[private] this is going to bring me clarity | Mazikeen

[Gale]

Gale this is going to break me clean in two -- this is going to bring me close to you He knows she means to keep her promise, and that is exactly the problem. She’ll take care of it. And while she’s doing so, Gale will be watching her suffer at his own hands - or claws or hooves or tentacles that the Curse might use. ‘I believe it is you,’ she says determinedly. If anything could defeat the Curse, Gale is sure it would be Mazikeen’s determination. But her determination does not stop him from seeing the images the Curse feeds him instead, images of the future. A future where Mazikeen is dead, and the twins beside her. A future where Mazikeen becomes enamored with the Curse. A future where Mazikeen is bleeding and crying in front of him, and his claws are pressed into the throat of a small black foal. Bile rises up in his throat, and especially uncomfortable feeling for a creature accustomed to being equine. As she leans toward him he pulls away, but not so far that he cannot close the distance between them when the feeling passes, and presses his face against her neck. Not torn open, the touch tells him, not like in the images of the future. Strangely, he thinks of his brothers asking him - separately - what had brought him to Hyaline. Mazikeen, he had told them both, and holding her it hasn’t ever felt more true. She feels like home, warm and strong and safe. She doesn’t feel breakable as Gale holds her, as he tells her that yes, of course he will spend today with her. She does not feel fragile, and yet he fears that before their tale has ended that every bit of her he loves will be crushed into the same nothingness that swallows him each night. “What shall we do?” He asks, pressing his nose below her ear, that soft place he loves so much. This morning feels like a gift, and he does not intend to waste it. @[Mazikeen]