it’s warm, the sort of muggy heat that trips early spring into summer. light streaks through the trees & casts golden fronds over the glimmering lake water.
lexa’s braids are damp from the trek ; the nape of her neck clings to the thick pelt of her cloak. little curls meander away from her temples. she’s thankful for the lack of paint streaming down her cheeks today even with the heavy drape of her pauldron. & as her toes creep up to the shore of where tree shade meets the bright bath of sun on the grass, she strips it from her shoulder, fingertips working at the clasps on her coat.
❛ i used to come out here after we finished training for the day. ❜ she says, reaching for the hem of her shirt, the buttons on her pants. once she’s bare, sapling legs & vines of ink crawling up the weather-bronze length of her spine, she strides easily toward the water. a hooking smirk tugs her lips as she squints back at her wife. ❛ it’s quiet. none of the other novitiates ever could find it. ❜ & in those moments, they were the last her mind knew silence, no commanders tittering in her ear as they do now. ❛ do you like to swim? ❜