you're a fraud and you know it
but it's too good to throw it all away
Roland had sensed, without yet having learned the answers, that the Basin had changed in his absence. There were bound to be new faces within the herd, as well as those that had left for new horizons, and he had begun to wonder if they were under new leadership. He had not thought to ask Lena when he'd first been reunited with her, and the past several days had been spent catching up on rest, giving his sore muscles time to heal from the adversities of traveling. He had not lived well in his time away, and much to his dismay, it had left its mark upon him.
Beyond the matter of its citizens, the Basin felt different this time. Roland appraised it in a new light; where once it had seemed an icy prison he'd been locked and chained within, it was now his salvation. It had welcomed him back, with all the fanfare of ice and snow and biting winds, and then, thankfully, faded into a placid spring. It had not turned him away, and in time he imagined he would relax back into life within the valley, almost as if he had never left. It felt like home, like happiness, a respite from the hardships he had endured over the past many seasons.
It was also the home of someone he loved, and the thought of it, of
her, out there somewhere and yet within reach, was more comforting than he could have imagined. If anything were to go wrong, if he needed her, or the advice and companionship she offered, he knew she was there, that he could go and find her, take comfort in her presence. His mind was quiet and at peace, moreso than it had been in quite some time.
He slept well and easy, relaxed enough to curl himself upon the ground in the shelter of his cave- which he was pleasantly surprised to find had remained unoccupied over the course of his absence- rather than stand at its threshold, waking at every noise from the call of a bird to the rustling of leaves. With the warmer weather on its way to the north, he felt alive.
Somehow, he was not jolted from his rest when a faint shadow was cast over his face by the advancement of a shadow, blocking out the early morning sunlight that had managed to reach into the corners of his cave. He did not stir at the light and gentle sound of footsteps against the stone, or the sensation of something looping itself around his horn, sliding down to nestle against his forehead. He was startled awake at last when a loud chirp erupted from the mouth of his cave, heart pounding fiercely within his chest as he raised his head. His eyes focused upon a dark, retreating form, but before he had time to be alarmed, he recognized her shape. "
Lena," he called out breathlessly, feeling slightly embarrassed at how easily he had been startled. It was quickly overshadowed by the excitement of seeing her, at receiving a visit on this early morning, even if he had been woken from a pleasant slumber. The Phantom pulled himself to his feet, ignoring the protest of stiff joints, and then paused at the feeling of a cold object against his brow, the ghost of a sensation that seemed familiar, in a distant sort of way.
His eyes locked upon the Songbird with a wide gaze as his sleep-addled mind took time to process. Without a reflection, he had no way of seeing what she had placed around his horn, and yet somehow he
knew.
"
Is that...?" He began, and then trailed off. Had it not been lost as he had fled Helovia, torn from him, somehow, in his haste? He had mourned its loss for many days. The one piece of Lena he possessed, that he had hoped to keep close to him, was gone. Now, through what means he could not guess, it sat around his horn once more, a gift returned, though he had to question just as he had before if he was truly deserving of it. A smile dawned upon his features as he drew closer to the Mender, curiousity and wonder in his gaze. "
How did you find it?"
@Lena
sometimes you even fool yourself a bit
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⇒
[P] Yet greater still and more profound
