So there would be no battle… She had been foolish to think her beloved God of the Sun would be as careless as his brother and sister. Megaera had had no close dealings with the Spark, but the Moon she regarded with distrust and bitterness. Earth was the only other god she felt any love for, because by his grace she had been given Mordecai to tend and care for, but it was the Sun who her worship focus toward. He was the greatest or them, the best of the four, and this new land was a testament to his glory. Megaera marveled at the breathtaking landscape, so airy and wide. The beauty of the open sky stretched to the horizon before her and was mirrored in the glassy waters and all of it shines in the light of the blessed Sun. Even the sands of her beloved Throat could not match this sight for sheer wonder it inspired.

She had moved away from the gathering without a word, coasting over the shallow waters until the figures were nothing more than dark shimmers on the horizon. Once again, Megaera was shying away from strange sensations she didn’t fully understand, though she would never admit to that. She had seen six years on this earth, was entering the prime of her life, and still she was ignorant and inexperienced when it came to the biological pulls that the rich spring season was putting her through. She’d never had a reason to think on them before now; there had always been a reason, some other imperative that had tugged her attention away like solitude or anger or duty. In the recent weeks she’d felt the season’s stirrings grown and had nothing strong enough to distract her from them, without fail she would feel them spike whenever the Warden was around.

It flustered the mare to remember how jealousy had reared its ugly head at the meeting. And all because Laedere had touched him? Because he had whispered to her, comforted her? If Meg could have kicked her own ass she would have. Einarr was an attractive stallion, that could be admitted without shame; dark and tall and strong, any could say he was a fine specimen. But there was something in him that pulled at something deeper within Meg and that is what set her on edge. Again she told herself it was ridiculous and childish and petty because whatever he was, he certainly wasn’t hers.

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@Einarr

She heard her name called out across and turned her eyes in time to see the inky stallion’s approach. Her gaze followed his path as he circled her, his movement was the only refined thing about him and still it exuded an kind of primal brutality that was altogether distracting. In her mind’s eye she recalled their first meeting, the brief flicker of a possible confrontation before a common herd membership had been established, and even more than that she recalled the sight of him in battle, brutal, powerful… As Einarr moved around her, Megaera’s body moved before she even had time to register, telegraphing what had made her so agitated in the firstplace. Her feet danced a step forward and her tail swished around her hocks; to her sides her wings stretched and flared, the pristinely neat feathers catching the bright sun and gleaming.

It was several seconds before she caught herself and put a halt to that and by that time the stallion’s hooves were touching down in the shallow waters. He could not rightly be blamed for it, she knew that, but it did not make her any less appalled at her own lack of control over her own body and alas the fiery Sultana would rather pick a fight than admit she was anything less that on hundred percent in control (or so her pride told her). Megaera putt a veritable vice-grip on her muscles to keep herself still and thought she pulled her wings close again they puffed like a startled cat. Ears fell back slightly and dark eyes narrowed as she was forced to look up to meet his copper gaze. “I don’t know, I thought there would have been. Perhaps it is like he said, he was more careful than the others, or more powerful. I would hope that we can put our trust in the Sun, he has never steered me to wrong yet.” She glanced back to where the God had met them. It was true, the god had tasked her to find a way to protect what she loved without leaning on violence as a crutch, she hoped she would not disappoint him. “And I would not find it heard to believe that he and the Earth God would have taken more care for our sake and for the newcomers.”

Her posture had softened, distracted with thoughts of the gods but when she looked back to Einarr that weighty feeling in her gut gave another sharp tug and she stiffened again. She saw his nostrils flare, and she knew her body would betray it’s wants. But what did she want? For some reason that hadn’t occurred to her before now. She had been reacting against what she couldn’t control but what would happen if she chose to give it free reign? Vaguely, somewhere in the very back of her mind she remembered the warm press of tiny newborn Mordecai against her and knew that was not something she would try to avoid having again, but that was just a tiny whisper behind the shouts of instinct, of desire that right now what she wanted might just be Einarr.

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@Einarr

Megaera was entranced. Einarr’s voice, his movements, all captured her like a snake in a charmer’s snare. He was hard as steel and yet his soft voice flowed over her like silk. He took a step forward and his second step was matched by her own feet as she moved forward to meet him. Her movements were slow, deliberate, and guided by something so much older and more powerful than she and her lack of experience was no matter now. Dark eyes followed his as he reached for her and she found herself leaning into his touch upon her neck. Inside her chest her heart hammered but the sound that escaped her lips was low and steady, pure lis, pure need.

There was no escape now. Whether it might have been wisdom of cowardice to turn away, Megaera would never know for there was no retreat possible and maybe there never had been. He’d looked at her like this before, in the light of the Diviner’s Fire, and it was said those flames could show the future. ”Earth God not fail, either. He bind us.” Einarr said and maybe that was true as well, maybe they had been bound together by the earth and sun and had been merely dancing around each other for months.

He flexed and she relaxed, reaching out in turn to run her lips over the handsome muscles in his neck, to inhale his heady scent. His grunting demand sent a shiver down her spine. Never had an order sounded so sweet in her hear or been so tempting to follow, but the fire in her did not quiet but flare white-hot. “Einarr.” She murmured it softly, nipping at his strong shoulder and then she moved, shoving her shoulder roughly into his. The touch was painful, exquisite and she leaned her weight into to it as eyes flashed a challenge. You want me? Then take me but I’ll match you pond for pound. “Mine.” she growled, every bit as demanding as he.

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Where he led she followed, their joining a blaze that only grew because it was stoked by both sides. Each little bite he left on her skin, the strength in him, the weight of him, every riotous sensation was so new but nerves had long since been stripped away. And she burned, oh she burned until she thought she might be consumed by it but the fire reached its pitch and then faded to warm embers that glowed and did not go out.

Meg stood quietly, utterly relaxed and enjoying the weight of his head resting comfortably on her back. Before, she would have felt so uneasy to stand alone with him, and now she knew that was because she had been fighting the pull he had held from their very first meeting. Einarr always intrigued her but whether in ignorance or the sake of her pride, she had always pulled away. She wasn’t pulling away now. It seemed that every trial they had faced had only bound them tighter together, and he had staked his claim so plainly and made no objection to hers that all the walls between them were utterly demolished.

She sighed lazily and shifted, slowly as not to dislodge him, but curling her own neck around to reach his wings and return the intimate grooming ritual. So lovely… she thought as she enjoyed the scent and feel of each inky feather. There wasn’t a bit of the Einarr’s body that she didn’t admire, and she moved her sensitive mouth over his wing to memorize every inch in detail. Even more though, she found she liked they way her used his body, his strength, in defense and support of everything she loved. She knew his commitment to their sandy desert home was as solid as hers and every day she had seen the love and care he had given to the daughter they shared, to her perfect Mordecai. Only when that thought drifted through her mind did Megaera fully realize that she and Einarr had just opened the door to the possibility of another child, one they could share in blood as well as affection. The thrill of it raced through Meg, tickling her in her passion-induced haze and she let out the quietest of laughs.

For a moment she tried vaguely to find on something to fear in the prospect but for the moment could find nothing. She knew nothing could ever surpass her love for the filly she’d been granted by happenstance but somehow that didn’t mean she wouldn’t find more to give to another. And Einarr? What would he think? But she remembered his worshipful gaze at the newborn brindled filly and could find no doubts to cloud the pretty little picture forming in her mind. Closing her eyes to see it better she leaned her forehead into the base of the stallions neck and hid a grin against his shoulder.

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