05-17-2021, 09:36 AM
There is something in her eyes that hadn’t been there when she had first approached. A curious understanding and quiet hunger for something more that he can’t quite fathom. Ten, for all his power, had often been stymied by simple equine emotion.They were in many ways more difficult to read than the vast and endless expanse of the universe.
It is an almost embarrassing shortcoming to a stallion who so enjoys picking apart the inner workings of the cosmos.
The questions though, those he can understand. They bring a light to his pale gaze and a sense of animated appreciation to his entire mein. They are familiar territory, one that allows him to favor her with a fond regard and the faintest beginnings of a pleased smile. She couldn’t possibly know the warmth her curiosity stirred in his soul even in the shadows of the disaster consuming their home.
“We’re on the beach.” He begins with the easiest question, gaze bright as it rests on her, as though trying to pick apart her secrets. But her musings draw his gaze inexorably back to the sky. Back to the phantom crack that still pierced his heart despite its absence from the horizon. After a moment, he sighs, a long, low exhalation that clearly details his own momentarily suppressed worry. “I could feel it across the universe when it cracked. Before it broke open to let the darkness in.”
It had drawn him back as surely as a fly to a honey-trap. Briefly, a small, sad smile traces the corners of his lips. “Did you know Beqanna is alive?” His eyes drop to her then, wanting to see her reaction. “Her heart beats deep underneath our feet.” His eyes darken then, quickly masking a flash of grief and anger. “I felt her pain then just as I feel the way she still aches now.”
And it kills him that he had not been able to stop it. That even now, standing here with her, he knows without a doubt he will not be the one to fix it. It’s foolish of him to imagine that he might be able to save her time and time again, despite being only one man. But beneath it, he is still a man with a man’s foolish ego and reckless belief that he could find all the answers if only he tried hard enough.
It is an almost embarrassing shortcoming to a stallion who so enjoys picking apart the inner workings of the cosmos.
The questions though, those he can understand. They bring a light to his pale gaze and a sense of animated appreciation to his entire mein. They are familiar territory, one that allows him to favor her with a fond regard and the faintest beginnings of a pleased smile. She couldn’t possibly know the warmth her curiosity stirred in his soul even in the shadows of the disaster consuming their home.
“We’re on the beach.” He begins with the easiest question, gaze bright as it rests on her, as though trying to pick apart her secrets. But her musings draw his gaze inexorably back to the sky. Back to the phantom crack that still pierced his heart despite its absence from the horizon. After a moment, he sighs, a long, low exhalation that clearly details his own momentarily suppressed worry. “I could feel it across the universe when it cracked. Before it broke open to let the darkness in.”
It had drawn him back as surely as a fly to a honey-trap. Briefly, a small, sad smile traces the corners of his lips. “Did you know Beqanna is alive?” His eyes drop to her then, wanting to see her reaction. “Her heart beats deep underneath our feet.” His eyes darken then, quickly masking a flash of grief and anger. “I felt her pain then just as I feel the way she still aches now.”
And it kills him that he had not been able to stop it. That even now, standing here with her, he knows without a doubt he will not be the one to fix it. It’s foolish of him to imagine that he might be able to save her time and time again, despite being only one man. But beneath it, he is still a man with a man’s foolish ego and reckless belief that he could find all the answers if only he tried hard enough.
TEN
@[aureline]