ORIGIN

His mind had begun to drift. He didn't mean for it to wander entirely; he couldn't help but entertain the thought. The thought of the two of them going to a place nobody else could go. Exploring the desolate, quiet quartz points that rose up from the ceiling like hills, like mountains, glittering in the distance. In the beyond that was the gaping maw of Orion. There they could talk forever, they could stop and relish one anothers' presences, they could lie hidden from everybody else with just themselves. He hadn't realized that his lips were beginning to curl in another smile. It was completely against his will, that one, but it happened as his mind took them to a place where they could be themselves. She wouldn't have to worry about being weird, he wouldn't have to worry about being brave. They didn't have to be anything but themselves.

When he looked at her again, she was all he saw. The rest of the cave had vanished. Dreams of the quartz mountains rose up all around them, mirrors, reflections, windows to another time, or a possibility. She was glowing and golden and everything that she would be in a dream, because she was one. A living, breathing dream before him, how did he ever get so lucky? What had he done to be blessed with such a dream? He never knew that another could be so important to him, and yet as he held her in his gaze now, he could feel only bliss and gratitude. The thought that he'd never want this dream to end, this dream of her, of them.

His eyes closed and it felt like he'd suddenly been taken away. Whisked off into the dream that was Clover. Her golden light, her warmth, her sweet aura, everything that was perfect and desired engulfed him now. She enveloped him in her entirety and he'd never felt as comfortable as he did then, like her breathing was his, like the softness of her mind was in him. That gentle tranquility. He couldn't understand it, maybe this was what love was, what the bear and the lioness felt. He didn't want it to end. It was being so immersed in another that he felt matched in all her greatest aspects, which was everything - every hair and every breath and every thought and every feeling was his, and hers, and theirs. He synchronized his heart with hers and reached for it, and when he grasped it, he held so tightly -

But she opened her eyes, and he felt his opening too, and the thought that blared in his mind was Goddess. She was some Divine materialized, no, she had always been there, the dream. Celestial, like the stars, like the sky. That far away wish. He smiled even wider.

She could feel his love, his vision of perfection in his eyes, of her, and she laughed, her eye fluttering, her head moving to her beloved Bartos. It filled her to the brim, that someone could think so much of her, could want everything about her and think every little thing about her was glory defined.

If I'm a Goddess, you are a God, my love, and we'll reside in the starry sky together, always. It will be our home, and no one will ever bother us there.

She thought of the dream she had, the one that perfectly described her Bartos, and she gave it to him, like a gift, wordlessly explaining it to them, reveling in it. It was her love for them, and when words failed, she could just....offer it. It was magical. Then, when Bartos has taken it in, she leaned down and gave her cat a kiss, a very gentle one, on the lips, her eye half-lidded.

I want...I want everything, just with you. Do you know how beautiful you are, Bartos? Your pure fascination, your genius, your smile, your enthusiasm for beauty and knowledge, your acceptance...everything about you is wonderful. I want to be with you always, Bartos.

She thought towards the wedding with the bear and the lion, and she smiled.

My husband.

"This is how I speak."

The sight of those eyes beneath fluttering lashes - like butterflies in his stomach, making his grin draw wider, and a laugh of his own bubbled up from his chest. How had he gotten so lucky? How had he gotten so lucky? How could one so beautiful come to cherish him so, how could she even accept him in her presence? It didn't matter now, he was here, and she was here, and he just loved that she loved him and he loved everything about her in turn. The voice of hers rose through his mind like a symphony of thoughts and feelings, and he hadn't even questioned it; no, because it felt right, like they were thinking the same thing. Bartos blinked and laughed again. He needn't even pass the words, just the feeling was enough to relay his eternal wish:

I'll take you to our special world. You will be the Goddess and I will be the King, and I will make everything for you that you've ever wanted. I will call all eyes and ears to our home and you will tell the story and I will head the audience. It is your realm, I will make it for you, eternally.

Could he have asked for anything more? She gave him that dream; perhaps, just as he had given her hers. Then her kiss came like blossoms of warmth once more and Bartos gazed up at her, his eyes bright and blue and rounder than they had ever been - then closed, relishing her touch that wrapped him up in its sweet, melodious embrace. He could practically melt there before her, and he hadn't realized that he had begun to purr again, giving every part of himself to her. He didn't want her to leave. He didn't want to leave, either. He wondered if they could stay here together. At least, until he took them up to the quartz mountains above.

Her confession was enough to wrench everything else from his very depths. If he hadn't given his entirety to her before then, then that would be the moment that he wholly belonged to her. His body, his mind, his wants, his dreams, his wishes, his nightmares, his intentions, his follies, they were all hers now to do with what she wanted. And her desire for everything was matched by his quietly-in-love whimsy, You are ethereal, and You are gold, and You are light where there is and isn't, you embrace and permeate me, you are a feeling all your own that I want for all of time.

Slivers of cobalt eased from his chest, like shards of his very heart that he presented to his darling doe. When he heard them fall, he laughed again, the rumble in his chest erupting with each peal of adoration. He leaned back on his hind paws and reached one forward, gentle against her cheek as he planted a kiss of his own on her nose, feeling fulfilled, like it belonged, like it was only right. It was.

She could feel them just stand there amazed to find their love so complete, and to wonder why she would even be around them, and she pushed towards them, shaking her head so slightly.

My love, you found me, you cherish me, you save me. How could I not love you? There's no one else in the caves that can give what you give by just being near me. You are perfection. And when it comes time to tell stories among the stars, the one who'll be curled by me always will be you.

His voice, his love, was a song, a perfection that she poured herself into making him understand. She was the one who was lucky.

And as she kissed him, as she spoke through their connection, she felt their pure selflessness and tears sprang to her eyes, butterflies and soothing electric thrills running through her legs when she felt it as if it were her own. She listened to his compliments, his love, and when she felt like no moment could've topped her life, this was by far the purest and sweetest of them all, with his lovely sweeping words that were like music, like poetry, something only intended for her and no one else.

I love you so much, Bartos. My love. My perfection. My husband.

Then she leaned down to the two cobalt chips that fell from his heart, like glittering gifts to her, and she kissed them both till they gleamed with an inner, bright gold light, like they truly were fallen stars for the both of them to keep. He leaned in and kissed her on the nose, and she laughed softly, her breath on his soft fur.

"This is how I speak."

He hadn't been lurking for long but what he did stick around to see made him sick. Had he not told Clover of the evils of carnivores? And here she was frolicking with one like a lovestruck yearling. The words spoken made him sick. He really wanted to gag and throw up hid cud which wasn't a statement that he made lightly. How dare this bastard come and take away his Clover, his Pure One. A stupid carnivore could never truly appreciate her like he could! He would use her and then toss her aside just like Arkrael! They were all demons! All beasts... The reason why he could let this stand no longer.

He waited patiently, allowing them to exchange kisses before he let out a loud laugh almost as if he was amused. Then, he stepped from behind the building that he was hiding behind. His eyes locked first onto the cat and if looks could kill the creature would have had to bullet holes in its chest. Next his gaze turned to Clover as he strode slowly over to the pair. His look was a combination of hurt and disappointment as he stopped laughing and spoke. "Clover, I am disappointed in you. Have I not told you that conspiring with the enemy is forbidden? I value you, your life and your soul is Pure and I love that about you. However, I cannot allow such things to go on... Not even from my favorite herbivore. Obedience, my dear. I require it from all." He strode over to her and possessively stood at her side and then attempted to use his antlers to herd her away from the cat. He wouldn't hurt her... but the cat was another story and he didn't want blood to soak her beautiful fur.

He wanted to keep that moment forever.

The way that he could feel everything she felt. The way that warmth and love and happiness was reciprocated between them and it mounted, like an unyielding force. It was unstoppable. It was stronger than he'd ever known. He wanted it all, and perhaps it made him selfish, but he just wished to wrap himself up in Clover and they could disappear to that realm up in the sky, in the mountains of quartz. Together forever. He would build her a great stage, and a castle, and a kingdom; from there they could reign, and he would listen to her stories until the end of time.

But all things did have to end. No such eternity existed for those that did not earn it, and Bartos was terribly naive. Selfish, yes, greedy, yes, wanting things the moment he saw them. He way he wanted her smile, and her laugh, and her warmth, did he even know what he was getting himself into?

It wouldn't have mattered, because he loved her anyways.

The light faded away. A cruel laugh rang through the air.

It was enough to permeate the veil of joy that enraptured them, and Bartos pulled away from Clover - oh, how he wished he hadn't, in retrospect. The last of her touch he would ever have. The last of her warmth he would ever know. Just that one moment, discarded in a frenzy of interruption, never to be recovered when he needed it most. He pulled away and looked to the source, out of instinct stepping away in his approach. Such a grand creature, majestic, horrible, beautiful, vile; his heart twisted, and he looked back to Clover, then the stag again, but it was too late. He had already placed himself between them, speaking lies of an invisible enemy - no, the enemy was him, wasn't it? And he spoke of love, and favoritism, and purity, but the stag didn't know shit about those things, did he?

What emerged as he watched Hasira sever their bond was something he had never known before. In his careless and steadfast life, he'd never had to employ anything beyond irritation, or curiosity, or passion. But that all merged in an instant and it formed an emotion equally as powerful as the love that burned in him; in its place, it was rage. "Don't touch her," Bartos' voice came first as an impulse, until rage found its cousin fear: "Who are you?" He added, his voice faltered, feeble, confused, uncertain. Cobalt eyes snapped to Clover, begging for the answer. Why?

His sweet, sweet, Clover. The doe cut underneath his horns and stood over that wretched piece of filth as if she wanted to protect him. How sweet she was. "My dear, do not be ridiculous. That piece of filth is not worth your time... and I fear he has clouded your mind with poison. No matter," The stag raised his antlers high and then stomped a hoof. When the hoof struck the ground ice rose and formed a prison around the doe's feet to keep her rooted to the spot lest she try to intervene. "I am here to cure the poison by setting an example. Now, my Pure One, I would never harm you. You are too pure and sweet for that... but him... I believe you might love him as misguided as that is. So, I will make you mind me through him..." With that the stag strode forward, deliberately slowly with his eyes locked onto the cat.

In one swift motion though he was upon them, antlers knocking aside the cat so that he could get the feline away from Clover. Once that was done he turned his eyes to the feline, cruelly. "Remember, my dear, this pet of yours could have been unharmed if you had just obeyed me as I bid. Now you will know never to defy me again or there will be consequences." With that he reared up onto his hind legs and then came crashing down on the cat's rear leg intending to snap it in two.