Stay in Taiga, where it is safe, mama had told him. It itches and burns along the edges of his youthful mind, a warning. A dare. The world does not feel dangerous. It feels big and impossible. It feels like temptation. He had already seen so much, but he wants more. So much more.
From the moment of his birth, Taiga had felt somehow small. He is too young yet to realize why. That every corner feels saturated with his birth mother. Though he knows exactly where she rests, he can still feel her in every part of these woods.
He can still feel the guilt and shame he can’t quite express. Can’t quite understand even.
It is this that makes him restless. That drives him to the edge of the trees, staring hungrily beyond. It is this that ultimately sends him over the edge. That pushes his feet forward until he has taken one step, then two, before bursting into a trot.
The trot soon becomes a canter, a gallop, as he races towards the unknown, bursting across hills and through the trees until he tires. Still he continues, slower now. Continues until the trees fade and rolling grassland is crushed beneath his feet. Breathing heavily, he stumbles to a halt, staring around him in fascination. This place stinks of so many different horses, scent overlaid by warring scent until it is a battleground of passing strangers.
He loves it. It is delightfully thrilling, new and fascinating. So much to see here. He almost feels he could crash endlessly through the waves of vision and never find the end of it. Perhaps there is no end.
As the delight surges through him, he cannot help the wild laugh that escapes his lips. What he must seem to the others, he doesn’t care. It doesn’t matter. He truly is a mad child lost in a sea of strangers.
reave
@[phaetra]