the firestarters always get the burns
and the good guys never get the girl
Flight must be the most wonderful thing in the world, and Ilma is eternally grateful she can share this gift with her children. If only she could share it with everyone, she’s be the happiest woman alive.
Not that Llowell at this point seems to grasp the concept very well, to be honest. He was even at birth quick to use the wrong limb to stand, and his wings aren’t strong enough to support much flight yet. She’s explained it to him multiple times, but the boy is too curious and too impatient, and tries to glide at least on a daily basis now. She lets him, because it will only make him stronger and learn to cope with disappointment. Once in a while when he gets back to her on the afternoons she gives him a ‘told you so’ look but doesn’t comment any further than that. She loves him, although she must be honest with herself that he will probably never be her favourite child. A mother isn’t allowed to have favourites, really, but she has those feelings anyway and so she does what she always does, hide them in plain sight by perhaps showering him with whatever and all love that she can give.
Today he is quick to rise again, but she grasps his mane a moment to bring him to a standstill. ”Llowell, please, you should learn to swim also.” She knows enough winged horses who cannot seem to understand what to do with wings when they touch the water, and she is pretty sure that Tähti was even younger than her little brother when she was taught (since Solace had beat her to it back then). She has told her son that living with a lake meant learning to swim, but he has been too preoccupied with the air to think of the water, and Ilma has had a hard time keeping up with the boy on mornings until today.
Of course, he makes a face, she sees him trying to hide it but it doesn’t matter. If anything it makes her smile, but perhaps she is lucky that he doesn’t see that. ”I promise if you know the basics you can run off on your own again.” This is her second child after all, she’s less scared that something may happen to him than when she was when Tähti was so young. A matter of a little experience perhaps, and also that there are more horses in their kingdom now who can come to his aid should he need it.
And so they walk the slope downhills towards the lake, the white mare and her tarnished son, greeting the cold lake water in the early morning with a splash (and a soft protesting cry that it’s far too cold).
@[Svedka]