oceanus
many and many a year ago,
in a kingdom by the sea
Though there are many faces in his mind, he remembers but a few. Tethys is always first and foremost, his sister and his love. It was many years ago now, but he could still see her face through the fog of an old mind. They’d had a daughter but her face has long since faded into nothingness. But the blue roan remained, and sometimes if he thought hard enough, he could still remember the plains of her body. The way her mane lay just so, or the angle of her cheek…
Then Connavar…he’d been all sharp angles and muscles pulled tight. Their life had been teeth to skin and hot breath in twitching ears. It had been destructive but they had thrived in their own sick way. It had been a strange love, understood only by themselves. Maybe it hadn’t been love; it surely was the beginning of the end for Oceanus.
After Connavar was a heavy fog. It lay on his mind like a wet blanket, and try though he might he couldn’t see through it. It did not shift or sway, it simply was. It was as much a part of his mind as the brain itself was though it acted like a disease. It ate farther and farther into his mind, leaving nothing behind but that strange, empty feeling.
Garbage. He had been the last, and oh how Oceanus had loved him. Or thought he had loved him. They’d shared something perverse but it had been their mistake to make. In the end, of course, it had been a mistake, and surely they’d known it from the get go. But they had thrown caution to the wind in the most reckless of ways. But they had been happy, or shared some semblance of happiness. Whatever they had shared, it had been endearing enough, and solid enough, but not enough of either to be forever. And now they were both gone on to other places, though Oceanus had yet to see the orange eyes he’d stared into so often. There was a mare though. He was almost startled when the spoke, for he wasn’t quite sure he was real. Clearly though, she was as real as whatever he was. There is maybe something familiar about her, but the fog is too heavy for him to be sure. “Hello.” he responds, startled to hear his voice. “I’m not sure, though I get that feeling too.” he says, his eyes scanning her face. The thought of rudeness never occurs to him. “What is this..place? Is this a place? I died, you know.” he adds, almost an after thought.