Go lock up all your children
At long last the tattered gunmetal mare was free. Her head hung too low, and her eyes were dull and crazed. Her wings were torn, her body scarred, her mind all but gone, yet she smiled. It was a dark and twisted thing that smile. It spoke of the nightmares she had seen and the demons that lurked just out of sight waiting for the right time to strike.
The wolf still prowled in her head, a very real manifestation of all the feral things that lived in her. He smiled and howled and was pleased with the madness that had so easily ripped her apart and patched her back together. Tyrna would never be quite the same. The devilish horns atop her head were a constant reminder, but oh how strong they said she was.
The journey home took far longer than she would have liked, but she was pleased that she still knew the way. The spring sun shone far too brightly on her dark hide. It brought forth all her scars, old and new, and played across the dried blood still caked against her skin. She was the monster you warned your children about both inside and out. The collection of thick scars and rippling muscle, the gunmetal hide and grimy starlight mane, dark wings, and now dark horns. She was a boogeyman come to life.
As she crossed the border, her nostrils flared and eyes grew wide picking up the scents and sights of what she used to call her sanctuary. One scent in particular stood out to her more than the rest, Contagion. Her once love. Visions of their child that never was played so real behind her eyelids. She finds herself racing towards him, following his smell like a beacon as tears flow readily from her eyes. Bursting through a small copse of trees, she sees him. He is far better suited to the sunlight than she could ever have hoped to be. Light plays across his fragile skin like lover, turning his body into a jewel. Her emotions crash through her like a hurricane as she simply stands and takes him in. He would always be the light in her darkest hour, but the fake memories that the demon had implanted were to real to ignore and they tinged the edges of her feelings. How could she explain that to him? She certainly wasn't the same mare that he knew before she left. Now she was a monster.
She takes careful steps towards him, but stops before entering the circle of light that suits him so well. She isn't ready for him to see her so starkly. In a voice grown harsh with disuse, she whispers to him. Heart in throat as she waits for the recognition to cross his features.
"Contagion?"
Tyrna
And paint blood upon your door