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11-10-2013, 11:36 AM
"Afraid of decision, I buried my finer feelings in the depths of my heart and they died there."
Ranjiri, he thought, when the yearling gave her name, and then Ranji. She seemed, now that he was learning more of her beyond her rather imposing looks (missing a few feathers or no) like a Ranji – or so he hoped. Gabriel was not in the habit of making friends; he didn't have the ease of conversation or simple magnetism that Kostya did, nor the quiet mystery of Sasha. Others did not gather to him as they had to both his parents. He had always been too remote – a field of ice.
But here it was summer, and he was tired of being alone.
Gabriel allowed Aly's to be the only answer to Ranji's question – certiainly there was the niggling doubt, clearly present in both of them, but he would not presume to know somebody who didn't know him. Wrapped in the same jungle or no, they'd lived their separate lives, been different enough (he remembered when his breath was frost, his footsteps ice, and demons haunted the borders of the land) and it only went to show how ill-suited he was as a teacher, not knowing those who should have been his pupils.
Ah – but that was a past life, immaterial now save for the simple fact that it had led to here.
He was quick enough to look away from her vibrant eyes, uncomfortable under her gaze, uncomfortable wrestling with the feeling that he should know her, until she mentioned Nocturne.
“Nocturne?” he repeated, and looked at her sharply, ears pricking in visible interest. “I haven't a home here – but I followed a pair of twins from Ferraden, more or less. Konstantin and Aleksandr. I haven't seen them since crossing the Threshold...“ The stallion trailed off uncharacteristically, letting the silence ask the question for him. Surely she knew them – hadn't everybody? It was he that was the shadow, hovering at the fringes of the brothers, weaving in and out of their lives.
But never too far, if he could help it.
He looked round at the younger mare, almost sheepishly; doubtless she was losing interest in them, bumbling about with names and places she knew nothing of.
“I'm sorry,” he told her. “I'm new here too. But, it would seem, not quite alone.”
But here it was summer, and he was tired of being alone.
Gabriel allowed Aly's to be the only answer to Ranji's question – certiainly there was the niggling doubt, clearly present in both of them, but he would not presume to know somebody who didn't know him. Wrapped in the same jungle or no, they'd lived their separate lives, been different enough (he remembered when his breath was frost, his footsteps ice, and demons haunted the borders of the land) and it only went to show how ill-suited he was as a teacher, not knowing those who should have been his pupils.
Ah – but that was a past life, immaterial now save for the simple fact that it had led to here.
He was quick enough to look away from her vibrant eyes, uncomfortable under her gaze, uncomfortable wrestling with the feeling that he should know her, until she mentioned Nocturne.
“Nocturne?” he repeated, and looked at her sharply, ears pricking in visible interest. “I haven't a home here – but I followed a pair of twins from Ferraden, more or less. Konstantin and Aleksandr. I haven't seen them since crossing the Threshold...“ The stallion trailed off uncharacteristically, letting the silence ask the question for him. Surely she knew them – hadn't everybody? It was he that was the shadow, hovering at the fringes of the brothers, weaving in and out of their lives.
But never too far, if he could help it.
He looked round at the younger mare, almost sheepishly; doubtless she was losing interest in them, bumbling about with names and places she knew nothing of.
“I'm sorry,” he told her. “I'm new here too. But, it would seem, not quite alone.”
gabriel
