Gembound Celebration

Sion turned around and in one of his hands was the bag, while in the other was the moonstone. Ewen looked at him with sheer fury in his eyes, and even though he was smaller in size than Sion the latter was pinned in place by the sheer power of that gaze.

“You,” said Ewen. “You… I told you! I told you not to—“ 

He looked at stone in Sion’s hands, the moonstone they had looked at earlier… there was no mistaking in. Sion wrestled the instinct to hide it behind his back, but he figured that it was already too late, he might as well weather that storm. 

“How dare you!” cried Ewen when he saw. “That’s not right, you… betrayer! You were planning this all along!”

“Ewen…”

“No! Don’t you Ewen me!”

Maybe Ewen was understanding that his creaming in the middle of the marketplace was attracting some attention, or maybe he was realising that his anger was getting a little out of control. Regardless of which it was, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Sion did not dare speak up during the silence that ensured, scared that he might stroke the flames once more. In fact, he was even remaining still, as if a single mouvement might awaken the beast. Ewen was smaller and skinnier than the massive shifter, but he could be terrifying when he wanted to be. Sion wasn’t about testing his patience. 

When Ewen spoke again, it was in a much calmer voice… one that was almost neutral. Almost. Because of course the palatable anger was lurking right under the surface.

“I told you, when we first met, that I was the one that saw him first, right?” 

“Yes,” said Sion. 

“What are you doing with this stone, Sion?” 

Sion kept his silence. 

“Sion! What are you going to do with that moonstone!” 

“I’m going to offer it to Sho…” 

“You fell in love with Sho.” 

It wasn’t a question, it was a statement, and yet Sion nodded as if it had been a question. 

One might think it strange, that Sion was so scared of answering back to Ewen when he was physically more imposing and stronger than Ewen. But the truth was that Sion, in his mind, was quite young and had been raised far from the world; there were a lot of things that scared him - in fact, anything he hadn’t been trained to deal with, namely combat, had the potential to be scary. He knew nothing, least of which how to deal with something that was angry in any tone way than shutting up and praying to the Gods that it might pass quickly. 

And there, in his mind, he had really messed up. His former caretaker, Cag, would have slapped him so hard that he might have fallen to the ground for making such a mistake. Ewen couldn’t hit that hard, but he had magic, fire magic, and was quite powerful in that regard. Sion half expected him to try and burn him. 

But he didn’t. With no preamble or explanation, Ewen turned around and left, leaving Sion behind to wonder what the heck had just happened.