stranger than earth

Soft song from the griffin's throat — maybe something softens in your eyes. Maybe not; maybe that's just a trick of the light. But then you feel the girl's attention shifting toward you, soft and luminous. Not a pinning gaze like your mother's. Not a wrenching gaze like your father's. Just.... soft. "I'm not going back." The steel in it! She speaks the words like a promise held at your throat. In them, you hear something a little different: You're not taking me back. You snort, your breath a jet of pale fog. The nearest thing to a laugh you've uttered in a very, very long time. Your gaze shifts. Dark eyes rake the southern horizon, if not with interest then with scrutiny. A long time since you ventured farther south. You'd prefer not to return to that time, but you'd prefer a lot of things which will never be. You understand this. “There's nowhere to go back to,” you point out. The resonant tones of the words are a far cry from the fluting lilt of your childhood voice, almost comically deep combined with the delicate shape of your features. You're being honest, though. Your eyes narrow and pause at a random point, something dark lancing through them. She probably means something different than you do because she never had a home, but anywhere you spend in this place is.... well, it's just a waste of time. You don't know where the others are right now, and you tire of looking for them. Vesper, grown, shines better in her own light, anyway. You're sure of that. Your head turns back toward Savera. Ears flick up. “Where are you going?” you wonder aloud. It hasn't occurred to you, really, that you wouldn't go with her. She is family. At least — she is the moon's blood, and therefore yours. Precious, even if she lacks the steel of your mother's spine. Heir only to your father's wandering heart, and whatever her own mother passed down (nothing of use, you're sure). So it is in your mind already, that you'll watch over her. You will, as naturally as breathing. The two of you, lesser than your siblings but alive. If you don't watch out for each other, who will? countdown to selfdestruct

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@Savera