WE BOTH LOST THE WAR • Svedka

[Smoak]

It's early morning when he awakes beneath a tangle of reddish-orange flamboyant branches. He isn't lucky enough to awake refreshed today (sleepiness clings to the corners of his emerald eyes and fogs his mind) and despite the splendor of Hyaline's sunrise, Smoak is feeling particularly cantankerous and disheveled. A long, low groan falls from his ajar maw as he his champagne body elongates, his right side pressed to the dewy earth as his limbs extend for full appreciation of his post-sleep stretch. A quiet sigh follows his groan and after a few more moments of an up-close view of the ground, Smoak rocks his bone-armored frame until he is standing groggily beneath the budding springtime trees.

He shakes his narrow thoroughbred body, ridding his coat of forest debris before moving away from his hidden nook with heavy, trudging hoof steps. The lakeside sanctuary is quiet this morning, save for a collection of birds who have just begun their more ritual, leaving Smoak to wonder how long he will have before he is joined by the other residents of Hyaline. A part of him aches to know them all, to find the things that make them laugh and smile just as he had enjoyed doing as a child in Tephra, but there is a piece of the bone-plated stallion that is holding him at a distance.

His mind wanders to his parents and then, almost reluctantly, to Solace and Kagerus. A frown involuntarily twitches across his mouth and Smoak shakes his golden head with frustration as he weaves through the vibrant trees until his hazel eyes catch a glimpse of blue in the distant forest. He nickers and tosses his forelock from his eyes before moving towards the flash of movement, quite surprised when the painted and blue individual he happens upon is not Solace, but her twin.

"Ved," he says in surprise and finally cracks a smile, "it's so good to see you again."

S M O A K
here's a handshake, soldier, 'cause we both lost the war

thanks evvie !

@[Svedka]