Fading bruises, stark memories

[evendar]

Narna washed her face carefully with her hands, slipping the string onto her chain like her mothers ring that had been there moments before. She sniffed back any lasting tears and covered her bruised face with her hair. She sighed big and went to catch up to Mutasim, noticing now the drastic difference in their heights. She was a tall girl, and that was all the more noticeable now. She was also much older than the scrawny Mutasim. Well not much older, but a few years. It should be she who was leading, but in all truth she didn't feel like being the leader much anymore. It was what she had been her whole life, and letting someone else take the reigns for a while seemed like a grand idea.

She put her straight face into place as she caught up with Mutasim, reaching out to grab his hand like she had done to N'vis so many times before, but now it was her who needed the reassurance, the guidance. She was for once not the one to give it.

For now she was alright, her strength returned enough to get her through another day or two. And now she knew when she had to break down again she had someone who would listen, someone who would understand. She finally had someone in her life who wasn't her brother. She had a friend.

((End Thread?))

[Requiem]

((Short Reqqy post alert))

It was amazing how, even after having held her, the older girl's hand tightening on his own shocked Mutasim at first. After a second, though, his grip tightened, the boy giving her hand a reassuring squeeze. He did not smile. Nothing in his demeanor might have betrayed happiness. This was too solemn a time for any of that, and he was a solemn person besides.

But he had changed. There was a peacefulness about him that hadn't been there before. Mutasim had found a small place of belonging at Selenitas. And he had found a friend who could begin to understand the darkness that lay, coiled, in the depths of his soul.

((FINIS!!))