Vedette Niveue-Uthral (in_the_service) wrote in caeleste, @ 2009-12-22 10:48:00 |
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Entry tags: | koe tidraq, the exiled, vedette uthral |
that which never left (koe)
There was nothing left for her if she decided to leave Faustben. She may have owed Ithunvel her life, but the man was now dead and there was nothing she could have done to prevent that. She'd saved his life as much as she could and he lived to a very old age before his health fell beyond that which the healers could deal with. What was she suppose to do now? She thought until recently that she'd live there until she was certain Ithacles and his sister no longer needed her, but that day seemed to be fast approaching now. Her friend was questioning what she was. He was angry with her for being angry with him. She'd overstayed her welcome, or at least it seemed as much to her.
She abandoned that dying fire. As Ithacles had said, she'd been strangling it of the air it needed to survive. Well so was he. So was Faustben. She stripped her jacket off and deposited over her pack as she stormed into the surrounding wood. The cold would never make her shiver and she had no fear of being alone. Her cold eyes cast about the wood for a moment before she settled down on a patch of grass and dropped back until she was completely down. She could see the stars through the branches of the trees. Astarii felt like it'd been forever ago, and yet it hadn't been. Was everything going to feel like that now? Seconds seemed like days. She was older than she'd ever admitted to Ithacles. He suspected she was.. something else. She was something else.
She was a dragon.
She was a proud being of an ancient culture that many had forgotten about. On her travels she'd seen what happened to those that once followed the ancient ways of Bahamut, sure there were temples, but they were relics of a time that seemed to have passed a long time ago. Ithunvel had once asked her if she wanted a temple to go to, but she'd never really visited one and prayed. Her prayers to the Dragon God were always whispered on a wind. Ithacles had never asked her why she didn't attend the meetings of Armas, or of Lorien that many of the soldiers attended. She had no time for their priests or priestesses. She tired to keep her injuries to herself and if she needed a healer would they know? She didn't know, avoided them. Avoided him. Yet he assaulted her thoughts.
Who was he to question her so much? He wasn't a real Prince. She scowled at the sky. A real Prince, a real King trusted those who were closest to him. Like Ithunvel had. But Ithunvel had known what she was and never suspected she'd turn on him like a beast. Was she was beast? She remembered what it'd been like the first time she saw a Dragon eat a man. Koe had been there. It was a horrible thing, watching them break through flesh and bone in the smallest of chews. One snap of their jaws and the humans they'd been travelling with were dead. Just like that. Dead. Ithacles would not understand if she said she was a dragon. She feared the inevitable. If he found out.. the fear that would enter his eyes. The horror that might cross his face.
They all looked at Dragons that way. All of them. They all saw a beast and not a being.
Just a few.. choice souls saw it another way. Those dragon knights, but weren't they all long dead, long forgotten too. Ithunvel, already in his afterlife. There hadn't been others. No others. No one to understand her save Koe. Koe was it now. He understood exactly what this was like, didn't he? Debating on whether it was time to disappear again. She'd done it before. Been friends with humans and had to go before it was too long. A few years only, you could only hide what you were for so long. Fifteen years was far too long. She should have left ages ago. Before Ithunvel passed on, or right after. He had never said she needed to stay, even when she swore her life to his country, to his blood. He'd never demanded she stay. He'd never ordered her in such anger.. like Ithacles had.
Her breathing was slightly erratic now. Anger pouring through her like it was. Sadness creeping up her spine.
She was so gone that she hadn't noticed the footsteps until he was over her. Looking down at her and blocking out the stars.
"Koe." She whispered, trying to cast the anger from her face, and it was easier now that he was there. The sharpness of her eyes melted away like ice in the sun. And she smiled, though it was a small thing. Koe was a dragon too, Koe understood this, would. But she did not feel right burdening him with her troubles. In fact, she had a mind to ask him to go with her right then. There was enough men to take care of the refugees without them. Just take to the wind and not look back.. but. Well they were his friends too, were they not? Master Ilyien. And it seemed like Koe knew of Ithacles too. Slowly she sat up to look at him better.
Her hand clasped around his and she brought it to her lips to kiss it, then with all the affection that bloomed in her chest at seeing him again she pressed it to her cheek. "Sit, there's plenty of cool grass."