A Step Back And To The Side
A Word: Takes place in Chapter 3 of Living Despite It All. Series will be mostly other POVs or are bits that didn't fit.
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Malik is easy to predict. Her eyes had gained that determination she gets when she decides she's going to do something, and Altair is not surprised to find her up in the tower set aside for training them in Leaps of Faith. She's standing on the edge of the plank hanging out in the open air, and that already puts her ahead of some of the other Novices Altair has watched attempt this for the first time. Few had managed to even get two steps out on it before turning back.
Altair grins as her arms spread out to the side. She's looking straight ahead, gray hood pushed down from the wind that's picking up the longer she just stands there. "Afraid?"
She doesn't jump or startle, doesn't even look back at him as he steps up onto the plank and stops just behind her. A promising sign, Malik just might be the first one of their group to follow him, and the thought of that is oddly pleasing. "I didn't take you for a coward, Malik."
Malik shifts but doesn't step back. She turns then and Altair stares at the wide grin that stretches across her face. Fear the absolute last thing he sees as she laughs right at him. The joy and exhilaration of this, of the jump, lighting her face up in a way that makes Altair's breath catch hard. She's beautiful in that moment, and then she's jumping. Form perfect and fearless as she falls, and Altair doesn't think. Not at all as he follows. Unable to resist.
Years too late he will pinpoint that day as the moment his heart was first taken from him.
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