We Will Break Away Together.

He watched her, noting the intensity of her silver gaze as it searched his face. He knew she was trying to find something, perhaps a crack in his resolve, but he was determined not to let her see any doubt. There wasn’t any room for it anyways. This was the path they had chosen, and he would walk it with her, no matter how treacherous. What could go wrong? Everything. But if it went right?

As she spoke again, her voice soft but resolute, Caedes found himself admiring her strength, her determination. She was right; this wasn’t about politics or alliances, but about them. He nodded, a faint smile tugging at his lips as she reigned in his rather cynical web of thought. “As you wish.”

When she took his scarred paw in hers, tracing the roughened pads, a wave of tenderness washed over him. Her touch felt impossibly good, too good. Silver eyes locked onto emerald ones, and in that fleeting instant, he was utterly lost, suspended between the depths of her irises and the dance of light that played upon her retinas. What a fate.

Her confident proclamation brought a rare chuckle from him, a low, rumbling sound that echoed roughly in the cave. Her words were both a promise and a challenge, one he was more than willing to accept. “It is not outlandish.” The scarred brute said, the gruff edges of his voice smoothed by the sincerity of his words. “But it will be a matter of fighting for what we desire.” He paused, the weight of his words settling in the silence that followed.