Be still, and listen to your heart [Roselin]

[Memorie]

one lives in hope of becoming a memory

The gold. That was one thing I did not share with my father. He had a golden star on his chest. A golden star that glows! And secretly, I must admit that I wish I shared that marking–or some other really cool marking. His twin brother had golden stripes on his legs. I hadn’t met Nashua, Yanhua’s twin, but father had sent me a memory from when they were foals, and then another one to show me what he looks like now (in case I ever needed to know). But anyway, I loved the stripes, just as I love the gold streaks in @[Roselin]’s mane, and the gold marking on father’s chest. Oh well, the grass is always greener on the other side. I could sit here and bemoan my lack of golden markings all I want, but it would never get me the markings, and I should be glad that I am my own, unique self.

I give the other filly a bright smile when she says that I look like myself. “Yes, I think I do.”

I notice Roselin crinkle her nose at the mention of Cheri’s healing abilities, and I can’t help but laugh, even as she admits that she doesn’t do well with blood or sickness. I am not truly surprised by this. She seemed like such a delicate…flower. Yes, that was a good way of putting it. She was soft and sweet and kind, not hardened by the world around her. “Well, it’s a good thing healing is not your gift,” I joke with her. “What are your gifts, anyway?” I think I’d seen her blow a puff of smoke or something earlier, but I’d been so distracted by our conversation about flowers that I’d totally forgotten to even ask.

Rosy hadn’t found sunflowers in Beqanna…yet. That doesn’t mean that we couldn’t search for them. However, she mentions going up the Mountain, and I hesitate. Father and Amarine had been planning on going up the Mountain for months, and I’d heard them discussing things with mother as well. It was no foolhardy trek to make. In fact, it was very dangerous. I’m absolutely certain that father would not be happy if I were to attempt going up the mountain with another filly by my side.

In my hesitation, a new plan begins to form. “Oh!” I say, getting excited again, “We might not have to go up the Mountain. Tell me everything you know about them. I can try to…” I’m not exactly sure how to say this, so I try anyway, “speak to the plants.” There. That made sense. I hope. But just in case it didn’t, I continue, “I can…connect to plants. When mama and I are using our gifts, I can sense everything that the plant needs to grow. Different plants grow in different climates and need different things. If you tell me everything you know about them, I can try to…” Oh, this is hard. “I can try to figure out what kind of climate they might grow in, and we can go from there.” The plan was already forming in my head, and somehow, I think father might not be anymore happy with it, either, because it would still have us running all around Beqanna trying to find this elusive flower to bring home to Lilliana.

memorie

Photo by Saffu from Unsplash

[Roselin]

The older filly tucks her head neatly into her neck and fixes her silver-blue eyes on the path ahead of them. Memorie asks what exactly her gifts are and while Roselin still has much to learn about the craft she shares with her draconic sire, her dark lips twitch in a smile. The black adolescent focuses and when they come beneath the shadow of a mighty Sequoia, the yearling stops. Lifting her head, she exhales slowly.

Her black brow furrows, revealing the small star hidden beneath her pale forelock.

The exhale continues and while Rose blows, the smoke becomes thicker. She projects it towards a bare twig, jutting out from a fallen log. The smoke doesn't burn; as it swirls away, it reveals a thin layer of ice glistening in the limited sunlight. "I can freeze things," she tells Memorie and glances at the horned child. "Papa says when I'm bigger, I'll be able to do more." How much more is still something that she is figuring out. There is a twinge of pride in her chest when she says, "he said that someday I could join him on the Isle." Roselin doesn't yet know if that will be the place she makes her home or if she will remain with the rest of her family in Taiga.

There are so many of them, she thinks.

"The memory is from Lilliana," Rose explains. "They had them in a place called Windskeep," the filly adds but then shrugs her shoulders. Her mother - beyond a few stories - never elaborated much on that place. "But my aunt grows them," her dark head twirls in a small circle because Roselin doesn't know the location of any of the places she is speaking about. "In a kingdom called Terrastella. They have fields of them, spreading as far as the eye can see." (And there is a story here, a fable that Rose remembers when she had been small. Something about a soul who fell in love with the Sun. And the Sun being in love with the Moon, always chasing her silver shadow, never looked down. Never saw the heart burning below and so when she died, she became the Sunflower. Always looking up, always watching the beloved Sun from the moment it rises to the moment it sets.)

"They need lots of sunlight," Roselin says, thinking of the story. "Maybe the Pampas?" she asks @[Memorie].

ROSELIN

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i am so, so sorry this took so long!