Talon - The Change

Chapter 38 - You don't have to be nervous, I can't run.

He felt her, very lightly but he knew. He limped heavily along the path to find her staring up at the library. He noted the changes in her since last time.

       "Marvelous architecture isn't it?" he smiled as she jumped nervously.

       "You don't have to be nervous, I can't run." He chuckled sublimely.

       "I guess I am." He noticed the nervous tension running through her body, and the way her eyes didn't quite meet his. He suspected the reason.

       "Would you like to go in and talk? I'd offer to walk and talk but I'd reach my limit within minutes."

He watched as she caught her bottom lip with her white teeth. His held grabbed his cane tightly, trying to focus his growing fear that after finally finding her...she would scamper. He really couldn't run.

       "'Ok"' She said quietly, looking at him sideways.

       "You know, Talon, you have remarkably beautiful hair. I for one am decidedly jealous. What I wouldn't give for some lustre." He ran a hand through his sparse wiry hair, smiling as she flicked her eyes to it, her mouth turning up in one corner.

He watched carefully then as he saw strong emotions flit through her eyes before they were swallowed by an assessing look of her own. He had guessed correctly.

       He smiled and turned slowly to lift his stiff leg onto the next step.

       "Oh God, I have been dreaming on this for centuries and now my mind is totally blank. I have forgotten everything that I've ever wanted to ask."  She sighed rubbing her hands up and down her legs.

He leant toward her and placed his elbows on the table between them, "I for one am glad that you've misplaced most of those questions, otherwise we'd be here another century." He was rewarded by a smile. Her eyes glowed blue when she seemed happy.

       He reached out his hand to hers, noting the small hesitation before she lifted hers from her lap to grasp his.

 

       * I feel rude, I never formally introduced myself. I am Rieden, Brother of the Nihngard*

       *Nihngard?* He felt her confusion as he let go her hand.

       'That is the name of my tutoring compound,' he answered,s he must have been young at their fall.

       'I'm Talon ...of the Golden Sun,' he watched fascinated as her eyes turned from him and darkened from a neon blue to stormy sea blue, her body racked with tension. He threw his hand out on the table, palm up. A frown creased her forehead as she looked at it, slowly placing her into his. He felt the fear of rejection course through him. The linage of the Golden Sun was nothing to be ashamed of; in fact it was a lineage that was beginning to become legendary for its skill, wit and bravery and also of the fierceness of it's leader.

       *What are you worried about?* Trepidation and pain swam through the connection, his stomach clenched at her hurt.

       He waited patiently while she sorted through her emotions.

       *That I've waited all this time...for someone. And I'm scared that ... that you... you may not think I'm good enough*

His head throbbed and his stomach flooded with nausea from the ache crashing through the link but if he let go now, she would believe it. Rallying unknown strength, he pushed the pain to the side.

       * Well, I think that when you get to know me you may think the opposite. You my dear, are wonderful, exactly what you are born to be *