On your shoulders
Aubrey didn't know why she'd let them talk her into it. Street festivals had been a trying experience for her even in the sleepiest of countryside towns but celebrating the Day of Turning in the heart of the kingdom? Nightmare didn't even begin to cover it. She'd been shoved, jostled, and groped more times than she cared to count and they hadn't even made it through the city gates yet. Traveling in the all encompassing shadows of the twins didn't seem to lessen the harassment. If anything, it was worse, bodies pressing in hard on all sides as if the crowd resented the amount of space their mere presence demanded. As the city gates loomed just ahead, Aubrey found it harder and harder to slip into the space they left behind. Getting separated was an inevitability the small mage gave into when faced with the crush of humanity trying to all fit through the main gate at one time. It was wide enough for two wagons to fit comfortably and yet they were slowed to almost a crawl, Aubrey finding herself fighting to simply not be smothered while the twins plowed steadily onwards - and further and further away from her.
She resisted the urge to call out to them to wait for her, casting a resigned and dispirited glance after their quickly disappearing backs before turning her dark eyes stubbornly downwards and simply letting the currant of the human river carry her forward.....
...right into Skoll's waiting arms.
She only had time to recognize the shape of the hands and the insignia on the leather bracers which were wrapped around the forearms which were reaching for her before she was being hoisted and deposited on Hati's broad left shoulder, the warrior's arm curling up around her calf to grip at her knee and hold her securely in place while he reached with his other hand to guide her arm around his neck. She looked down at him in wide eyed surprise, flushing at the broad grin the man flashed back at her. Skoll was laughing - a soft outward breathing accompanied by a broad smile of her own, something easily lost in the chaos of sound that enveloped them as they finally entered the city proper but Aubrey heard it, reaching out reflexively to catch hold of the women's hand as she laughed as well.
For the first time in her life, the mage experienced the joy of being one the many revelers rather than being simply surrounded by them.
It was not a memory she would soon forget.
She resisted the urge to call out to them to wait for her, casting a resigned and dispirited glance after their quickly disappearing backs before turning her dark eyes stubbornly downwards and simply letting the currant of the human river carry her forward.....
...right into Skoll's waiting arms.
She only had time to recognize the shape of the hands and the insignia on the leather bracers which were wrapped around the forearms which were reaching for her before she was being hoisted and deposited on Hati's broad left shoulder, the warrior's arm curling up around her calf to grip at her knee and hold her securely in place while he reached with his other hand to guide her arm around his neck. She looked down at him in wide eyed surprise, flushing at the broad grin the man flashed back at her. Skoll was laughing - a soft outward breathing accompanied by a broad smile of her own, something easily lost in the chaos of sound that enveloped them as they finally entered the city proper but Aubrey heard it, reaching out reflexively to catch hold of the women's hand as she laughed as well.
For the first time in her life, the mage experienced the joy of being one the many revelers rather than being simply surrounded by them.
It was not a memory she would soon forget.