H U Y A N A
the world is drowning

He closes the infinite span of icy air between them with seemingly little movement, and some primal part of her brain sends a thrill of fear down her spine. She feels the urge to flee, to run from this monster of a man; but in the end, she does not run, and bids her wandering feet to hold still. His breath purls across her dark skin, and she shivers, watching him almost defiantly from behind a veil of thick black eyelashes, but her eyes are gentle and sad, and she gives him a faint smile of the same sort, the quiet thunder of his words easing her tension. "I do not ask for mercy," she breathes, the words unfurling themselves in a puff of condensation. Softly, she tilts her head, a lock of mane falling into her ocean eyes.

Another pause, but it is only the atmosphere surrounding them that bids silent; words dance across her gaze like the ripples in an ocean, ever dynamic. "I once lived in a land far away." I don't know why I'm telling you this, her body says, and there's sadness in her gaze. "It was named Isilme - land of moonlight, and as a child I played with the gulls, by the sea, as children are want to do," Huyana pauses, remembering her father, remembering the darkness that followed after his absence, the illness, the retribution that bloomed against her youthful heart like a plague. Her home was scorched beyond belief by the wrath of dragons, claimed by a warlord named Adalwulf and ruled by Gunslinger. She had watched strangers dance on the beaches of her home, so careless, so oblivious to the pain their conquest had caused. Imiq, the demigod son of Cinnoru, had reclaimed their homeland after a long while of homelessness, but all that brought was war and destruction - peace never lasted long in Isilme, and that was no exception. "The children of gods destroyed it, as they did millenia before, and we were all thrown into a dreamless sleep," she remembers the blackness that followed, the hopelessness of a year-long slumber. "When we awoke, our world was destroyed, and slowly, it was rebuilt, and there was peace, at least for a while." Lies. Paladin, the red dragon, had claimed her father's throne, ordering her home into careless equality and smiting those that did not fit his narrow ideals. She remembers this time bitterly, and she feels resentment like bile in the back of her throat. "But swarthy dead things have long claimed it, and here I am - another home lost to war, with death nipping at my heels." Huyana gives him a humorless smile, hushing herself so that her voice would not betray the misery that dwelt in her heart like the sting of old violence.

A frown swiftly falls onto the black velvet of her lips, and she regards him curiously. "I don't know why I told you this," she admits honestly, finally turning her eyes away from his, as if in shame. Perhaps she needed to drown someone else in her sorrows, but the weight on her chest did not feel any lighter, and the wounds still hurt. Silence reigned once more, and the warmth of his breath on her hide gives her comfort.