Private Tales The Storm With No End

[Mylo]

When she touched his face, his eyes fluttered open, wide, awed, boyish again. Her thumb against his cheekbone made his breath hitch.

Dreamer, she called him, Her dreamer. He’d never been called anything so soft in his life. Had never been claimed by words either. Hers. Gods... if only.

“And dream I shall. Every night, for as long as I live..” he whispered, gravelly as though he'd just been woken from the most comfortable of sleeps.

And still, when she offered one more, his lips curved in a helpless, crooked grin. “I’d be a fool to refuse.”

He met her halfway, slower, deeper, his hand kneading gently at the back of her neck, his thumb brushing her jaw as if to memorise the shape of her. The kiss lingered longer than it should have, a tangle of soft sighs and unspoken need before he finally pulled away, breath unsteady.

He smiled faintly. “You’ve gone and ruined me, Angel.. Something for your notes."

 

[Stasya]

Stasya laughed, returning to her seat but still kept to leaning on the side of his bed. "Tell me more about yourself, Mylo. I want to know all I can of you."

He was not entirely innocent, but Stasya was confident she could make a case be heard before the Princess... the only thing was she needed Nadya's word to back up her plea. Stasya knew her sister would give a lecture, and if not her, Cullen would. Everyone seemed to have their minds made up about Mylo, but Stasya was a firm believer in her guy about knowing who was a truly genuine person.

"Your full name... maybe about where you grew up?" What was a younger Mylo like?

She smiled at him, for he had called her an angel once again. Her lips still tingled from their shared kisses, but she did not wish to be caught kissing a patient while on duty. Even if the halls were quiet, the medics all knew who her sister was.

 

[Mylo]

He was in a dream, drifting somewhere between waking and the soft haze she’d left behind on his lips. The world beyond her felt unreal, the faint lamplight, the smell of linen and medicinal herbs and lilac perfume.. but she was real. Her hand, warm and delicate, fit perfectly in his as he took it and drew it gently against his chest.

“Oh… well,” he began, his voice a low murmur. “My full name is Mylo James Penrose.” A small, self deprecating smile tugged at his mouth. “Both my parents are gone now. You’ve already met my brothers, sorry about that, and I had a little sister once.” His gaze drifted to the ceiling, his tone quieting. “After our mother died, my father gave her away. Said he couldn’t feed us all and daughters were a mother's job.” He swallowed, forcing the next breath.

He paused, his thumb absently brushing along her knuckles. “My family are part of the Stille. We were travellers, long before the city walls were built, some say even before Thanasis itself. The old tales claim we had magic in our blood, once, before the dragons took it from us. When they bound us here, we couldn’t leave, so we stayed. Became the Stille - the still ones.”

A faint smile returned to his face, wistful and proud all at once. “We still keep our painted caravans, we live in the forest hills, just beyond the city. Our fires still burn at night, the songs are still sung. We remember who we were.”

His eyes flicked back to her, soft and curious. “Now you,” he murmured, that lazy grin curling at his lips..

 

[Stasya]

Something familiar about what he said came forth, but she was glad for his explanation, for it helped her understand what she remembered. They lived in communities usually, and celebrated a close knit bond between their people. At least, in her books, they all knew how to dance and sing to express their happiness.

Stasya could inagine him dancing, his smile lighting uo the world as he laughed. She suddenly grew jealous of any girl that danced with him before.

"I never knew what about the Stille... magic... imagine how different life would be if your people still held that..." she pondered aloud. Her brush with magic was the dragons, and more specifically Faye's blind dragon, Cathán. As a white dragon, they were more susceptible to possessing magic, and he was able to heal others by calming them enough to accept the assistance.

"Did you live by the forest your entire life? Did you visit Thanasis many times before now?"

 

[Mylo]

Mylo smiled faintly at her words, though there was a wistfulness in it, a quiet kind of ache that lingered behind his eyes. A lust for power, when he'd always felt so powerless, perhaps. “Hm…” he murmured, his gaze drifting somewhere distant. “Maybe it’s better we lost it. We’d only have found ways to ruin ourselves with it.”

Her question drew him back. “Oh, I visited the city often,” he said lightly, though the faint wince that flickered across his features betrayed more than he intended. He didn’t elaborate, but it wasn’t hard to imagine him slipping through crowded markets, hands light as shadows as they picked through pockets and market stalls. “But yes,” he added quietly, “I’ve lived by the forests all my life..”

Then he glanced back at her, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. “You didn’t answer my question,” he said softly. “What was it like, growing up a Lady of Thanasis? All silks and tutors and... dragon galas, I imagine?” His tone was teasing, but there was a gentle curiosity beneath it, a yearning to see the world she came from , a world so far from his own.

 

[Stasya]

Her cheeks warmed, that he noticed she had not answered a question when she had been so enraptured by him. She wanted to tell him to not be afraid and tell her everything of his life. Stasya would not judge him for it.

Leaning forward a little, Stasya found his eyes and met them with serenity. "I had more of a focus on myself growing up. Nadya was bonded to the last remaining Storm Dragon in Thanasis, and so that made all look at me to see if I would follow in her footsteps. Participate in the Rising perhaps, find myself a dragon... instead, I liked the comfort of silk and dances." Her hand flexed in his as worry set in between her brows. "Dragons terrified me. Seeing Kalyss up close the first time, I cried!" Stasya let out a burst of laughter, for she could laugh about it now. "And the same with Cullen's dragon, Meala. I have come to learn not to fear them. I only need to learn how they act, become familiar with them."

Stasya got caught in his stare. His eyes were flecks and flickers of colour; the green caught in various shades captivated her a moment. Mylo certainly possessed eyes of a dreamer. "I am to be the next in line for the title, as Nadya stepped down as heir to pursue her goal of reaching the high ranks within the Thunder. Suitors and friends came and went, but my father told us to choose whoever we wanted. Our mother has the final say, of course. The title is handed down to the women in House Caliar. An old curse, one that saw the original Great House come to end." She crinkled her nose, realising that she was going off topic.

"I have not spoken this much in a long while." She admitted, but she liked sharing all of this with someone of interest.