06-15-2018, 10:40 AM
She does not lash out, she does not criticize him, and a flicker of hope flashes in his broad chest. His mismatched eyes search her own, noting the dancing tears ready to spill, and his resolve to remain distant weakens.
Stepping forward the heavy stallion brings himself to halt once they are close enough to touch if he or she reached out their muzzle, but here he remains. Her voice comes gently in response to his question, and her answer tells him what he needs to know. He lets the topic drop.
"...and you?" the soft voice presses, drawing from him another sigh, but this one is followed by a sad smile.
"Awful," he responds honestly, with a quiet laugh mixed in with the word as he shakes his heavy skull. She knows him well enough to know it by looking at him, and he had never been a liar anyway. But his eyes no longer have the defeated numbness they had held for the last year, and his fire burns a little brighter.
"Slept too much, ate too little," he adds with an impartial shrug. "I never found my sister again after our argument. She vanished, along with my father and her mother." With this last statement, some of the bitterness he harbors seeps out, displacing his nonchalant mask for a moment. His heart had broken, alone in the forest and that was a difficult thing to hide from his one-time friend.
"Once I finally realized that they were really gone... I don't know... I just couldn't come back here."
Stepping forward the heavy stallion brings himself to halt once they are close enough to touch if he or she reached out their muzzle, but here he remains. Her voice comes gently in response to his question, and her answer tells him what he needs to know. He lets the topic drop.
"...and you?" the soft voice presses, drawing from him another sigh, but this one is followed by a sad smile.
"Awful," he responds honestly, with a quiet laugh mixed in with the word as he shakes his heavy skull. She knows him well enough to know it by looking at him, and he had never been a liar anyway. But his eyes no longer have the defeated numbness they had held for the last year, and his fire burns a little brighter.
"Slept too much, ate too little," he adds with an impartial shrug. "I never found my sister again after our argument. She vanished, along with my father and her mother." With this last statement, some of the bitterness he harbors seeps out, displacing his nonchalant mask for a moment. His heart had broken, alone in the forest and that was a difficult thing to hide from his one-time friend.
"Once I finally realized that they were really gone... I don't know... I just couldn't come back here."