(PRP) In the Evening Glades (Kaitombo x Orelond)

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

 

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Orelond lived a life that most only dreamed of. She never wanted for anything. Her family was one filled with love and light and happiness. Her family was understanding and open-minded, there was not a thing that she couldn’t talk to her family about. But as time grew on there came an absence she could feel most keenly. She didn’t understand what it was, what she could possibly be missing.

She saw it in the open looks between her parents. She heard it in the sweet words they spoke to each other, and more often in the tones with which everyday words and conversations were said with love.

She realized that’s what she was missing--love. Not the familial kind or the the love of a friend, but the love that was so much more A love that would make the stars seem dull in comparison. But love cannot be found by merely looking. It does not come when called and it cannot be found with any sort of convenience. It as always came on it’s own terms and Orelond was destined to wait.

Three moons later...

 

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Kaitombo was enjoying a luxurious late afternoon alone. Sometimes his family had a tendency to get loud and sometimes he had the urge to escape. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy it, he loved the sound of their laughter and the hillarity of the jokes they played but sometimes he needed just a little space to think. Sometimes it was to think about new jokes to pull and lately at his mother’s unusual serious topic--of what he wanted in life. There was no rush to find out she said, it was merely something that would come up more and more as he got older.

Honestly, he had no clue what he wanted other than to enjoy life and make great jokes. For now that would have to be enough. His mother said that when he it was time, it would come to him and so far nothing had, so he guessed it wasn’t time.

Shrinking down, he finally made it to about the size of a wren. He’d been working on getting smaller each time he practiced, but he had plateaued at this size. He wasn’t sure if even practicing would help him get any smaller.

A mare entered the small glade where he was practicing and his breath caught at how much she radiated life. She was as bright as a shining sun, as if the world was in orbit around her and all the lesser stars too.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

*duplicated by accident*  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Something buzzed around Orelond’s ears as she got closer to the water in the glade. She shuck her head, a few loose tendrils falling from her bun as she tried to ignore the buzzing. It was a bit early for mosquitos. But the more she ignored the small creature buzzing about her face, the more it seemed to bother her. With a small huff, she turned and came face to face with a stallion, shrunk to the size of a small bird. She blinked her luminous eyes for a moment in confusion before speaking. “Merry meet?” She spoke hesitantly.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Kaitombo flew back a few feet and morphed back to full-size. Merry meet? He'd never heard that one before. "Merry, uhm hello?" He said quizically and was rewarded with a laugh like the sound of tinkling bells.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Orelond laughed at the stallion who’d morphed in front of her. She’d been kind of shocked to find out he wasn’t a mosquito but a soquili. There was something about his smile, as if he shared a secret with only you and the rest of the world just wasn’t in on it. It didn’t matter that they didn’t know each other, it still seemed just as true.

“Merry meet is a greeting of my people,” she spoke softly her voice lilting here and there as she walked about to view him in the different lights. “It is similar to your ‘hello’. She paused smiling, looking at him the failing light. “Merry meet is a blessing, a hope that the cause for meeting will be a good one..”  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

He listened to the slow cadence of her speech, the soft sounds that reminded him of whispering leaves and nature, as though she was one with the forest. A part of him half believed that she could be something beautiful and ancient meant to lure him into a trap---three-fourths of him hoped that was true stupid though it was to think.

“Well, I do find it merry to meet you.” He smiled brightly at her. “I’ve never seen you here before, believe me, I’d have remembered. What brings you? Did you hear about my astonishing beauty or my amazing jokes?”  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Orelond half smiled as her eyes flicked away to watch the leaves of a tree shiver a little, an early warning of coming rain. Her trip would be cut short if she wanted to make it back before the torrential rains that were on their way. “You think a lot of yourself, but I must confess I have never heard of you or any of your deeds.” For a moment she considered, but the simple beauty of that secret smile finally persuaded her. “I am Orelond, who prithee are you?” Her body already half turned to leave.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

He tasted her name on his tongue and said it in his mind before he spoke. “Orelond,” he tried to match the way she said it but the works came out only a pale imitation of the way she said it. “I’m Kaitombo. You have fiercely wounded me my lady, I had hoped in some capacity that I'd given you cause to notice me. And, well, I think I”m interesting or I thought so, at least, interesting enough to get you stay for a short while.” He paused watching the last of the light flicker in her hair as gusts of wind blew threw the glade. “I’m afraid, that this will not be a merry meet for me to lose you so quickly as I’ve found you.” He saw the brief hesistation in her stance and let his words flow freely without thought. "I'd like to know you better. Maybe we met for a reason." Perhaps she thought he was too much--too much to deal with or put up with. Others had said that before. He just didn't know how to not come of annoying sometimes....Okay, all the time.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Orelond felt the corners of her mouth tip up in answer. “Then you shall have to see if you intrigued me enough to return or not.” She raised an eyebrow at him and made her way slowly away after a parting glance.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

He tried to reach for the words to make her stay but for the first time, he had no smart retorts or witty replies. It only occurred to him that she said he should wait to see if she came back.

When he finally thought to ask her when or how long, she was gone. How would he know when to check for her? Or how long to wait? What if, they missed each other by mere minutes and because of that....

Well, there were a lot of if's, a whole lot of them. He could keep throwing them around and try to figure it out, but he'd just drive himself crazy.

She'd come back, he knew it or at least believed it. Not with the kind of certainity that he would stake his life on, but with a small bright hope blooming in him that she thought him worthy enough to meet again.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

In the weeks that passed, Orelond's thoughts strayed more than once to the male she had met. Her mother had asked her several times what she was smiling about when she had not known that she was smiling at all. She saw those glances between her parents have a kind of soft acceptance, but she didn't understand it yet.

She had not been sure whether she would go back, but everyday it grew harder to come up with a reason not to. He was arrogant. He was full of himself. But really, those were only first impressions and hardly fair.

The reasons not floundered into pitiful excuses until finally after she had messed up on a chore three times in a row, she gave up and gave in. She had not been able to stop thinking about him. So with a sigh, she turned her feet toward the glen not knowing whether she had proved interesting enough for him to return.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

He returned every evening at the same time without fail. He waited an hour in the peacefulness of the glade and then he would leave. Each day he expected to see her again, and each day it got harder to go when she didn't show up. But there was something in him that refused to quit, refused to miss even one day though he'd been very sick.

It was warm out, but he was trembling. His head felt like a furnace though the rest of him felt like he was frozen solid. Kaitombo knew he was really sick when he saw her.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

As she got closer to the glade, she started to second guess herself. What reason should she be so vain as to think he'd come back? Or keep coming back over and over again? Surely, he had given up on her by now. If he had ever come back to look before.

She should stop, go home and forget about him. Ahead, she feared only lay heartache because that's what it would be if he wasn't there--her heart would hurt. Traitor that it was, her heart raced as she got closer. When she saw his outline in the evening murk she felt her eyes burn with tears that she hastily wiped away.

He had come back for her.