this reckless wandering love was never ours; any

[sochi]

sochi

Sochi never thought that she would be the kind to settle down.

She never thought she would be the kind to find roots and let them sink into her soul—and yet. And yet. She finds that she has rarely wandered outside of Loess. She has spent her time wandering the borders of a home, looking after her children, and spending time with the dragons that keep to Loessian mountains. She has found a strange form of peace but with it comes a nagging sensation of wanderlust.

As the days pass, the bite of it becomes harsher—more acute.

She bristles against it.

She feels it every morning when she wakes and finally, this evening, she gives into it. She shifts into her tigress form and slips away from those who have come to know her best. She slinks to the border and then lunges forward, her powerful back legs sending her shooting into the dark. Her lungs ache with the sting of the winter air, but she doesn’t slow. The ground quickly becomes covered with snow and she feels the way that it crunches between the pads of her feet—the way it muffles the sound of her running.

When her nose twitches with the scent of prey, she dives into the shadows.

What happens next is more instinct than anything and she tracks the deer through the woods. She weaves and slinks—runs and then stalks in the shadows. Until she finds that she can come downwind toward the animal and is able to rush it. The adrenaline is overwhelming and the joy of life floods through her as her teeth bite into the neck of the animal and the copper pours out. Her mind nearly splits with it.

When her belly is full, the cream of her fur stained from the hunt, she turns her nose toward the depths of the forest and continues. She shifts back into her equine form, her chin red and her silvery eyes bright against the black of her winter coat and the shimmering iridescence of her blaze.

well, I can try to get you closer but I know you’d break your neck just to see the stars
and if we don’t dare to hold it then this reckless wandering love was never ours