Beneath Shadows and Secrets

♔ 𝕿𝔥𝔦𝔯𝔱𝔶 - 𝕿𝔥𝔯𝔢𝔢 ♔

Oh I am SO ready for you guys to get to what's coming over the next 7/8 chapters. You'll be getting 3 updates this week for SURE.

♔ 𝔑𝔦𝔯𝔞 ♔

It is the breech of midnight when we touch down on the outskirts of Vrodora.

The Pegasi are exhausted from the long travel – as it seems everyone is – and so the break is more than welcomed. It has been almost two days, and such has been travelled in an uncomfortable and silent fashion.

When we exit the carriage, Tynan is bowed over, fatigue clear. Libitina aids him, her arm around his waist as he uses her body as a crutch to reach a soft patch of grass. He is sat for hardly a minute before his head is lolling over his shoulder, faint snores mixing with the breeze. The demon excuses herself to survey the area, and I decide to busy myself in caring for the Pegasi, drawing water from the earth and filling a fallen and hollowed tree trunk to act as a trough. They lap at the water greedily, and I replenish it before it empties.

They graze on the overgrowing grass, and I offer them handfuls of the fruit and nuts we brought with us for our journey. Only when satisfied that they content do I move, piling broken branches and dried out moss a few steps away. I bring fire to my palm without much thought, holding it against the collection of dried foliage until it kindles, and soon after is engulfed by the flame.

Leaning against the carriage, Calix watches, and when my eyes meet his, he turns his back and lurks back inside.

I only sigh, unsure of what to make of his new vow of silence. It is easy to decide that I will remain out here and keep a look out while Tynan rests, or until Libitina returns. Even then, I am not sure I would subject myself to the company of the High Lord, not while he is in such a terrible mood. So, I focus my attention on a bush, shaping it with my weary mind until it becomes something of a seat, and lower myself into it.

Vasami lurks beside the carriage, and I whistle sharp, a noise that makes her slink over. She lays beside me, her entire body against the ground, her neck twisted until her head lays at my feet. I trail my finger up and down her sharp brow bone, and it is not long before she, like Tynan, falls asleep. In my own company, I imagine this might be the longest night yet.

♔

I wake with a jump when my head falls from the cradle of my hand. It takes a few blinks to register where I am.

Before me, the fire still burns, so I cannot have been asleep for very long. That, and the lightening of the sky alerts that it has been no more than a few hours, for dawn has not awoken yet. My eyes scan the surroundings – where Tynan sat before, he does no longer, and the Pegasi nod in rest. Vasami, still in the same position, has peeled back an eye with concern at my sharp movements.

"Sorry girl." I murmur, stroking her snout. She only huffs. "You need to hunt now, Vasami. Before dawn breaks." If she could sigh, I imagine it would sound very similar to the sound she makes at that statement. Nonetheless, she rises to her feet and trudges away among the trees in search for food.

With the balls of my palms, I rub my eyes, and then look over to Calix, who stands beside the fire. He is alone, so I expect that Tynan has joined Libitina in scouting, or more likely, is hunting our breakfast. Unfortunately, it has left me in at the mercy of the company I desired to only avoid.

If he feels me watching him, he says nothing, and makes no move to suggest he is fazed by it. That annoys me, for if he was feeling himself, he would have at least made some snarky sort of comment. I notice by his feet are Vasami's two eggs, heating by the fire. Ah, so he has not lost all of his compassion then. They are close enough to the flames that it will not harm the young – if they are young in there at all – and he has cushioned them with a nest of moss.