05-26-2018, 02:02 PM
Disappearing without a trace seemed to run in the family.
When his twin vanished seven years again, he had no idea abandonment would be a pattern which would haunt him, and that he would perpetuate. He had sworn to never do it, to never be so irresponsible or unfeeling to those he was bound to by blood. But before even his tenth year of life, he had unintentionally given in to the hereditary vice.
His sons had grown from newborns into athletic colts, and he had been nothing but a name on their mother's lips.
But now that he is back, and Levi is not surprised to see that Amore is the first to seek him out... or maybe just stumble across him. The autumn night they had spent together had been in his thoughts continuously this last fall when he had refused to find another such companion. He took no partners after the births of his sons, he had learned his lesson.
With some selfish satisfaction, he notes that her sides lack the weight of pregnancy, but he rebukes himself the second the thought crosses his mind. The instinctual part of his equine brain wants to claim her, to hide her away and call her his own, but his logical part knows this can never be. Tephra is Warrick's kingdom, and she is an integral part of that machine.
But as she speaks his name and he remembers their night together in a different way. She had healed him of the wounds his other family had left him with, she had always had only ever tried to help him, and she had always put him at ease during their days together.
He knows as he finds her dark, forlorn eyes that he gravely wronged her.
"Amore," he sighs in response to his name on her lips, but the weight their year apart hangs heavily between them, and he feels he has little right to step closer to her. He asks the second question which comes to mind because he knows he will have to earn back the right to know her again.
"How is our son?"
When his twin vanished seven years again, he had no idea abandonment would be a pattern which would haunt him, and that he would perpetuate. He had sworn to never do it, to never be so irresponsible or unfeeling to those he was bound to by blood. But before even his tenth year of life, he had unintentionally given in to the hereditary vice.
His sons had grown from newborns into athletic colts, and he had been nothing but a name on their mother's lips.
But now that he is back, and Levi is not surprised to see that Amore is the first to seek him out... or maybe just stumble across him. The autumn night they had spent together had been in his thoughts continuously this last fall when he had refused to find another such companion. He took no partners after the births of his sons, he had learned his lesson.
With some selfish satisfaction, he notes that her sides lack the weight of pregnancy, but he rebukes himself the second the thought crosses his mind. The instinctual part of his equine brain wants to claim her, to hide her away and call her his own, but his logical part knows this can never be. Tephra is Warrick's kingdom, and she is an integral part of that machine.
But as she speaks his name and he remembers their night together in a different way. She had healed him of the wounds his other family had left him with, she had always had only ever tried to help him, and she had always put him at ease during their days together.
He knows as he finds her dark, forlorn eyes that he gravely wronged her.
"Amore," he sighs in response to his name on her lips, but the weight their year apart hangs heavily between them, and he feels he has little right to step closer to her. He asks the second question which comes to mind because he knows he will have to earn back the right to know her again.
"How is our son?"