A Starlit Ballet

VALKYRIE She stood in the storm Bathed in the rich purple twilight emanating from her guide, Valkyrie (whose pasty coat too, was aglow beautifully across her neck, rump and sloping spine), let her light blue eyes absorb the serenity of the night-kissed crater. How queer it seemed, even to her, that a wilderness so unexpectedly pristine, could exist so peacefully beside the fringe of revolting, fetid quagmire; actually, it reminded her of the way she, herself, dwelled so tolerantly in the brutish face of masculinity. She gazed in wonder from the murky stagger of pines cloaking the slope in the dimming distance, to the nearer boulders of deep obsidian hue, and then again back to K’yarie, whose ethereal mane billowed playfully out in wake of her gliding stride. When they paused, the soft glitter of motionless water attracted her crystal gaze. The goddess to her side drew a breath and released it at length, only complimenting further the grandeur of the moment and Valkyrie too, sighed gently, for a feeling of belonging seemed to colour her young mind. There, before the starlit body of black water, a smile grew broader across the pale pink breadth of her mouth. “It’s perfect…” she answered the smooth question as it touched with feather-lightness to her turned, white ear; and beneath her breath, the enamoured Shieldmaiden added, “just like you.” Though she might have liked to bask there in the splendour of that minute forever, she withdrew her admiring gaze reluctantly from the other and sinewy limbs stretched forward to carry her along behind, in the direction of the lake. As they strode, the paler keeping in line with K’yarie’s spangled thigh, she listened closely to the advice being offered - something sinister perhaps, lurking beneath that crystalline facade. As though expecting something to rise from the depths and greet their arrival, Valkyrie’s curious eyes danced around the surface hesitantly and she lingered on the sloping embankment while the goddess descending without even a splash. The orbs that turned constantly around the otherworldly mare, illuminated the lake well and soon the Daughter of Sunnmōre was closing the remaining distance; slipping with baited breath into the icy, lovely water. Pausing as she reached the point where the other was waiting, the creamy-white smiled cautiously. Valkyrie had witnessed a great many monsters since arriving in the Rift, and as she slipped quietly on to a deeper area, she was careful to wade only where K’yarie’s light beamed.   and when the wind did not blow her way, she adjusted her sails.

img