Sunlight on the Mountaintops

Pantheon and Leona always gravitated towards each other, even in their youth. Despite living as a proper young man of the Rakkor, something in him was different. Rather than play along in their mock battles he trained diligently on his own. Where his battle brothers found their strength in numbers, he found his in isolation. Every morning he rose for group training and outdid them all in silence. In his early teens the other boys had given up on him, and regarded him as 'that guy'. Where no one argued his strength, they did doubt his mental integrity. So they pushed him aside, they kept him from the group. He spent his time in solitary training, and pursuing other interests alongside it, which is how he had first met the other outcast of the tribe Leona the defender. Their first meeting was quiet and formal. They acted like the tribe expected them to, stoic and courteous. Their next meeting was much of the same, it wasn't until their third meeting, where Leona found Pantheon immersed in his combat training that she had felt something in the way he fought. Without a second thought she leaped between the man and the man and the dummy that he had been striking, parrying what would have been a fatal blow on a man with her trusty buckler. First surprise, and then anger that he had been interrupted Pantheon quickly responded with a jab at the woman, his spear pushed away as it slid off the face of the buckler before he found himself pushed back, a well placed bash dazing him for a moment. Pantheon could feel his heart pump like mad, his breathing picking up. Never before had a partner so decisively shut him down, but instead of a wounded ego or a painful surrender it set the young man ablaze. For hours they went back and forth, trading blows until they couldn't stand. Laying beneath the stars, the pair nursed a couple of bruises and welts, but candidly exchanged thoughts and words. The fight had bonded them tightly, and from that day they found their strength at the others' side. They fought and they laughed, mixing their training with play it was a world separate from the rest of the Rakkor. Pantheon taught her how to wield a sword, and helped find one that suited her while Leona taught him how to handle a shield. Where he taught her to strike, she taught him to protect, and in their innocence they felt complete. The trial by fire, coming of age ceremony was a brutal awakening. Pair after pair went into the arena, where only one left. Where Pantheon's fight was quick and decisive, Leona didn't lay one hand on her adversary, deflecting and disarming her opponent instead. Watching in horror from the sideline Pantheon heard the leaders demand her death. Gripping his spear tightly he readied himself to jump into the fray, before a burst of sunlight interrupted the hasty execution. As if expecting it, the reclusive Solari burst into the Arena, shepherding the girl away from the crowd, and whisking her to the highest peaks of Targon. In the years she was gone, Pantheon rose to the top of the warriors, fueled by a desire that could only be realized at the top, that could only be realized at the League. A desire shared by the woman now called the Radiant Dawn. She was instructed on many things, and armed with weapons ancient and powerful before she was offered to go to the League.

They met by chance on a balcony, as the sun rose in the horizon. Their eyes locked for a brief moment before Pantheon leaned in and locked their lips as well. Surprised but not unhappy Leona held herself close to him, savoring the feel of his arms wrapped around her. She felt like that little girl discovering her first friend, again. "This is the first morning in a long time that I've seen the sun." he whispered as he held her tighter, as if sheltering her from the world. "I should hope you come to see me again tomorrow." she replied with a soft smile, burying her head in his chest.