Lost in the deep end // star pony

[lilliana]

It would seem her fatigue is making her careless. Her legs feel heavy and each step forward takes more than energy than she thinks she has. It would seem that Lilliana has finally found a brink. It washes over her wave after wave, a rising tide of weariness.

This is what happens, she thinks. This is what your mother did and once she started, she couldn't stop.

Her thoughts are troubled and Lilli is lost there. Between her mind and her lack of sleep, when the shadows shift and Tyr tries to hide, Lilli feels the words slip from her lips - an idealist looking for a momentary escape. It is when he pauses that she chastises herself and despite the shadows of night, a grimace shades her crimson face. Not everybody wants company, especially at this hour. The silence looms and Lilli is ready to apologize, it waits on the tip of her tongue.

And then he surprises her.
Not yet, he says.

Carefully the stallion turns and Lilli can make the white of his mane, his stockings in the early glow of evening and smiles. That velvet blue that he melted into the night with garners admiration from the chestnut mare, a part of the night sky that seems to have become earthbound. She looks up and studies the few stars she can see, the ones that silently blink through the branches that try to obscure them from view. It is her turn to pause, to be alone with her mind and his question. "No," she says slowly, still thinking, and returns her gaze to Tyr.

"I think I've forgotten how to listen," she admits out loud. Why she says this to a strange stallion who puts her in mind of the deepest parts of the night, she doesn't know. 

"Have you heard them before?" He reminds her of Orani, she realizes. Perhaps that explains the ease she feels. She had said there were others out there - that the celestial keepers above knew as many souls as they were stars in the sky. Lilli considers him again as he hides beneath his pale forelock. Was he one of them? Did he know their dreams?

Unable to help herself, Lilli finds herself hoping.

@[Tyr]