through his long lashes, he knew the turn of her thoughts.
Nailah made herself frown. "Shut up."
Rafiel laughed - ah, she would miss that too, she would miss everything about him - and threw his arms around her neck. His kiss was the sweetest of her life, perhaps because she knew it would be their last.
...............................................
Not what I planned to use for this prompt, but. :/
This is kinda sorta a prologue to a longer, more involved fic about these two that I'm working on.
.
Author:
myaruFandom: Fire Emblem 10
Prompt: temporary
Word Count: 572
...................................................................................
"You shouldn't walk any farther with us," Nailah said, pausing by an oak and turning her gaze up to the spangle of light between the branches. From there Serenes broke into a series of grassy enclaves before the trees thinned and gave way to the open fields that stretched to the Ribahn. Volug hovered a few strides ahead at the edge of the shade. Nailah couldn't breathe past the sun-baked grass and the lingering of Rafiel's scent, like pine trees and stark white flowers. "Tibarn told me we'd be on our own past this point, and that means you should go back home."
You were caught out here, she thought of saying. You told me about this place. How many trees grew twined together like the two at the center of the clearing?
"Ulki followed us," Rafiel said in his damnably mild voice. He took her hand, spread her fingers over his palm. They looked so stark side-by-side, lily white and wooden brown. "I'll meet him on the way back. For now, I want..."
Rather, it was what he didn't want. He didn't want to part here; Nailah hadn't wanted to leave him at the center of the forest, couldn't even let go of his hand, when she knew someone would approach him to fill the void she left by returning to Hatari. Every time she turned to him to speak, words leapt to her tongue unbidden and she had to throttle them down again: you can always come back with us right now. The others will figure something out.
Nailah liked to think of herself as a woman with priorities. Once the war ended and Serenes was safe to live in, hers had shifted of necessity. Almost two years had passed since she left home, and tensions were already running high back then - water shortages, creeping sands, it all hit them at once.
And Rafiel-- he had his own responsibilities.
"Listen." She turned to him, squeezing his hand as hard as she dared. His wings folded back, his nails dug into the back of her hand, but Nailah couldn't let herself be swayed by a frown, or the wet glitter in his eyes. "This is only temporary. You promised your life to me, remember? If you stay too long I'll send Volug back to grab you."
"I know," he said. "I wouldn't have it any other way." Rafiel bowed his head, and she couldn't help but think of how she would miss his silky hair, the way it tossed in the wind and tickled her calves - how obediently it slipped around her fingers in golden coils, rings of promise. His white wings gleamed where the dappled light caressed them. Stupid poetics about herons and holy light cluttered her head, and by the way he smiled and peered up at her through his long lashes, he knew the turn of her thoughts.
Nailah made herself frown. "Shut up."
Rafiel laughed - ah, she would miss that too, she would miss everything about him - and threw his arms around her neck. His kiss was the sweetest of her life, perhaps because she knew it would be their last.
...............................................
Not what I planned to use for this prompt, but. :/
This is kinda sorta a prologue to a longer, more involved fic about these two that I'm working on.
.