[PRP] A Shared Moment [Nomad/Distant Sands]

[Ruriska]

Loneliness was not an emotion Nomad experienced often. He was used to his self-imposed solitude. But on those rare days that he desired companionship, he felt the loneliness keenly. Like a barb in his chest that dug deeper with each breath his took. On one such day he lounged on a small hill, looking towards the west. His family was there somewhere, just over a day’s journey away, and he pondered seeking them out. It had been a long time since he had seen them; his brother and his sisters... his dear mother. The buck sighed and closed his eyes; shutting the swamp away and instead seeing the rolling dunes and the heavy moon that plagued his dreams.  

[Lural]

Distant Sands. It was more then her name. There was something compelling about it. It wasn't just the naming dream. No, more then that, it was a recurring dream. Since she first came to the world, Sands had only ever dreamed the same thing. About a place far outside the swamp. She didn't know where, or why. It just was. Lately, she had pondered trying to find the source of her dream, her namesake. What was sand? How far would she have to go to find it?

...Would she have to leave the swamp? That thought sort of terrified her. Leaving the safety of the swamp. The orange doe shook her head, trying to clear her mind as she walked. It was one of those days where she had grown restless, so Distant Sands wandered aimlessly through the swamp, not really paying attention to where she was going. As such, she was rather surprised when she mounted a hill, only to find another lounging here.

Her surprise was expressed in a rather audible squeak.  

[Ruriska]

The squeak caught Nomad’s attention instantly, and in one fluid motion he was on his hooves. He swayed there for a long moment, head turned to look at the newcomer. He seemed, at first, guarded and a little put-put by her appearance, and then his expression relaxed. A doe; sent by the desert to ease his loneliness. The buck smiled, turning completely to greet her properly. “Well met stranger.” He hoped that she would permit him to stay in her company, if only for a short time.  

[Lural]

Sands stared at the buck for a moment. His colors, the lines on his coat, they reminded her of the waves of sand in her dream. Surely, this was fate to meet him, right?

"Well met." She returned the greeting. His smile was putting her more at ease, and she felt less like she was intruding on his territory. Her eyes searched the ground a moment as she thought. "The view from this hill is amazing." She said, turning her head west, looking out where the buck had been gazing. "Would you mind my joining you?"  

[Ruriska]

“Please do.” The buck replied, perhaps a little too quickly. He realized this as soon as the words slipped off his tongue and he looked away, hoping he wouldn’t make her feel uncomfortable with how eager he was for her presence. Nomad settled back down on the ground, staring off into the distance and waiting in hope that she would lie beside him. “I am Nomad.”  

[Lural]

The apparent eagerness was not lost on Sands, but... the buck was out here by himself. Perhaps he was lonely, and wanted some company. She stepped closer before folding her knees and laying down near by. "Nomad." She repeated his name, hoping to commit it to memory. "I'm Distant Sands." She glanced at him then back to the land before them. "Is it... too forward to ask what you're looking at?" Or perhaps, looking for? Though she didn't voice the second question.  

[Ruriska]

Distant Sands. His heart fluttered. Fate indeed. Her name almost threw him into a waking dream of endless sand and a watchful moon, but he clung to the moment, focusing on her question. Nomad smiled, pleased. “I was thinking about my family and wondering how they fared. But I was also looking beyond that, to my father’s homeland, to the desert.”  

[Lural]

She smiled a little that he was thinking about his family. But... "Your father's from the desert?" She stared at him with intense interest. The desert. A place far away, a place full of sand. "Some day, I want to go see the desert." She said longingly. She wanted to see her name's sake so much! She just couldn't go through with it. "Some day."  

[Ruriska]

Lural

“My father is an Acha, and I suppose, he is one to blame for my wanderlust.” Nomad chuckled softly and watched the doe, ears perking as he caught the longing in her words. “Yes…” was all he said, his face full of understanding. That need to follow his dream, to seek the desert, it was always strong. But he was a Kimeti, unable to venture far from the swamp. So his dreams would remain unrealized. That, he though was a sigh, was thoroughly depressing.  

[Lural]

Ruriska

Blame? Or perhaps thank. She thought it, but did not voice the thought. "Do you visit your father? And the desert?" She wondered if he had any stories of the land of sand. Or if his father had told him any. That would be fantastic! Maybe hearing stories from one who had been there... would help calm her own longing to see it. She was staring out to the distance, hoping in vain that she could see beyond the swamp to the plains, to the desert... But she knew she never would.  

[Ruriska]

"I visit the desert only in my dreams." He said, in a voice heavy with regret. "As for my father, one does not visit him. He is always moving, wandering ceaselessly. I have met him only twice because of this." In fact, it had only been when Nomad was a full-grown adult had he first met Journey. "During those visits he had much to say… the things he has seen…" He trailed off, lost in recalling his father’s stories.  

[Lural]

She understood that. Her dream was the only way she'd ever see the desert, she was too afraid to leave the swamp herself. As he spoke of his father, Sands' large doe-eyes half hooded. "Do you think you can share any of those stories?" She would understand if he wouldn't, but of he was willing, Sands would listen to all he would tell. as of now, he was the closest connection she had to the thing she longed for the most.  

[Ruriska]

“I can.” Nomad breathed out a wistful sigh and closed his eyes, recalling all his father had told him. He knew he would not spin the tale half as well as Journey did, but he hoped to do it justice. The buck began to speak, a tale of an Acha buck that had been born in the desert and whose hooves danced across dunes. He described the sights and sounds, his voice full of longing. Endless sands filled his mind, his voice and soft murmur as he was drawn away to that far off place.  

[Lural]

Sands closed her eyes as Nomad began to speak. She tried to imagine the things he spoke of, but aside from her dream, she had nothing to base her imagination on. But as he spoke, it was like he drew her away to the sand-filled lands of his father. Part of her felt like she could almost feel the sand under her as she rested there beside Nomad.

When his tales ended, there was the sad realization that she was in fact still nestled deep inside the swamp. Sands slowly opened her eyes when Nomad had finished speaking and looked at him, a sort of soft, longing smile on her face. "Thank you." That was the closest to the desert she had gotten.  

[Ruriska]

“… you’re welcome.” Nomad murmured after a while, his return to reality slow and unwelcome. “It was not… how it should be…” He gave her an apologetic smile; knowing his words paled his comparison to his father. Then again, Journey was the epitome of everything he idolized, and nothing he did would ever reach that great height. Nomad would, in his own mind, forever be lacking.

“Would you spend the day with me?” He asked suddenly. Just for once he would indulge and let himself travel beside another. The buck looked embarrassed by the request and he looked away.