#feat. kinderguardian andal

[flowers-of-io]

#13 Night of the Hunter

For @sylenth-l, who was the first (to my knowledge) to come up with this heartbreak of a ship. And of course, I was right on board.

music

[TW: veins, very mild mentions of corpses]

The campfire painted Pahanin’s face bright orange as he talked, arms flailing in overly theatrical gestures to imitate dragons and wyverns tearing through the jungles of Venus. Shinobu and Andal seemed genuinely interested, watching him with chins propped up on their palms—there was something of that kinderguardian wonder still in Nobu’s eyes—and Eris only nodded politely from time to time, focused on sharpening her knives. Behind him, Nadiya mimicked his every move, causing Micah and Conar to squirm on the ground with hands pressed against their mouths to stifle laughter.

Tallulah stared up at the star-specked sky, her head resting on Caliban’s crossed legs. She could see his face from a weird angle as he smiled indulgently at Pahanin’s twaddle, and his fingers combed mindlessly through her long, ink-blue hair. He looked down at her every now and then, and his optics glinted with a brightness that filled Tallulah’s chest with warmth stronger and more pleasant than the campfire. It was their last respite before heading to Venus—the Speaker had finally relieved her off Vanguard duty for a whole week so she could take part in the Hunt—and Caliban could barely conceal the excitement of being back in the field together. It made her heart flutter. The howling wilds were his home, and only the love for her made him fetter himself to the Tower. Here amongst the pines, soaked with the smell of ash and damp soil, he was a missing piece having finally found his jigsaw.

Their eyes met and Caliban traced his fingers across Tallulah’s face, from the temple down to her smiling lips. Her home would always be with him, she thought, but to watch him here—so radiant and whole—to share his home—she shuddered at the majesty of it, at the honour she was given, at how beautiful he was when he smiled against the backdrop of stars crowning his head.

“Hey, Tallu!” Andal called from somewhere to her left, away from the pool of light that circled the campfire. She lifted her head just and inch and found him staring at her long bow propped up against a tree, poorly-concealed admiration on his face. “Can I try it out?”

“Good luck hitting anything in this pitch black darkness,” Nadiya sneered, and Tallulah felt her lips quirk slightly.

“When I’m back from Venus, we can talk about it.” Andal’s pout was so delightfully childish she could hardly hold back a smirk. “Isn’t it past your bedtime anyway?”

Conar giggled, patting poor Andal on the back, and Eris and Shinobu rolled their eyes almost in unison. Pahanin kept going with his story but his voice was growing fainter with every word now that nobody seemed to be interested.

“I’m hoping for some good views on Mars,” Micah said upon taking a swing from the bottle of contraband vodka they all shared. Her Ghosts—she had five of them, now—all perched up on her shoulders and in her lap like birds on a roost.

“Thought you were rather looking for dead people,” Nadiya snatched the bottle from her hands, “There’s that ruined city in the Meridian Bay, heard it’s a sight to behold. And full of corpses, I assume.”

“Funny how this whole system is just dead people and ruins”, Pahanin said, unexpectedly pensive, watching the flames.

Eris cocked her head at him. “We were dead things once, too. Maybe it is rebirth that comes of ruin.”

“I feel very much alive now,” Caliban smiled, and tossed a twig into the fire. His fingers were tracing the veins on the back of Tallulah’s hand absently. “We’re dragon hunters, kids. Death is overrated.”

Pahanin nodded slowly, but his thoughts were already starside; Nadiya and Conar began laying out a deck of cards, Shinobu played with one of Micah’s Ghosts by chasing it with her finger. Eris returned to her knives, and Andal watched her work with moderate curiosity. The campsite plunged into a sudden silence.

As she stared back into Caliban’s eyes, two bright dots against the encroaching darkness, Tallulah pondered what he would often tell her, stroking her cheek. That she had cosmos on her skin – swirling freckles specking her face, iridescent like a crystal shard; stars that moved across it, rising and waning, impossible to count. She thought of his fingers mapping them, metal against magic.

“I love you, idiot,” he mouthed, and Tallulah couldn’t help the lazy grin that spread over her lips. She knew the way his optics flickered and dimmed, she knew it by heart, like one knows the back of their hand or the rhythm of their own breath. They outshone all the glory of galaxies above—because they were his, here, among the night and wilderness and fire crackling. Her north stars.

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A/N: At first I wanted to end it with something ominous but then I thought, no, let them stay happy that one last time.

If you need closure, go read the Tyranny of Heaven loretab. I implore you not to do that.