DAWN
i just killed off what was left of the optimist in me
Until recently, she had completely forgotten what it is like to have fun. Her adventurous day with Valek had been just that – fun, adventurous, and completely irresponsible. For so long now she has had so many things on her plate, and her children just barely begin to cover that. Having five children in such a short span of time – six, if you count dear Ori, who had never returned from Loess – has forced her to grow up at quite the young age. Caring for them and the Cove and dealing with the emotional fallout from the Tephran war has left her exhausted, physically and mentally, and some days it is all she can do to just keep going every morning.
The moon has barely moved from its place in the night sky when she hears the splashing, and lifts her head curiously to see who could be taking a dip at this late hour – other than her, of course. When her eyes fall on the blue-marking buckskin stallion – so familiar, and yet so alien to her – it takes everything in her not to gasp, because it is as though she is seeing a ghost as she watches the man play in the waters, completely oblivious to her standing not twenty feet away.
She wonders briefly if he’d even recognize her – the years and bearing children have changed her body, though she is just as muscular and put-together as ever – but the thought has already died in her mind as she steps closer to the swirling waters, her hooves sinking into the muddy bank with soft squelching noises. Surely, he’s noticed the sound by now, but he doesn’t turn towards her, transfixed in his games, the games that she had once joined in on so fiercely.
The golden woman slides into the water once more, a soft smile on her lips as she draws nearer to him. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you so carefree,” she says in lieu of a traditional greeting – or throwing herself into his embrace as she longs to do so badly. The last time they spoke, she had professed her love for him and he had turned away from it, breaking her heart in ways that have yet to mend. What will he do now?
@[Rhaegor]