[private] I woke up today and chose violence

[Gale]

Gale this is going to break me clean in two -- this is going to bring me close to you She leans into his embrace, and Gale buries his face in the long strands of her black and white mane. Many of his dreams are nightmares, and the reassurance of having her beside him immediately soothes a great many of his worries. She smells good, like melting snow and fertile earth. He has trouble pinpointing the other scents - trees of many types? What had she been doing in Taiga? The bits of the Curse that remember Taiga stirs, then resettles as Gale thinks instead of the waterfall and more good days, and the way she fits against him and pulls gently at his mane. Gale does the same, sliding his blue nose down the slope of her withers and then behind her shoulder. No wings today, he sees, and then falls still. His briefly altered vision confirms it; she is no longer pregnant. Is it spring already? Had time passed so swiftly? Gale looks up at the trees, and yes: there are buds at the tips of the branches, new growth that is weeks away from blossoming still. Spring, but barely so. Certainly not late spring. Gale blinks, and when he reopens his eyes he is not himself at all. “Maze?” says the Curse, using Gale’s hesitant voice. The uncertainty remains, its tones measured in perfect imitation of the brindle horse. “Did I...did I miss them being born?” @[Mazikeen]