Difference between revisions of "Logs:Routines"

Jocelyn awoke sometime in the few hours left before dawn with a start.

It was dark. The rhythm of breathing near her was not that of the candidate who had bunked above her. Something faintly spicy tickled at her nose.

She was not alone.

Faceted eyes blinked fully open just to her left, sleepy whirling increasing to alertness.

« Jocelyn. »

So it hadn't been some strange hallucination brought on by being so tired when Roszadyth's clutch finally hatched.

« I'm quite real, » Aidavanth said warmly, soothing, even as she wiggled forward to nudge her head into the redhead's shoulder.

Jocelyn trembled, tipping her head closer until it could rest against what she could reach of burnished hide. I almost didn't - I didn't know, spilled from her thoughts.

And Aidavanth knew, she realized with not a little shame. Knew that she had considered walking away, going back to Jounine for her old knot. Knew that, even now, some part of her longed to wake up and begin what was familiar to her, that morning routine culminating in the first meeting with the other headwomen as High Reaches awoke.

Knew that some part of her was as terrified now as the day she stood for the first time on the cusp of fifteen.

« Your home is ours, now, » Aidavanth said gently, carefully brushing her way through Jocelyn's tangle of emotions, the smudges of dread that were beginning to surface as she realized the identity of headwoman was no longer hers. This wasn't a path she had anticipated. Or wanted.

Discomfort curled inside Jocelyn, to be so laid bare before another being. This time, there was nowhere left to bury her feelings. She pressed her eyes shut, but even that provided no escape as tears coursed down her cheeks.

Warmth suffused her senses, at once apologetic and comforting. She wasn't sure how long they stayed nestled together like that, but when hunger sparked suddenly in her middle, pale eyes opened to look, really look at the orange-gold head still pressed to her.

"That's you, isn't it, " Jocelyn whispered aloud, reaching up to wipe the wetness from her face. It felt a little different from her own. A craving for what was nearby.

So she pushed quietly to her feet, watched the little dragon stretch from her couch with those long limbs that promised height yet to come.

A different morning routine was about to begin.