The darkness should frighten her more than it does, but Rosebay finds she does not mind it.
Rather, she finds that it calls to her. It whispers of that which stole her mother and there is relief in knowing that she is surrounded by the same thing. She wakes in the morning to the shadows and she sometimes finds herself peering out into them, wondering if her mother was there waiting for her in turn.
She never is, of course, but that doesn’t stop her from looking.
It empowers her, feeds her need to explore, and she gladly plunges into the shadows—not willing to admit that the monsters may find her tempting and that she was vulnerable before them. It was difficult for her to admit that she may be vulnerable at all. So instead she walks with her head high, her light almond eyes studying the darkness and all that she could not see within it. All the sounds and her imagination.
It’s only when she pauses to watch them that anything of note happens at all.
When the mare approaches her, she straightens again, her face impassive and cool. “Should I be?” she questions, genuinely curious at to what the other mare might have to say. Short-tempered and not patient enough to deal with half truths, she looks at Desire in the eye, close enough to find her gaze.
“Why don’t you tell me everything that I should fear.”
She waits, her tail flicking against her haunches as she smiles sweetly, wondering what she might say.
but in all chaos, there is calculation