Jah-Lilah
Blackbird singing in the dead of night.
The red wytch is alone this spring afternoon, but only in the physical sense. She is curled up under her favorite tree, legs tucked neatly between her copper body, dreaming deep. This is only the second pleasant dream she's had since the fall of Taiga, and both dreams were about the progeny of her lovers. She is taken back to a time before the warring homelands, before the God-King murdered an entire eco-system, before she was the third in a high functioning love triangle. It was the first time she was alone with the twins. They are curled around her, slumbering, too old to nurse but too young to trail their mother as the Wolf in her hunts. Jah-Lilah looks down at them with stars in her eyes, singing.
Blackbird singing in the dead of night,
Take these broken wings and learn to fly.
All your life,
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.
She bends her nose down and takes turns grooming each of them, cooing and singing. She licks each little face, muzzle, ear. She combs wild coltish manes with her teeth, pulling out burrs and brambles. She nibbles along each one of their withers, and down their backs, first one, then the other. She dotes on them like they are her own, she loves them so. She continues her song as she admires each boy in his sleep. She turns to Crevan, burning like the sun next to her, he whines and whimpers in his sleep like his mother. The shifter has always been more daring, more explorative, more bold. He has power greater than he knows, even now.
Blackbird singing in the dead of night,
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see.
All your life,
You were only waiting for this moment to be free.
He rolls over, readjusts and continues sleeping. Her wild Fire-Fang, Son-of-the-Water, his traits fit him better than he even knows. Then there was the elder boy. Her First-to-Fly, Son-of-the-Wind. He and his sibling were so different. He possessed those wings, those beautiful emerald wings. He could fly where there was no air current, but he was so quiet. She licked the base of his jawbone again, pulling him tight. If only she could keep the pair of them so close. Both had a storm brewing within them, yet both were coping in opposite manners. But that matters not to Jah-Lilah right now. All that matters is this fleeting time she has with them. She whispers to each of them his sacred name, a playful secret between them for now. "First-to-Fly", to @[Corvus], the big brother, made in his father's image. Then "Fire-Fang" to @[Crevan], always boisterous and rowdy, driving his mother crazy.
Blackbird fly, blackbird fly,
Into the light of the dark black night.
With the ending notes of her song, her eyelids flutter open. She looks around, sighing heavily. Her life was so good then, but her life is great now. She rises with a groan, her sparks popping all around her. She shakes herself off, then reaches down to graze upon fresh new shoots of grass emerging from the Earth.
You were only waiting for this moment to arrive.
stronger than you know