[PRP] In The Flesh [Swarm/Dapper Mantis]

[Jun D]

Crouched cringing over a rather irate mantis, it took Dapper some time before he realised the attack had been called off. First cracking one eye hesitantly open to make sure there were no waiting stingers, then the other, he sheepishly straightened (nudging the chirring, clicking mantis behind him) and came to stand like a half-way normal Kin before the doe, ducking his head in embarrassment.

"Sorry about that," he apologised apologetically - then he looked up and his world crashed to a stop.  

[Ruriska]

They didn’t have time to fight and attack everything that wandered into their territory. They could have been hurt. Leave this to her. This Swarm communicated to the two wasps with a simple sigh and a shift of stance.

It was only when the buck spoke to her, interrupting her moment with Brother and Sister, that she actually bothered to look at him.

Her eyes narrowed. Her next breath caught in her chest before being forced out in a rush. It was impossible.  

[Jun D]

The wasps were forgotten. The world was forgotten. Even his sole companion, that he had just been about to risk his life for, was completely forgotten. It had been so long since that dream; it changed his life. It always only ever felt like last night since that dream. Every time he closed his eyes he could summon the vision of that filly full-formed in his mind - often, he did.

And this doe that stood before him...this doe was everything that vision was, but grown.

The vision that had driven him every single day of his life ever since.

Every single day.

Before him now.

In the flesh.

"It's you," he breathed.  

[Ruriska]

She didn’t move.

She hardly breathed.

She was stone.

In contrast, the wasps reacted to her discomfort (they could feel the too quick ‘thump thump thump’ of her heart) with a threatening display for Dapper and the mantis.  

[Jun D]

Court was all too ready to go another round, but Dapper saw nothing - nothing but the jet of her fur and hair, the sharp gold of her eyes. Just as he'd always remembered, that black and that gold, just as he'd chased after, day after day, night after night, fighting that neverending path.

Helpless, in thrall, he took a step towards her motionless form.  

[Ruriska]

It was the wrong move and the wasps interpreted his step forward as a sign of aggression. He would get closer to their queen only over their dead bodies.

"I said enough." The words snapped the wasps back into place as if they had hadn't been considering sticking their stingers through Dapper's eyes.

That she could not place this emotion, could not even begin to understand the wild beat of her heart and the tightness in her chest, was maddening.

But there was one fact that was clear.

"You finally found me."  

[Jun D]

"Yes," there was something ragged in his voice, like the verge of a sob, "I searched every day. I promised."

He had no eyes for all that was not her, no ears save for what she spoke to him.

(Court had given up on the whole affair and was sulkily munching on a regular-sized bee he had reached out to snag partway through Dapper's mooniness.)  

[Ruriska]

He was a half-remembered dream in the flesh and she wasn't sure what to do with him.

When she met his gaze, it was overwhelmingly earnest.

"Don't... kill him," she said to Brother and Sister, deliberately looking away towards the snacking mantis. "Either of them."

And then she turned...

... and she walked away.