09-05-2016, 06:33 PM
Maribel
It happened all so fast. There are cries of horses, desperately clawed from their throats. All Maribel can understand is that one moment Romek is with her, his scent mingling heavily with hers as she peppers his neck with playful kisses in the solitude of their icelandic home but in the next Mari is blinded. The sun swelled to a fat blob of blinding white in the mere smidgen of time she bats her lashes. Her eyes burn as a flash of white hot washes over her and she feels herself falling, falling, falling. The mare tries to walk, to find purchase against something solid but there is nothing. Her mind races the child within before she fades into unconsciousness.
Something changes in the darkness of sleep. Beqanna changes angrily, her wrath unforgiving. She takes back what is rightfully hers and the horses that stand too stupid to move are turned to nothing more than dust.
The contractions wake her. The fluid, the feel of grass and not snow against her skin, the scent of decaying vegetation in her nostrils and her hair. The deep blue of her eyes glitter in panic as she attempts to stand but the her body denies her and promptly reminds her with the involuntary squeeze of her uterus. Mari falls victim to nature and cries out against the pain. How long had she been laying there? How did she get there. Fear is welling in her breast as she attempts to calm herself. The delicate skull lifts to look but she can not see over the vastness of her round barrel.
Frustration sweat slicks her body, through gritted teeth Maribel begins to push. Her mother had helped her prepare for this and so in her head she can hear the soft voice of her mother's guidance, she can feel the strength of her father and so she grits against the growing pain and pushes. Not long after there is a release of pressure...a heaviness alleviates and Maribel looks to see behind her is a foal. A girl! A gorgeous little black and yellow filly! Tears are streaming downward in happiness, mixing with scent of sweat and blood. The golden woman rolls to prop herself up, to move so she may nudge the precious child. With some careful shimmying and a outstretched muzzle, the feeling happens again.
This time, the pain bears far too much and the woman comes crashing to the ground with the whites of her eyes where blue once was. Her mouth opens in a silent scream but nothing happens.
She is floating, the pain is gone, the blood and the screaming are all gone. Mari feels weightless as she moves in a vastness of a wildflower filled meadow. She can feel the sun, the scent of bee's honey on her tongue. Her heart is soaring and happy as she chases butterflies with bubbling laughter. She is a child again! Happy and free! Her little legs are sprinting her after her wild rabbit friends. It seems like hours pass as she frolic but then...then a shadow falls across her. The large blue eyes rotate and her tiny skull looks over her shoulder to see a dark stallion with white spots along his spine but she doesn't know him but a little yellow and black filly comes sprinting out from behind him. Maribel squeals playfully as she bounds over to her new friend. A foal like her!
But-
when she brushes her muzzle against the other girl, the acrid scent of blood gags her and she reels back. "Maribel! Maribel!" The stallion is screaming at her, the other girl is crying. Confusion jars her and she feels fear. Blue eyes look downward as she feels a throttle of pain in her belly but as she looks down, she is swollen and large. She is no longer a foal. "Momma!" The small color dipped child cries and Mari can hear a howl of wolves. Panic fills her as she begins to struggle and fight to get to the child but the scent of wolves is thick and she belowss her battle cry, attempting to maneuver the bulge of her form to get to the girl. "Arete?! Romek?!" It's all flooding back. Her husband! Her child! They needed her!
The air rips into her lungs with such force that she can taste blood. With a massive heave against the flood of pain, the pressure once again subsides but the scent of wolves do not. The mare is moving, her desperation so thick in her throat that she has yet to realize that she has witnessed her own death. The blood and fluids have attracted the hungry and Maribel instinctively is finding her feet as the little yellow and black filly lays wobbling near her face.
Limbs move without prompt, muzzle against the child before she hears the small cry. Her skull swings to see where she had though was all afterbirth, was a small indigo filly. If Mari had time, she would have marveled and cooed but now instincts drive her to hurry the girl. The girls! They struggle but they fight like their father, their desire to eat is their only real reason. The howls catch in the wind of spring, driving the new mother to \encourage the spindly legs fillies to their feet. Lobes flicker, eyes moving in the direction of the carnivores scent. "Come children, come. Follow Momma. yes! Yes, good my little loves!" Mari pants heavily as the children move to find their feet. Little Arete (from the dream) is standing first and little Alivia follows in her frustration.
Thank the gods of Beqanna they are strong children and are able to move on before they can be found, Maribel gladly leaving behind the remains of her birth to the creatures. In the cover of night, a black and yellow child, a blue child, and a white and gilded mare seek refuge or a familiar face.
And when she laughs you'll always take notice.
'Cause her heart's charm will shine right through it all.
'Cause her heart's charm will shine right through it all.
ick, not great post but i had to have this up first!