jet black sky before the rain; Wolfbane

[Wolfbane]

My dreams have all come true

Their ribs and wings meld together, creating a bulky mass of blue-trimmed gold flesh. Wolfbane enjoys the comfort of feeling pushed together, the slow warmth Lepis’ body surrenders after she sighs. It surprises him that snow drifts this far south and sticks, he’s so used to the brittle ice and nothing more. Loess had been deft at keeping the heavy snows away with her steam and saltwater, but overnight the condensation would layer atop their freshwater sources as hard-packed ice and cling to their vegetation (the plants that could bear a winter snap.)

Now the female pegasus beside him is a winding river, hot-blooded and puffing out jets of visible warm air. He misses home, sure, but Lepis is as much his home as Loess was. Is. Sometimes he wonders if her parents fashioned her from the pale clay along the riverbanks there and breathed life into her with magic.

Split our affections? Her mate thinks quietly, the dark angles of his face screwing themselves up over her little puzzle. His head is already angled aside towards her, one studious green eye falling into the steel-blue trap of her mischievous gaze like she knew it would. Bane is tense - he hates guessing games - and the obvious irritation, mixed with intense focus, causes him to listen silently as she speaks. At first he misses the announcement altogether; he’s so obviously ready for bad news that the good escapes him entirely. “Oh.” He merely says at first, and then “Oh! OHH!!” when the realization of it all starts to dawn on him. The baby … their baby … Lepis was pregnant!

A change overcomes him, one wave of pure bliss and then stalwart pride that settles into every shimmering, smug corner of his handsome face. Elated, he begins kissing her like a madman. The pecks are insatiable in their nature, little prayers and blessings he silently plants like seeds over her alabaster fur until he’s running out of breath. They pepper her vellum-soft skin from cheek to neck and even when he pauses to catch a breath, Wolfbane is sure he could continue on into the day and overnight. “Becoming a father is the ‘hurrah’ in my opinion.” The drake laughs, unable and unwilling to smother the cheshire grin she’s forced him to wear. “I can't believe it. I mean I can, of course, it just seems so … unreal.” He nearly purrs.

The mare he’s chosen to love continues to surprise him, and that same love continues to evolve just when he thinks it can’t possibly get any better. Suddenly there’s no bitter cold or outside worries over their impending doom. There’s only this moment and the gleam in her eye, both of which he’ll remember for a thousand lifetimes to come. “I’m stunned by happiness. Stunned. You hear that world?!” He shouts aloud while turning his mouth to the overcast sky, “I’m going to be a dad! I’m the craziest, happiest idiot in Beqanna and I’m going to have a child!”

Like all good nightmares do

@[Lepis]