wc: 300+
Alaine could tell that he noted her inability to retain eye contact, knew that he would recognize the lithe woman's suddenly stiff body language as an emotional withdrawal from him. Strangely enough, she cared enough to peer across at him fleetingly, seeking some sort of understanding in his brilliant amber gaze. But Gabriel appeared impassive. Her heart sank slightly.
His words settled heavily in the pit of her stomach. The death-smell curled about her coral nose, unfavorably tainting the cool westerly breeze. The healer-woman didn't inquire the matter - An unspoken acceptance of privacy seemed to draw between the two half-strangers; His business was his own, and she'd not endanger herself by seeking to find it out.
"So be it." Alaine's voice, rather than being blunt, seemed regretful. Perhaps disappointed that this meeting between them was so fleeting - Perhaps aware that here was danger and potency, wrapped up in the figure of a man, and that she was going to leave him without a backward glance. Emerald eyes dipped in the sharp moonlight and glittered like the blade of her dagger. Perhaps she would never see him again.
The two stared at each other in silence a moment, her mind sketching his features and branding them into memory. He spoke quietly and she remained still for a moment longer, jade eyes filled with a strange light. "Perhaps, in time. As I hope you will be." The cryptic answer brought a quick smile to her maw, for she knew that had not been his intended question. The smile was genuine, momentarily lighting up her pixie face so that, for the briefest of moments, the years melted away to reveal the beauty she'd once been when she'd run with him along stolen beaches.
"Goodbye, princeling."
And then the woman was gone, a silent shadow that melted back into the darkness, the only thing to note her previous presence being some dainty paw-prints in the dust.
Speak think walk
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