let my change of heart occur
A voice hurtles through the dark, it’s strange and accented, full of urgency but without distress. For a moment Ilka waits in the following silence, surround by fireflies flickering against her shoulders like sunken stars and a quiet that drapes around her like a blanket. She can make out the thump-thump of feet moving across soft ground, the rustle of plant as it pushes aside to make room for legs. The voice comes again, and now that it’s closer she can pick out the strands of frustration and impatience. She can also hear the affection buried there. A smile ghosts across her lips.
Suddenly the greenery opens up and in its place appears a small brown mare with a mane as silver as the stars themselves. Ilka is startled at first, despite that the mare had been rather loud and none too sneaky, but her voice is still raised even as the sound of urgency fades from it. “Who’s Tioga?” Is all Ilka can think to say, her head tipping curiously to the side. “Maybe I can help you look?” But Ilka suspected this Tioga character didn’t want to be found, after all Ilka had heard her yelling through the trees. It would’ve been hard to miss.
There’s a touch at her shoulder then, a familiar touch, and the familiarity is the only thing that keeps Ilka from startling out of her skin. “Pyxis,” she interrupts as she turns, pushing her smiling mouth against her sisters cheek in greeting, “you came!” Her heart glowed in her chest and there was a warmth beneath her skin that drew her even closer to the mare at her side. “Did you come with me?” She says, and there is quiet caution mixed with the delight that colors her voice. “To stay with me?”
It’s only when Pyxis addresses the silvery brown mare with the accent that Ilka remembers there’s anyone else standing there. “Oh.” She breathes, that same feathery smile reappearing on her dark mouth. “Yes, I’m Ilka.”
ILKA