[ Hands are offered and they are taken, gladly, the gossamer of her hood tucked back towards her ears. Another shade in the evening takes no effort to become. Yes, even for one as insecure as in her footing as her - more than once, her side thumps against his with punctuations of apology as they work their way backwards and out.
She takes his arm. For guidance, she'd insist, if pressed. If not, she feels no inclination to provide excuses.
Still, once they've ventured out into the parapets of stone outside the sietch, her footfalls edge closer to caution. A small cliff to him doesn't scale so tiny to her and the newness of it all causes her head to tip with static.
She's almost done insisting: ]
You know that you can call me Serenity if you'dβΈ»
[ Idle chatter tangles in her voice box when she sees moons. Moons. White as an animal's teeth, they hold court in the sky as silver sentries over the landscape. What seemed inhospitable during landfall morphs to into a dreamscape of warm colors dotted over black.
He won't have to be a shrewd critic of human nature to see the emotions writ large across her face, a symphony of experience within seconds. Amazement. Grief, at the guillotine of familiarity's blade. Shock. Oh, but beyond the trapping of worship or wonder. There's tenderness that comes embraced only by kinship.
She's in love.
One palm covers her mouth, the other searches upward for the sky. If she could reach, if she'd pull them down to her...
She doesn't notice the sand drifts and breeze that pulls her cloak away, profile exposed to this new world. In fact, this might be the sole moment since she stepped into his sietch that she hasn't been wiggling with an unruly anxiety that needled her to explain or defend or beseech.
Quiet. Her dress drags against the ridges of sand, lacework sinking into grains. ]
love at first sight, but not with him.
She takes his arm. For guidance, she'd insist, if pressed. If not, she feels no inclination to provide excuses.
Still, once they've ventured out into the parapets of stone outside the sietch, her footfalls edge closer to caution. A small cliff to him doesn't scale so tiny to her and the newness of it all causes her head to tip with static.
She's almost done insisting: ]
You know that you can call me Serenity if you'dβΈ»
[ Idle chatter tangles in her voice box when she sees moons. Moons. White as an animal's teeth, they hold court in the sky as silver sentries over the landscape. What seemed inhospitable during landfall morphs to into a dreamscape of warm colors dotted over black.
He won't have to be a shrewd critic of human nature to see the emotions writ large across her face, a symphony of experience within seconds. Amazement. Grief, at the guillotine of familiarity's blade. Shock. Oh, but beyond the trapping of worship or wonder. There's tenderness that comes embraced only by kinship.
She's in love.
One palm covers her mouth, the other searches upward for the sky. If she could reach, if she'd pull them down to her...
She doesn't notice the sand drifts and breeze that pulls her cloak away, profile exposed to this new world. In fact, this might be the sole moment since she stepped into his sietch that she hasn't been wiggling with an unruly anxiety that needled her to explain or defend or beseech.
Quiet. Her dress drags against the ridges of sand, lacework sinking into grains. ]