I hadn't hung around. The scent of plumeria and sea salt still clung to my skin when I made my way to the river, away from the anger-spurred actions that had drawn me to Ischia in the first place. Now I stood at the river's edge, breathing thinly and feeling mounting regret dance behind my breast. I'd been petty and vengeful, fucking only for the knowledge it would hurt.
I had found myself in many corners of the world re recently, for as many reasons. Yet still none felt like home quite like the river always had. If today's indiscretion bore the results I suspected it might, then this was where I wanted to bear it. This was where the twins had been born, and I knew them to be my pride. Hopefully... hopefully this wouldn't be another failed attempt at motherhood.
Gazing at the imperfect mirror of the river's surface, I watched my face tremor with the water's motion. Blue as the summer sky, fine boned, scars that crisscrossed my visage and flickered in subtle harmony with the rainbows that fractured my skin. I looked so different, and yet not much had changed. I wasn't sure that I recognized the mare looking back at me. Haloed in fire, with a frozen soul. Mother would be proud.
So absorbed in my reverie was I that I did not hear approaching hoofbeats, did not register my name. A cool breeze raised hairs on my spine, and the motion in the corner of my vision made me start. A black form, a familiar face from a past I felt so disconnected from.
"Jesper," I said, a wavering smile on my lips. The hard shell I keep carefully constructed almost always begins to crack at his open joy in seeing me. "I've been stupid. I've been really stupid, and I don't know how to fix it." I want to be a pillar of strength, the unbreakable queen. But right now... I throw propriety and image to the wind, and embrace him hard. My slim neck curving against his shoulders, undone by touch that isn't laced with anger or mistrust. He's warm and solid and real. A friend, when I needed one most.
@[Jesper]
I had found myself in many corners of the world re recently, for as many reasons. Yet still none felt like home quite like the river always had. If today's indiscretion bore the results I suspected it might, then this was where I wanted to bear it. This was where the twins had been born, and I knew them to be my pride. Hopefully... hopefully this wouldn't be another failed attempt at motherhood.
Gazing at the imperfect mirror of the river's surface, I watched my face tremor with the water's motion. Blue as the summer sky, fine boned, scars that crisscrossed my visage and flickered in subtle harmony with the rainbows that fractured my skin. I looked so different, and yet not much had changed. I wasn't sure that I recognized the mare looking back at me. Haloed in fire, with a frozen soul. Mother would be proud.
So absorbed in my reverie was I that I did not hear approaching hoofbeats, did not register my name. A cool breeze raised hairs on my spine, and the motion in the corner of my vision made me start. A black form, a familiar face from a past I felt so disconnected from.
"Jesper," I said, a wavering smile on my lips. The hard shell I keep carefully constructed almost always begins to crack at his open joy in seeing me. "I've been stupid. I've been really stupid, and I don't know how to fix it." I want to be a pillar of strength, the unbreakable queen. But right now... I throw propriety and image to the wind, and embrace him hard. My slim neck curving against his shoulders, undone by touch that isn't laced with anger or mistrust. He's warm and solid and real. A friend, when I needed one most.
@[Jesper]