08-11-2016, 02:15 PM
It’s time. Belly heavy with child, the old mare picks her way through the bones on the beach. She’s an odd looking thing, pale grey speckled with black, with white eyes, and a pale white marking in the shape of a spiderweb covering the left side of her dark face. She pauses every once in a while, head lowering to inspect the odd cobweb-covered skull, before muttering to herself under her breath and continuing on her way. She walks like this for some time, weaving in and out of old skeletons, until she comes upon a little thicket of mangroves - a sign of her nearness to the Jungle. She settles herself beneath them, not caring about the muck at their roots, and soon her body begins a process that she knows all too well. Her body begins to shudder and lurch and her voice rises, humming an odd, incomprehensible tune. After a few long moments and one last push, a little winged colt lies in the mud at her side. The old mare rises quickly to her feet and begins to clean him off, nudging and whuffling at the boy all the while. “She’ll be here soon, the bitter one. We must get you ready for her.” She nudges at the boy and he looks up at her, dark brown eyes wide in confusion. “Come now, hurry up. She’ll take care of you. She’ll try. Better than I could. Better than I have.” The boy pulls his legs beneath him and tries to stand, legs shaking with the effort. “Hurry, hurry. All the threads converge here.” Finally, still shaking, his body rises up, up, until he stands at her side. She watches as he wobbles closer, and lets him latch on to drink. But after only a few moments she pulls away, leaving the little boy blinking up at her in more confusion. “I must do it you know. They’ll kill you otherwise Lauchlan. She won’t know, she won’t be able to save you. So I must do it. I’m sorry. They’re beautiful but I must do it.” And with a quick, decisive movement she lunges and crushes her teeth about the thin, delicate bone connecting the boy’s right wing to his body. She grinds her teeth viciously until the wing drops away, then she moves to the left wing and crushes its connecting bone as well. When it too falls to the sand she steps back, pulling herself away from the child. The poor boy shrieks and his legs collapse beneath him as he begins to sob in shock and pain. “Mumma?!!” The mare ignores him though, white eyes turning to look out across the dark ocean waters. Then, with the blood still on her lips she whispers. “Daughter, I am ready.” oh what a tangled web we weave |
@[riva]