wc: 7+
SoSuWriMo: 775
The girl's steadfast levity was not tested by his casual admittance of knowing her home. No suspicions were stoked by the utmost nonchalance he portrayed in the naming of it, for so flawless was the boy's rendition of utter carelessness that China didn't even pause in breath. However, had she been of righter mind the girl might have realized this reaction to be an abnormality within itself - For when had she ever uttered such a name and received no emotional response? Whether it be a pull of horror, the steel jaws of wariness sliding cagily against one another, or worse yet the false bravado of a curiosity that knew no sense, Inferni was not a clan to be titled with such lackadaisical air.
The boy's inner speculations as to her reception within the clan, however, were surprisingly unfounded. Although China seemed, in truth, to be the embodiment of goodness - A saintly wish to help the world, a cherished heart to love it with; a righteous desire to free it of cruelty, a festering need to save it from chaos (she was, it seemed, a veritable halcyon Joan of Arc) - she had been welcomed amongst the ranks of heathens, accepted within the embrace of a shared grandmother. Of yet, none had dared suggest her strangely misplaced nature. Inferni was the mafia, the incestually close-woven spiderwebs that strung gossamer between each Lykoi heart, and China was but the hapless moth drawn into its tangled deception. As they all seemed to be.
Perhaps, within her, China knew this angelic boy to be her kin. But this was nothing exceptional as, according to her lore, all were brethren. All were innocent children of the loving earthmother. Her sensibilities were too distracted by youthful interference, the hormone imbalance that shifted her blissfully short attention span continually back to bleeding sunset eyes. All was smooth and peaceful therein, a perfect mask for a perfect insanity.
Perhaps she had pushed it too far, with such suggestive words. Though his posture need not alter, she could sense it - A liberal withdrawal of his mind from hers, a mental recoil as though the pale-pelted youth required a reassessment of the situation. Hoping to minimalise damage, her lush lashes fluttered innocently, oh so innocently.
He was not the first to shun her sweet suggestions. He mind drifted plaintively back to the ebony-hued girl she had met, only a short while ago. The lifestyle within Juniper Peace had set her up for a life of promiscuity, for freedom of body and mind, only to find the cages of stranger morale clamped firmly about her here. It was stiflingly frustrating - She had waited so long to be an adult, to be free for expression, only to find that no other but her own dearest siblings would share the same ethics. This offered a dangerously strong pull towards her sisters, which China had yet to act on, for even though her mentality was assured, it was difficult to deny such an instinctually strong taboo.
Finally, he responded, and it was with such an impassive tone that she was momentarily taken aback. Had the bucolic girl made too fast an assumption, that he had taken her words as insult? Euphemism or not, China was very cold, and the boy's wolfen pelt seemed much more sensibly acclimatised to this mountainous region. The slender girl found herself in the unfamiliar waters of uncertainty, but with the ease of one used to landing on her feet, she smiled a genuine sparkling smile. "I would like that, very much," lilting tones spoke of smoky intent, but again her innocence was flawless, leaving his troubled mind to jump to any conclusion it wished.
Although younger than her, the boy was sizeable in comparison to her airy figure. In addition to the fact that he was quite comely, and wellspoken for one of such impressionable youth, China assumed him to be very near to her own age. Delightful. He seemed unsure of where to take his suggestion, so the slim Lykoi sylph took another daring step forward, and another - she just grazed him as she passed, just a slight touch of pale gold against silky silver, a flash of Lapis Lazuli - and she was inside the small ramshackle dwelling, out of the lazy embittered breeze. The near-connection had been tantalizing, but she did not look back at him until se had seated herself against one steadfast wall. Then, and only then, did the winsome blue of her eyes return to him, beseechingly. "Come and sit, wont you?" One slender tan hand patted the worn floor beside her, invitingly.
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