cherubicwitch

[cherubicwitch]

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wolstinien week 2025: day 7 (confession/i love you)

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જ⁀➴ Reuniting Faunehm and Vedrfolnir became the flint to spark the flame between Sariel and Estinien.

༺♡༻link here༺♡༻

fic under the cut ^w^

It was a clear day, few clouds hung in the brilliant blue sky. A breeze blew across the Azim Steppe that refreshed the body. Sariel and Estinien had discovered they had been chasing the same dragon across Hydaelyn’s landscapes. They decided to unite their lances for Orn Khai. Sariel had grown particularly fond of the dragonet and his plight. They entered the Bardaam, sun lingering high in the sky.

There she was, a brilliant and fierce black dragon standing boldly in the entrance of the Bardaam. They could hear the rumble of the roar soon to come through the air around them and ground beneath them.

“With me!” Estinien called out, clad in armor, he readied his lance and balanced his feet beneath him. Sariel planted her feet and readied her own spear. She looked up at Estinien and nodded confidently, ready to quiet the song of a forlorn lover.

The dragon roared, her eyes glowing a stunning purple as she brought down one claw to the ground, carving into the stone like wet clay. The two dragoons leaped in differing directions, hoping to pin and distract the magnificent beast as they had learned in earlier and darker days.

Just then, Estinien called out to Orn Khai, “Now, little one! Roar with all your being!”

The small dragon reared up, “Faunehm, hear my cry!”

Orn Khai puffed up his chest as big as he could and let out a roar as loud as he could manage. His cry sounded forced and strangled near the end of it as he called out as much as he could.

The glowing rage behind Faunehm’s eyes faded, and with a heavy voice mourned, “Why? Why must we go to war…? I have no will, no desire to fight…”

The two dragoons could feel the sorrowful beat of her heart as she continued to speak, “I have… only silence…A most deafening silence…”

Her features twisted into rage once more, her eyes illuminated with a fiercer purple accented by a glint of red.

Orn Khai began to panic, the poor dragonet nervously warning his newfound friends, “It is no use! I cannot reach her!”

Suddenly, a voice descended upon them from above, seemingly from a passing cloud, “Do not be so quick to abandon hope, my son!”

Everyone present was confused, searching for the bombastic voice speaking in a draconic tongue. A dragon with pearlescent white scales flew in from the skies overhead, the air gusted in whirlwinds as he landed with the last swish of his wings.

The dragon spoke again, “I am come for thee, dearest Faunehm.”

Through Faunehm’s eyes, clouded with rage and grief, she did not recognize her lover, Vedrfolnir, at first. She roared a nasty roar, eyes still ablaze. Vedrfolnir planted himself, took in a breath large enough to fill his chest completely, and roared his own loud and fierce roar. It intensely shook the ground and scattered lingering wildlife.

It was then that Faunehm’s mournful rage had been quelled, her eyes dimmed, “Those wings of white… Long have they filled my dreams. Vedrfolnir, my love…”

Although everything was spoken in the tongue of dragons, both Estinien and Sariel could hear the cracks in Faunehm’s voice as she gazed at her long-lost lover once again.

Orn Khai, eyes dazzling with hope, whispered under his breath, “Father…”

Faunehm and Vedrfolnir closed in on one another, a head nuzzle shared between them as they shifted to stand side by side.

“Noble dragoons, Orn Khai. I give you my thanks. Were it not for your succor, I would not have been reunited with my beloved.” Vedrfolnir explained, joy in his voice.

Faunehm spoke up next, her voice rang with gratitude towards her mortal allies, “Allow me to thank you as well. I had truly thought Vedrfolnir lost to me. Mere words will scare be enough to convey mine appreciation.”

Sariel and Estinien both smiled and nodded in thanks. Orn Khai trilled and flipped joyously at the praise. Sariel with a smile still on her face, laid a hand upon her heart and replied, “Twas our pleasure,”

Faunehm began illustrating the circumstances that had split the two from one another with a forlorn voice, “When the conflict began one thousand years past, Nidhogg demanded we exact vengeance upon man. However, I refused to allow his hatred to take root within me. I could not bring myself to forget the days when I soared the azure skies with Vedrfolnir, knight on back.”

Vedrfolnir added in a longing tone, “A dragon cannot simply shut her ears to her sire’s call; to do so would cause her great torment. Thus I bid Faunehm flee to the east, that she might live in peace until the final strains of the Dragonsong War did fade to an end.”

He had paused to heave a sigh, gazing to the clouds, “Duty-bound to protect Zenith, I remained behind in Dravania. But ever did I regret not following my heart–and my beloved. ‘Twas after she left for eastern lands that thou didst come into this world, my son.”

Orn Khai, absorbing every detail they shared, remarked, “Now I finally see why I was given a name meaning ‘one born of sadness.’ Alas, I fear I will never be your match, Father. Faunehm barely even noticed my roar…”

Vedrfolnir bellowed a laugh, “Belittle not your efforts, Orn Khai. I should not have known to come here were it not for thy roar. It reached mine ears, strong and clear, as I soared the skies above.”

“Father…” Orn Khai squeaked, holding back tears of joy.

The two ancient lovers had gotten closer as they spoke, and Orn Khai had noticed the intricacies of draconic romantic body language.

“Ahem.” Orn Khai coughed, “Well, I suppose you are quite keen to talk with Faunehm. It’s been quite some time since you last met, after all. L-Let us make haste. I am not used to seeing my father so enamored…”

Estinien and Sariel both nodded, slight blush tingling their faces. Everyone could easily agree that the two deserved a moment of reprieve. As the three began to depart, Vedrfolnir and Faunehm turned and looked at each other, love brimming in their eyes, pressing their foreheads together firmly.

Orn Khai lingered outside of the entrance to the Bardaam, singing thanks and praise to his two heroes before departing for home himself. That was when the two dragoons were left entirely alone for the first time in quite a long time.

Sariel’s heart began beating out of her chest, seeing the two dragon lovers warmed her heart and inspired her. She had fallen in love with Estinien, she knew it. She also didn’t wish for them to endure the same suffering that she saw

Vedrfolnir and Faunehm go through with those long and harsh years without the other by their side. She stared hard and long, trying to find the confidence to speak.

“Sariel…” Estinien started, his voice bearing a tone she’d never heard before. He cleared his throat.

She snapped her head up to meet his face, her eyes wide with anticipation and excitement. He caught a glimpse of her face and turned his head to the side lightning-quick, scratching the back of his head.

“Just say it, Estinien” he thought to himself, his heart threatening to burst in his chest. He could feel his ears getting warm and his palms sweat.

“Say something, Sariel” she screamed in her mind. Her face was hot and her tail began to swish back and forth in a nervous excitement.

“I love you!” they both blurted out at the same moment, nerves finally getting to the both of them.

They stopped dead and stared into one another’s eyes, gobsmacked. They both were thinking about the same thing. How could it have been this easy?

The silence felt like ages, but it was only a few brief seconds. That was when they both took another step towards each other, and Estinien swept Sariel into his arms, unable to contain the smile that had begun to form from ear to ear. She began to giggle and smile as he picked her up, armor and all, and twirl her in a circle. She grabbed his face and came in close enough to feel the warmth radiating from their flushed faces. They weren’t sure which one of them pressed forward first after that, but both of them shared a long awaited for kiss. Estinien kept her wrapped him his arms as they finally pressed longing lips to one another. The sun began to set on the long day they’ve had, illuminating them in a golden light.

It felt so silly in retrospect, their feelings so obvious to the ones around them but refusing to admit it to one another. They couldn’t help but to giggle between kisses, both from awful nerves and the realization that they’ve loved each other long ago.

[cherubicwitch]

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wolstinien week 2025: day 6 (intimacy)

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Being pulled in close by your loved one at the end of a long work day on the farm has been a recent favorite form of intimacy ♡

[cherubicwitch]

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wolstinien week 2025: day 5 (song/music)

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Stolen away to the outside gardens, to dance amongst the roses beneath the moonlight to the delicate sound of the orchestra~

[cherubicwitch]

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wolstinien week 2025: day 4 (touch/teasing)

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Perfectly desperate~

[cherubicwitch]

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wolstinien week 2025: day 3 (au)

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❝She pined in thought, And with a green and yellow melancholy She sat like patience on a monument, Smiling at grief.❞

[cherubicwitch]

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wolstinien week 2025: day 2 (hurt/comfort)

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Sariel helps Estinien tend to the old battle scars he's earned over time. Stories are shared over the nightly herbal salve.

༺♡༻link here༺♡༻

fic under the cut ^w^

Estinien began to itch at the elbow of his right arm, groaning slightly. He was seated on a wooden chair with his shirt bundled on the floor next to him so Sariel could tend to his irritated scars and remnant Nidhogg scales, a common nightly routine in the time that they’d spent alongside one another.

“You must refrain from scratching.” Sariel sighed in an even tone as she rubbed a medicinal salve along Estinien’s deeply scarred shoulder, tracing along the valleys of his long healed gnarled shoulder with her middle and fore fingers. Estinien grumbled in response then pulled his hand away at the admonishment.

There were some deeply embedded scales, similar to her own yet with a deep jet black sheen akin to how Nidhogg’s glistened instead of her cream-colored raen scales. Estinien’s scales began to fade over the years, but never went away. Scars from new and old wounds layered between ensured their persistence.

She couldn’t help but to recall the event that caused such deep and mangled scars. His transformation into something terrible and draconic, the sound of his skin rending under the sharp creaks of metal as his armor burst and fused with muscle echoed through her mind. That cacophony of suffering served as the background to his screams of agony as he tried retaining his sense of self, yet failing as he was swallowed whole by the rage of Nidhogg.

“You’re lingering.” Estinien pointed out impatiently, staring over his battle-scarred shoulder with his icy blue eyes.

Snapping back to reality, Sariel gasped slightly, pulling her hand away a little embarrassed, “Mine apologies, I-”

“It’s fine.” He jutted in, a little flushed, whipping his head back forward. “It’s just this insufferable itching tends to rear its ugly head at the most inopportune of times. Particularly, this Gods be damned seasonal shedding.”

She chuckled softly, scooping another swath of salve with her fingers and beginning to apply it more-so along his shoulder blade, “It happens to us auri people all the same. It’s called ecdysis, quite the bother when you aren’t intimately familiar with the sensation. Unfortunately, the itch is something that occurs no matter our age during this particular season.”

Estinien groaned, “So I’m never to be free of this,” he aggressively scratched at his elbow again, “incessant annoyance.”

Sariel leaned forward and grabbed his wrist with a sharp snap. She looked up at him with those hauntingly beautiful bright orange eyes of hers, a single limbal ring glistening like gold. She spoke not a word because he knew what he was doing, and they were both aware of that.

He tugged his hand away, and she released it with his minimal effort, catching himself staring into her eyes while she was close.

“You’re lingering.” She teased, unable to stop the corners of her lips curling into a smirk as she pulled away to finish rubbing in the salve she had applied to his shoulder.

Estinien immediately felt the tips of his ears and cheeks begin to burn, staring down at his feet in slight embarrassment.

After a moment of thought, Estinien piped up a question for Sariel, “It occurred to me that while you know very well how I earned these scars and scales, yet I don’t quite know the story behind your left eye.”

She paused, realizing that she had not told many people about the incident, nor had many people asked. Yet another symptom of being a renowned Warrior of Light.

“Very few have asked.” Sariel felt a sparkle of excitement in her chest, happy that it was Estinien who did inquire. Every sign that he showed that he cared, she held dear to her heart.

“I was studying black magic as a novice mage, back when Nidhogg and his brood roamed free with rage. I began learning from a talented black mage by the name of Lailai. She had been abducted and possessed by the spirit of the originator of black magic itself. ‘Twas something that I realize now, I took quite personally.” She noted, then continued.

“Ultimately, I ended up pursuing her deep into Nald’thal’s Reflection. There, she opened a void gate, releasing a relatively strong voidsent, Barbatos. The combined forces of that demon and Ququruka’s expertise given form, I was no match... It was Ququruka who almost set me ablaze with a fierce spell, but I was lucky enough to only lose the one eye in the explosion… and lucky enough to draw the interest of an Ahriman with the heart of a jester. He is what allows me to see as I do today with my aether sight. I was left with this scar as a reminder that I am still only mortal, despite my renown.” She joked at the end of her story.

“Seems as though we both suffered from bloated egos, thinking we could take on demons and dragons on our own.” Estinien responded and chuckled, softening the mood in the air.

Sariel laughed softly in response, “I suppose so, my dear Dragoon.”

The mention of his previous title was pointed and meant as a way to emphasize, as well as tease.

“Tis good that we’ve gotten wiser since those days. You and I stand ready at the other’s side; my lance is yours, just as your magic is mine.” Estinien reminded, a warm smile gracing his face.

She responded with a sweet softness in her voice, “I would like to believe that we have learned in our years. We’ve made plenty of friends that we have since learned to depend upon for their support and expertise as well! I’d like to thank a particularly kind-hearted elezen who keeps me grounded in times of hardship and chaos.” Estinien couldn’t help the tips of his ears from twitching with joy knowing it was him that she was grateful towards,

“Aye, and I’ve been blessed by Halone to have a bold auri woman to guide and light my path through the tempests of life.”

Sariel couldn’t help the smile on her face from growing wider, capping the container of medicinal salve she had been using.

She held both of his shoulders firmly, leaning forward to plant a kiss square on his cheek, “Come, let us retire so we can face the whirlwind of tomorrow rested~”

Estinien’s heart brimmed with love and tenderness. Evenings like this reassured him that all of their struggles, both together and apart, were all worthwhile. He stood, scooping up the soft linen shirt he had discarded on the ground and tossing it over his head. He turned to face her, sweeping her bangs backwards so he could plant a kiss firmly on her forehead, “Aye, let us rest, my love.”

[cherubicwitch]

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wolstinien week 2025: day 1 (introducing family)

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During the Starlight season is when Estinien met Sariel's parents for the first time. They were excited and eager to meet him considering all they heard of him in letters home from Sariel~

[cherubicwitch]

you are 16. you are talking with a gay man in his 50s or 60s, a friend, huge and gentle with a scarf and short fluffy curls of gray hair, who has directed you in two plays staged in your mid-size artsy town. (he has not yet asked you to be in his production of The Laramie Project which will change your life. this conversation will also change your life.)

he is talking about theatre. he is talking about theatre when he was younger. he says, "of course, it was AIDS then." in the pause, you ask him. clumsy and quiet and 16 and "straight," you ask him. what was it like.

he takes a moment in which his face is not like a person's face. "there was a time," he says, "i'm not sure how long, years. when i went to a funeral every weekend." he tells you about two funerals in a day, and choosing between friends when you couldn't make it to both. he does not look at you, he looks at them. his wet grey gaze is so clear that you start to see ghosts. it will be years before you understand why it feels like your grief too. why the ghosts call you family.

[cherubicwitch]

“It was an act of self-preservation — however misguided it was”.

[cherubicwitch]

literally though if you feel like your life is slipping through your fingers and every day goes too fast… try doing hard things, not just taking the easy route, like reading and making art and exercising and cooking a meal from scratch and journaling, doing these things without distraction, without being absorbed on a screen… the time will stretch and you’ll be reminded that life is long and beautiful if you make it so.

[cherubicwitch]

They should invent a method of asking for reassurance that nobody secretly hates you that doesn't make people secretly hate you.

[cherubicwitch]

dont take bird noises for granted

[cherubicwitch]

[cherubicwitch]

Crocodile

[cherubicwitch]

every single fucking thing on earth exists solely to put a dent in your newly applied nail polish

[cherubicwitch]

暗順応

[cherubicwitch]

Day 3: Cooking

Autism be damned, their man can work a grill.

Bonus closeups/alternate angles of everyone bc I'm really pleased with how these all came out.