Dawn
in the cold light of day we're a flame in the wind, not the fire that we've begun
Dawn didn’t realize that it was Sunny’s intention to leave Hyaline. Certainly, for political trips he would travel to other kingdoms, but to leave the beautiful kingdom permanently? The thought had never crossed the young bear's mind. Mayhaps she had planned out an entire future for the young stallion, and it involved Hyaline, and maybe she had been too hasty in planning her and her friend’s futures, but she never imagined that it involved anything but the kingdom she has made her home in.
That was the entire point of her coming to Hyaline.
So they could build each other up and create their own happy endings.
How could she have known that Rhaegor’s happy ending existed outside of the land he had spoken so highly of? The kingdom that she had fallen in love with just from the stories he told... and he doesn’t even live here anymore.
His voice is raw as he murmurs her name, but she doesn’t think of the plague; she thinks of the force in which her name was whispered against her skin, and she trembles as the tears threaten to overflow. He grips her more tightly—only briefly—and then steps back, and the cool breeze that had been blowing turns icy as his warmth withdraws. She quivers and then the tears fall, the small rejection of touch (though he had not meant it as such) overwhelming the already exhausted and terrified Dawn.
He is crying, too, as he tells her of his departure to Tephra, and Dawn has to swallow a sob as her beloved Sunny cries. She longs to embrace him again, to take away his pain, but a small nagging voice at the back of her mind tells her that he had pulled away, he doesn’t want her touch, even though he feels safe enough to cry in her presence.
The force of her emotions is almost enough to knock her over, but she reins them in as she draws herself up, trying unsuccessfully to stop the tears. “Rhae,” she murmurs, knowing that it is too late; too late to stop him, too late for anything. “Rhae, it is selfish of me to want you to stay... I want you to be happy.” Her voice breaks and for once she is the one who is rendered mute, as the strength flees her muscles and she begins to shake. Stop it, girl, you’re the only one who’s going to end up hurt.
She takes a single step forward and touches her muzzle to his neck, wishing she could telepathically say the words that refuse to come to her lips. You deserve better, you have better, you need better.
@Rhaegor