Sweet Talk. (DragonSong)

[homeboy!]

Staluk nodded, and gave a quiet hum in agreement. "I'm sure they'll enjoy the time off." By the time the two arrived at the herd, the sky was a deep orange. Staluk seemed to tighten up as they arrived, his steps were more intimidating, and his chest puffed out just a little bit further. His voice rumbled in his chest as he greeted others, and his words were terse as he gave directions to set up camp.

He remained this was while interacting with every member of his herd he came across, until his steps slowed and eventually came to a halt. A good distance in front of him sat a group of humans. Staluk stood with one leg raised, debating on moving towards them, then quickly placed it back down. He turned to his mate, "Camellia, could you tell the humans we're setting up camp for the night? Wrenges needs help carrying firewood." He feigned a bit of disdain, but there was an air of nervousness in his words.

[DragonSong]

Once they reached the herd, Camellia split off slightly to weave her way through the clustered centaurs, informing those who had missed Satluk's austere announcement that they were setting up camp for the evening.

It only took a few minutes for the some handful of dozens of their herb members to begin pitching tents and setting up small cook fires, and she wove her way back through the group toward her mate.

Her eyes flickered to the group of eight humans--trailing a bit behind the herd and so not quite at the campsite yet--then back to her mate. She nodded slowly. "Of course. They will most likely wish to part company with us come morning anyway, but we can still offer them the protection of the herd for the night."

Her words were pointed, but still gentle.

[homeboy!]

Days later, a nervous Staluk stood before the Moonlit Glade, nervous to set hoofs on hallowed ground.

The herd had begun moving south, and covered ground quite quickly, over the course of the journey, Staluk was markedly quiet, even more so than his usual stoic self. His brow was often seen furrowed in deep thought, and it seemed his considerations all stood before him. Turning to Camellia, one leg raised, considering moving forward. His eyes asked a silent question.

‘Is it safe to continue?’

[DragonSong]

Camellia had been intent to make sure that the herd had properly bedded down for the evening before she led Staluk through the woods away from their little campsite, toward the Grove. Her eyes kept flicking toward him with a strange combination of curiosity and nerves as they picked their way through the foliage; she wasn't entirely sure herself why, but it almost felt...vulnerable. Strange. Like she would be showing him something deeply personal, private.

Which she supposed she was, in a way, but the Grove was hardly a secret, at least not to their herd. Lakali had never said she wasn't allowed to bring visitors.

So she smiled when he looked at her, and extended a hand to touch his arm lightly in encouragement. "Just stay close to me," she told him softly. "The Grove exists in two worlds. I'd rather not get separated," she added with a wry smile.

[homeboy!]

"Mhm." A nod of understanding came, not of the exact meaning of her words, but of the danger behind them, magic was a fickle friend, and something he felt he was smart enough to fear.

Careful steps took him closer to Camellia as they moved throughout the Grove, he tried to keep his eyes focused on her, but the blooming life around him pulled at his gaze.

"How much longer until we reach her?" Fear sat under his words, and he turned his gaze to the ground in front of him.

[DragonSong]

Camellia paused, sensing his trepidation, and she reached out to lay a hand gently on his arm. With a soft, reassuring smile, she murmured, "Not much further. She may not be in the mortal side of the Grove, however, so if you'd like to meet her we may have to simply wait for her to appear."

Allowing her hand to drop down to his, she twined their fingers together as she set off again, leading him along through the thin, graceful trees toward the center of the Grove.

A massive willow tree dominated the center of the Grove, clearly many decades older than the thinner trees around it. It grew from a tiny island in the center of a pond, from which a stream leaped and babbled its way back out of the enchanted place into the forest beyond. Though it had been almost full dark when Camellia and Staluk had first set out from the herd, here it was twilit, soft, dusky purple light filtering down around them and setting the strange, silvery flowers that peppered the grass to light, almost seeming to glow with a radiance of their own.

Camellia squeezed her mate's hand as she led him out into the clearing between the younger trees and the willow. "And now we wait."

[homeboy!]

"Right.." Staluk came to a stop beside her. "Wait."

As he stood, Staluk's eyes couldn't help but wander the glade. Gaze drawn towards the great tree that stood above the rest. His face remained stoney, but his thumbs ran over the back of his hands with nerves. He could almost feel the magical energy surrounding him, as if it was the very air he breathed, seeping into his lungs, suffocating him. His chest expanded, deep breaths through his nose in an attempt to soothe his nerves. His eyes turned to Camellia, trying his best to block out the unfamiliar landscape that surrounded her.

"How much longer should it be?" Staluk was not an impatient creature, but he wasn't sure how much longer he could last in that place.

[DragonSong]

Her mate's distress was almost palpable, thick in the air, and instinctively she reached out to soothe him, taking his hands in hers and drawing him close so she could rest her head against his shoulder for a moment.

"Hush, love," she murmured, trying to reassure him. "I'm not sure how long. Time is different here, as I said, I can't be sure--"

No sooner had the words left her mouth when the magic in the air shivered and shimmered. Beneath the willow, the air itself seemed to twist, then bend, then slide open, like a gauzy curtain pulled aside with a lazy brush of a hand. From the space between worlds another centaur emerged, though this one had the lower body of a massive, elk-like creature, her brow crowned with antlers as fine as any forest king's.

Camellia stepped back from her mate, crossing one arm over her chest and bowing deeply at the waist. "My lady."

Lakali smiled, golden eyes glinting in the perpetual twilight. "Dear one, you know I have no need for such formalities," the fae woman murmured, taking a step toward the two mortals. She paused, casting her eyes over the stallion curiously. "And you have brought..."

"Staluk," Camellia supplied quickly, straightening up. She glanced at him, then smiled gently and took his hand in hers once more, squeezing his fingers softly. I'm here. Everything is alright. "My mate, and our Herd Stallion."

[homeboy!]

Staluk's body tensed as Camellia took his hands, then relaxed as she pulled him close. His breathing slowed to a normal rate, and his eyes relaxed, focusing on her.

This brief respite was cut short, however, as the Lady of the Glade made her entrance. Suddenly, he was left alone and anxious once more, but composed himself before he made this outwardly known. Eyes looking towards his mate, he copied her bow, but remained silent, this was not his place to speak.

He was content to simply stand back and watch the interaction, until the fae acknowledged him directly. His gaze remained low as Camellia introduced him.

"I am honored to watch you run." A horribly dated traditional greeting, one he had learned from the Herd Elders before he was able to properly wield an axe. Embarrassment soon washed over him, but he remained silent.

[DragonSong]

Camellia smiled, charmed as ever by her mate's fumbling, and the Guardian just looked at him, seeming rather befuddled, but not unkind.

"And...to you," she replied slowly—clearly the greeting was unfamiliar to her, but she wished to reciprocate the sentiment.

"Staluk wanted to see the Glade for himself," Camellia offered when a few moments passed and no one said anything more. She looked up at him with a smile and reached over to squeeze his hand again. "He defends the herd well, my lady. He wished to know what I defend it for."

"I see." Lakali's eyes swept over them both, warm but distant, almost calculating. "And what do you find here, Herd Stallion? Does the Glade speak to you as it does your mate?"

[homeboy!]

Staluk couldn't help but smile a bit at Camellia's compliment, but his face turned stony once again when the fae spoke to him.

'Magic bad.' His mind chanted loud in his head like a neanderthal, his pulse sounding in his ears like a club striking dirt.

Staluk looked around, taking in one thing at a time. The gentle swaying of the trees, the softest of shimmers in the air. It frightened him, not in the way a child fears a spider, nor a cat fears a snake, but it was a feeling that reached into his very core. Doom was the only word he had to describe this sensation, and it showed in his face.

"I don't." He answered plainly. Staluk was up to many tasks, but lying was not one of them. "There are few words for me here, Patron Lakali. I am not as gifted as my better half, I'm afraid."

[DragonSong]

Perhaps surprisingly, Lakali smiled. Then she dipped her head to him--not a bow, but still clearly a gesture of respect.

"I admire and appreciate your candor, Staluk," the fae creature murmured. Her eyes flickered to Camellia and her smile took on a hint of something almost teasing, sisterly. "You chose your mate well, my dear."

The Lead Mare actually blushed, ducking her eyes for a moment to hide her own small smile, though she kept her fingers firmly entwined with her mate's. "I like to think so, my lady."

Lakali smiled again, almost chuckled, and turned her attention back to the Herd Stallion before her expression sobered slightly. "Magic is a gift, yes. But those who cannot wield or sense it are no less truly gifted than those that can. Your gifts are in your strength--both of body and character--and in your willingness to brave the unknown."

The smile was back as she looked between them. "I can see you are afraid, were afraid to come here. And yet you came anyway. For her?"

[homeboy!]

Staluk faltered, if only for a moment. His eyes look to Camellia, then to Lakali. He knew how he wanted to answer, but struggled to find the words. His grip on his mate's hands grew firm, then he answered.

"I come for all of us." He spoke resolutely. "I love my people, but I can only help so much if I am blind to why we run. I wonder if.." He paused, eyes looking to the floor, not in fear, but out of respect for his patron.

"I do not mean to question the hunter in her land, Patron Lakali, but it seems the Herd does more fleeing than running these days." His body turned away from the fae, back to the direction from where they came.

"The oldest of us reminisce on the battles of our past, but our young barely remember how to wield a sword. I know we have changed our ways, but the land hasn't." Staluk raised his head, and his eyes met Lakali's.

"The humans ravage our land in their wars, and what remains, they poach. I fear there will be nothing left." His gaze met Camellia's, worry in his eyes.

"At least, nothing left here."

[DragonSong]

Camellia simply looked back at him in silence, her expression...complicated. Sympathetic, worried, sorrowful, determined--but not disappointed. Even if she felt it, it didn't show.

She shook her head slowly. "I know you're worried, my love," she murmured softly, "but we cannot go back. We've come too far to return to the old ways, we cannot..." Her breath left her in a long, low exhale, eyes skating away. "We just...can't. Of course we must still defend ourselves, of course. But how can we train the young when we have no place to call our own? How can we hunt with humans dogging our steps?"

Her shoulders tensed, moving up toward her ears. There was anger in her voice, not with Staluk, but still there, bubbling beneath her words. She had spent so many years trying to learn to forgive, sometimes she just...forgot. Almost.

"Where would you have us go?" she whispered, her eyes on the ground. Lakali was silent, simply watching the two mortals from a distance. "What would you have us do? We tried to fight. For generations we tried to fight, and all we did was earn more pain--for our enemies but also for ourselves. I don't...I can't see another way.

[homeboy!]

"Will you say nothing?" The words came out with a rumble in Staluk's chest, like mighty thunder. His eyes glared at the silent Fae, then his gaze shifted to his perturbed mate. He clenched his fist, there would be no lightning here today.

He turned so that his body faced Lakali fully, his chest puffed out, not in a show of strength, but of uncompromised resolve. He did not come all this way to buckle here. "Camellia spoke highly of the wisdom this glade offered, this place does not speak to me, but I had hoped it's keeper might."

He took heavy steps towards the Fae, his eyes locked on hers, until they were mere inches away from each other. "I was told you would shepherd our herd to wider plains. I will not stand idly by as you leave us to the wolves." A hoof slammed into the ground to punctuate his point.

[DragonSong]

"Staluk!"

Camellia's shout was equal parts reprimanding and suddenly terrified. And it seemed she had a right to be.

Lakali, who had been watching the conversation in silence with that soft, warm glow to her eyes, suddenly lifted her head and straightened her spine. Staluk was not small, but as the Keeper of the Moonlit Glade gripped her staff and held it across her body in a clear defensive stance, allowing herself to draw up to her full height, she suddenly towered over him. The points of her antlers glinted in the twilight, wickedly sharp, and the warm had abruptly left her eyes.

"I have tolerated your presence here, mortal, for her sake. But do not think you may trespass the borders of this place with such disrespect and still flee untouched."

Camellia gasped and took an instinctive step back, hands flying up to cover her ears. When Lakali spoke, it was with the voice of the Keeper--not a single voice, but hundreds, thousands, soft as a whisper and yet thunderous. The Glade around them shivered with the sudden power in the air, trees curving toward their guardian, the soft lavender light flickering toward something darker. In the sudden shadows, Lakali's eyes were the only light, gleaming gold. Burning. 

"I am not your shepherd," the Keeper hissed, each word a new thrum of magic through the air. Camellia struggled to keep her feet, instinctively reaching out for her mate to try to pull him back. "I am not your guide. Your Herd and your struggle drew my sympathy, but you. Are. Tiny. You are a flicker of light in the endless darkness, gone but the moment you shine. I am eternal. What are you to me, mortal thing?"

She stared him down, heat and shadow and magic swirling through the air around them, suffocating, closing in--

And then it was gone, just as quickly as it had begun. Lakali closed her eyes and sighed, leaning on her staff seemingly for support as she allowed her head and shoulders to curve forward slightly. Camellia sucked in a sharp, desperate breath, and suddenly she could move again. She twisted around in an effort to place her body between the Keeper and her mate, head bowed in a desperate bid of respect.

"Forgive me, my lady. I should not have come here this night. We'll go," she murmured, voice shaking slightly.

"...Little Blossom."

The Lead Mare jerked her head up, surprised the fae woman would have used the pet name after such a display--surprised she'd bothered to speak to her again at all, after that.

Lakali's eyes no longer held that warmth, but they were softer again. "I am not your shepherd," she repeated, and Camellia's stomach twisted. "But...perhaps I can offer a word of advice." She tilted her head, looked between mare and stallion.

"Sometimes the way forward, is the way back."

And she was gone. Blended into moonlight and magic as though she had never been.

[homeboy!]

Staluk's fists clenched tight, his fingernails digging into the skin of his palm as he stared the guardian down. Rage boiled within him, the anger of prey backed into a corner, the sudden ferocity of the deer when its back is to a wall. He would not move, even as this thing- this demon closed in with its sorcery.

Suddenly, it stopped, but Staluk was a statue still. Even as his mate stood before him, trying to ease the thing's wrath. The ringing in his ears drowned out most of their words, so Staluk was left to seethe in his own thoughts. Never again would he bow before magic. He watched as Lakali spoke to the mare, and the suddenly, it vanished, and he could move again.

"I was a fool to have come here." The only words he spoke before he turned around and began to walk back the way he came.

[DragonSong]

"Staluk--Staluk, wait."

She was only a few steps behind him, turning her back on the Grove more quickly than she ever had before. The warm magic of the place was no longer welcoming, no longer calling her to stay just a moment or two longer, surely that wouldn't do any harm...

"Staluk, look at me," Camellia demanded, breaking into a brief canter so she could wheel around in front of her mate and plant herself before him, eyes fierce and mouth drawn into a thin line.

The Lead Mare may have been the one to declare that the Moonflower Herd would follow a path of peace, but she had not come to that conclusion lightly, or easily. The tense, sharp lines of her body, the snapping fire behind her eyes, were an abrupt reminder that Camellia had been just as much a warrior as her mate ever was--and that perhaps that anger, that fire, had not truly faded from her spirit. Not really.

Though she was smaller than him, she drew herself up to her full height and made it very clear, even without words, that if he wanted to get passed her he was going to have to physically remove her from his path.

[homeboy!]

Staluk stomped silently through the glade, Camellia's call falling on deaf ears, his brow was furrowed, eyes locked forward to the path ahead of him. In that moment, the only thing he cared about was returning to the Herd, and getting it as far away from that place as possible. Then, barrier presented herself in front of him, one he could not bring himself to move.

'Look at me.'

Look at her he did, and the fire in her eyes was what brought him to heel, seeing her frustration seemed to temper his own. Truthfully, this resolve on display was why he followed her, her strength, this warrior's ferocity, this was why he cared for her so. Remembering this, he seemed to cool down, if only a little, then crossed his arms over his chest.

"I see you."

[DragonSong]

"Do you?"

The words were quick, sharp, cutting. A demand as much as an accusation.

Camellia closed her eyes for a moment, took a breath in what seemed to be an effort to center herself, then looked up to meet his gaze again. Her expression was a little softer, but the fire had not faded, not completely.

"Do you see me?" she repeated, voice a little gentler even if her eyes weren't. "Do you see what I am? What I've become? Do you see what I've done to try to protect our people?"

She closed her eyes again and finally dropped her head, shoulders hunching forward slightly. "Do you think I don't hate them?" she whispered, so low it almost couldn't be heard over the wind in the trees. "Humans took everything from me, Staluk. Do you truly think I am able to move on, to bear them no ill will?"

Her jaw clenched, hands curling into fists at her sides. "Do you think I take the Keeper's words lightly? That she just...told me peace was the best path, and I listened? No. Staluk I saw. She gave me visions, flashes of a future I never want for our people, never. And this, what we are now, is the only way I know to prevent it."

Another sigh, and she lifted her head again to look up into his face. The fire behind her eyes was smoldering embers now, flickering and desperate and warm. "Human greed took everything from me," she whispered. One hand reached up to cup his cheek in her palm. "Please. I can't loose you too. Not to this."

Did he have any idea of the risk he'd taken, speaking to Lakali like that? A creature as old and powerful as the Keeper could have snuffed out his life like a candle in a brisk wind. Even if Camellia still believed she never truly would.

And it became clear that more than angry with him, his mate was afraid. Not so much of the Keeper herself, but of the risk Staluk had taken.