balter (v.) - to dance artlessly, without particular grace or skill but usually with enjoyment
(Killan Josta exists in @wildfaewhump‘s Iesin and Talvos universe)
Tagging Killan’s crew: @astrobly @burtlederp , @finder-of-rings , @slaintetowhump , @quirkykayleetam , @whumpallday , @whumppsychology, (if you would like to be added to an OC’s tag list, please send your request via an ask! Those are easier for me to keep track of and I tend to lose requests in comments, reblogs, tags, or PMs!)
CW: Mind control, magical compulsion, brief hinted-at upcoming potential gore, kind of pet whump in that Calon Nie basically thinks Killan is a sentient prey animal he owns now
Calon Nie could not dance.
Killan was making a list inside his head - the only safe place to keep such a thing, even though he was pretty sure Calon Nie couldn’t read or write in any human language - of things Calon Nie couldn’t do.
He could fly, he could make Killan do or feel whatever he wanted - even if there was always some dim scream in his mind that reminded him that he had a mind, and Calon Nie never kept it forever. He could light a fire with a hissed whisper to a green twig, he could lurk unseen in the branches of trees, dive for prey from the sky like a stone dropped from a great height at immense speed, bashing into deer and rolling them dead before they hit the ground, tearing into them with his talons and teeth and then hauling back what he didn’t need for Killan to dress, cook, and eat himself.
He stared at Killan with those unsettling yellow eyes, slit pupils widening with an occasional fascination that was even worse than his usual focus. He could, he said, speak to stars. He knew more about the world than Killan did, or at least he knew more about the skies above it.
In the mountains, he said, there were more like him - many more, and more powerful. Killan shuddered in terror at the idea of meeting any fae who had more control over him than Calon already did.
No fear, you, Calon Nie murmured when he saw the tears glimmer as tracks down Killan’s cheeks. He did not command it - only suggested, ran his knuckles down Killan’s face, talons carefully turned away. No fear. Buachaill del is Calon Nie’s human. No one hurt you but me.
Killan was not reassured.
But beside his list of things Calon Nie could do, Killan was also keeping a list of things he couldn’t.
Top of the list? Dance.
Calon Nie liked Killan to show him human dances, but having to balance with his wings threw him off the steps. He did them anyway, his screeching inhuman laughter-sounds echoing off the trees, startling birds away into the air. Killan watched them go with envy twisting dark around his heart.
If only he could fly-
But no, Calon Nie had wings. Daydreaming about flight wouldn’t mean anything like escape, not now.
So he kept in his mind the list of things Calon Nie could not do.
He couldn’t dance.
He couldn’t make Killan think new things, not forever.
He was scared of humans, no matter how derisive he acted about them. He avoided any hint of human habitation with his captive in tow, sent Killan for supplies with money he stole from the murdered bandits that had been the closest Killan had to a family.
He couldn’t go back to his family or into the mountains, although Killan didn’t know why. He wouldn’t say, only that he would only go home when he had an offering.
He couldn’t dance, he couldn’t go home, he couldn’t make his captive human love him. He couldn’t take Killan’s mind away from him forever.
But he-
He could-
He could keep cutting those things, those symbols, into Killan’s skin-
He could take Killan’s mind for a while. He could twist his heart with jealousy and fear. And he could swear, day by day, that one day Killan would hear the starsong and never want a human mind again.
You show me dancing, Calon Nie said, And I show you how to see starsong, to fly.
I don’t have eyes like yours and I can’t learn to fly. I don’t have wings, Killan said, lips barely moving.
Calon Nie’s eyes had spat reflections from the fire. You will. I give you wings, one day. I give you fae eyes.
Killan had asked, how? with his heart in his throat.
Calon only smiled, with all his sharp teeth, and began to dance again.