Novel
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
His mind seems tangled and scrambled, not quite able to focus on reality. Of course, she is the last judge. She is not always fixed in reality either. She has spent too long as a raven, not enough time as a horse. In her quieter moments, she knows the equine is her truest form, but she doesn’t care to dwell on it too often. It’s easier to lose herself in the bird than reality. Easier to forget a lonely childhood with a cold-hearted mother and an absent father.
It shouldn’t be strange then, that she had turned out so odd. That feverish horses battling wayward trees stirs no more note in her than a distinct possessiveness. The spirit of the raven shining through, as it so often does. Inquisitive and acquiring.
Whose tree? She snorts, chin lifting slightly in obstinance. “Mine!” she insists to his delirious rambling, uncaring that he can likely make neither heads nor tails of her assertive claim.
She narrows her eyes on him as his head seems to clear a bit, a hint of sanity leaking back into his gaze. She presses closer, head tilting curiously as she extends her nose slightly towards him. Close, but not touching. Not yet. Her gaze flicks briefly up to the tree in question, her lips firming into a stubborn moue. “It’s written on the leaves, can’t you see?”
Let him examine every leaf on this tree to try and call her bluff.
Just as he pins his ears at her, she does the same, her skin shivering and lightening until she is a smaller, more feminine version of his pale cremello and aggressive posturing. She is a raven, the ultimate mimic, even when she is a horse.
She only relaxes when he does, her gaze brightly curious as she snorts once more, pale mane fluttering and shimmering beneath her movements. But she is a stubborn creature, not so easily swayed. And most certainly not by men who quake with illness and delirium. “It was already mine,” she declares in response to his nonsensical assertion. Let his fevered mind make sense of her riddles. “Therefore, I already have it.”
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before.