Earth-shattering steps approached, so heavy and resolute that the very foundations of the world quivering and quaking. In the reverberating silence that lingered after her voice faded Erthë felt her restlessness give way for a wild, jubilant elation, because she knew those steps, recognized the familiar steady stride like she did the looming mountains in the north, from the sudden flare of affectionate warmth that erupted within her heart.

Tembovu came as she knew hoped he would, and the smile she gave him over a lean shoulder as he questioned her was as wild and fierce as it was cheeky, brazen.

"Because I shouldn't" came her replies, a bit hoarse and breathless but with something vibrant in the tone as if life overflowed from the grandness of her soul, the fragile porcelain vessel too small to contain it. "It would upset people, that's why I did it!"

She laughed and turned to face him, pale eyes - one green as sea foam, the other milky and deadened, yet seeing none the less - raking across his frame, hungrily absorbing everything that had changed since last she laid eyes on her King. Frowning slightly she lingered on the fresh cuts and bruises, on new lines around vivid sapphire eyes that should not have appeared for many years, but though she longed to know what had caused them (was the crown that heavy a burden, or was there something else weighing on him) her attention was stolen by the approach of something big, gray and wrinkly, a small creature so immediately endearing that Erthë forgot to be afraid even though she had never seen anything remotely like it in her life.

"Oh, it's adorable!" she squealed and reached out a small, pink nose towards the creature, her friendly excitement palpable and perhaps a bit overpowering for a first greeting. "What is it, what's his name - or is it a she? Where did you find it?"

Positively trembling with curiosity she made to examine the peculiar little creature should it allow her to, gentle kissers longing to touch the wrinkly skin and see if it was soft, rough, if it was thick and unfeeling or whether she could cause the sweet babe to wriggle by tickling its stubby, squared sides. Hungrily she studied the big ears and noted how they flapped back and forth in vivid display of emotion, the incredible flexibility of the long, dangling appendage - was it a nose? and how she - he? - used it to explore the world, the ground, maybe even her.  

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Waiting for the rain I'm bracing for the thunder
A twig that wouldn't sway in the wind