05-17-2016, 09:53 PM
may these words be the first to find your ears
the world is brighter than the sun now that you're here
the world is brighter than the sun now that you're here
He is struck by the weight in her eyes, by the weight he thinks must also sit in the pit of her chest. Those honest blue eyes are too hard, too dark, all wrong for the small, perfect world his family has built around themselves. He cannot tell if what he sees there is sorrow, it is not a feeling he has reason to know yet, not beyond a static understanding of a plain definition. Still, maybe it is something worse, something darker- and even as he watches does it not force holes in her innocence, impossible cracks that pull her apart at the seams? He touches her again, his nose warm against her cheek, a mottled wing lifted over her back to pull her close against him.
Not for the first time, Illum wonders what a terrible burden her ability must be. He knows that she loves it, that the freedom she finds in the eyes of others is unrivaled by anything else. But he knows, too, that the cost of this freedom is higher than she had imagined it would be, maybe higher than she understands, that even as he waits beside her like this he can feel her peace unraveling. There was nothing he could do to stop her, he would never ask her to give up something that was such a part of her, but he would always be there to help, to protect. To soothe her heart when those beautiful eyes betrayed her. She would never have to bear these burdens alone; he wouldn’t forgive her if she tried.
All at once the desert is gone, the sand is gone, and there is trampled grass and dirt beneath their unmoving feet. He finds his attention forced forward, though there is a split second before he notices the violence that his heart thunders for the green of this new world around him. But then his eyes are on the mare and the stallion, and he is filled with a sudden, inexplicable fury. His dark ears disappear beneath the tangles of his corn-silk mane as he forgets that he is only inside of a memory, that none of this is really happening anymore. It is just as his wings lift and unfurl at his shoulders, just as he takes a step and lunges forward, that this world disappears and with it the mare and stallion.
For a moment he is lost, entirely disoriented by the change, by the emotions burning like raw heat in his bones, in his veins. The fury fades a little without anything to witness, it fades more when he twists to hold Heartfire in his gaze again. “What-” his confusion burns a little deeper, but he can’t force his frozen feet to carry him closer to the warmth of his twin, “Heartfire, what was that?” He looks around as if maybe he’ll catch another glimpse, as if maybe this is still happening and maybe he can help. But there is nothing but the sand and the sun, nothing but the two of them and something sears in his belly. “Where did you see that?”
Not for the first time, Illum wonders what a terrible burden her ability must be. He knows that she loves it, that the freedom she finds in the eyes of others is unrivaled by anything else. But he knows, too, that the cost of this freedom is higher than she had imagined it would be, maybe higher than she understands, that even as he waits beside her like this he can feel her peace unraveling. There was nothing he could do to stop her, he would never ask her to give up something that was such a part of her, but he would always be there to help, to protect. To soothe her heart when those beautiful eyes betrayed her. She would never have to bear these burdens alone; he wouldn’t forgive her if she tried.
All at once the desert is gone, the sand is gone, and there is trampled grass and dirt beneath their unmoving feet. He finds his attention forced forward, though there is a split second before he notices the violence that his heart thunders for the green of this new world around him. But then his eyes are on the mare and the stallion, and he is filled with a sudden, inexplicable fury. His dark ears disappear beneath the tangles of his corn-silk mane as he forgets that he is only inside of a memory, that none of this is really happening anymore. It is just as his wings lift and unfurl at his shoulders, just as he takes a step and lunges forward, that this world disappears and with it the mare and stallion.
For a moment he is lost, entirely disoriented by the change, by the emotions burning like raw heat in his bones, in his veins. The fury fades a little without anything to witness, it fades more when he twists to hold Heartfire in his gaze again. “What-” his confusion burns a little deeper, but he can’t force his frozen feet to carry him closer to the warmth of his twin, “Heartfire, what was that?” He looks around as if maybe he’ll catch another glimpse, as if maybe this is still happening and maybe he can help. But there is nothing but the sand and the sun, nothing but the two of them and something sears in his belly. “Where did you see that?”
Illum