NejiTen Month 2020: Prompt #2 - Chaos and Calm
Shades of Konoha: Dragon and Phoenix
Chaos and Calm
She is wild and free as she races her horse across the steppe, her golden eagle soaring above her. His own eagle is perched on his arm, and their shared dog walks alongside his horse, looking to him, wondering if he should follow.
"She will return," he says quietly, for he knows it is so.
They hunt together – he the more seasoned berkutchi, she the more natural archer – and they are nomadic even among nomads.
Those they chance meet often make the inevitable comparison of their temperaments – how he is staid and silent, and she as capricious and vibrant as a playful breeze waving the seas of grass into dancing – without knowing of his quick temper or her silent tenacity.
For of all of the foxes, wolves, and gazelles they have felled alone and together, it is the fierce anger in his heart that she hunted the most relentlessly and ultimately subdued.
If there is any peace in his heart, it is because of her loyalty and determination, and her ability to bind the wind to earth, and coax love to grow from stone.
When she returns, her bird is hooded and resting on her glove, while her horse trots at an easy gait back toward them. He watches her with pride in his eyes as she joins him, and adds a fox to their kills.
There are no words needed.
He clicks his tongue, and together they ride toward the Tian Shan – Heavenly Mountains – and he idly thinks that is the mistake of mortals and mountains. Heaven is not the lofty peaks draped in snow and piercing the sky. It is the warmth of the woman riding beside him, and the brilliance of her smile.
There are worlds to explore and conquer between them – this is something of which he is certain. So he rides forward to hunt, his greatest prize already at his side.
~*~Inspired by the berkutchi of Central Asia – specifically in Kyrgyzstan~*~