let my shadows prove the sunshine
Svedka never has been one to be tethered to anything; he has ventured into realms beyond, both physically and mentally, uprooted almost constantly (whether it be his own doing or some dark force tearing him away) and never truly finding a place that could settle the aching wandering of his soul. Despite this, the milk-and-honey stallion always found himself drifting back to Tephra, back to the lava flows that run intricicately through the inland stretch of grass, back to the cool shadow of the volcano and the black sand beach that carves itself like a charred serpent against rough, dark waters of the ocean.
There is nothing that holds him here - nothing that cannot be taken with him, at least - and though there is no hesitancy upon leaving, he cannot help but glance over his scarred shoulder one last time, his cerulean eyes sweeping the once-familiar landscape that now seems to harbor shadow and darkness. His once home is incredibly not unlike how it felt before the earth had swallowed him with a sinister groan, how it had sucked away anything good and light and true, how hopelessness ran deep and as cold as ice in his veins. He could not stay here (and perhaps Warden had already come to this conclusion too, he hopes) and with a swift inhale of the salty humid air, disappears into the jungle with only the soft shining of his blue light to guide him.
He doesn’t know where to go, but Svedka allows the pale blue of light that now pulses from his body to guide his steps. Where it touches the ground he merely follows, appreciating the softness of its glow against the darkness with quiet eyes, not realizing that during his departure from Tephra, that the sun had slowly started its march into the skies.
The warmth of spring touches his back with caressing golden light, the chill of winter (and the nightmares that plagued him) seemingly gone from his bones in a single breath. Flowers bloom where winter had once choked their roots, the pine trees of the forest bursting with viridian green needles that he cannot help but brush his pale lips against, the scent of their sap lingering on his skin. He sighs, content despite his current loneliness. There are no nightmares here, no disrupting shadows that did not belong - it is pure in the quiet of the forest and the armor he fashioned himself with soaks into his skin, hiding beneath his ease. His light and his heart have brought him to a place he knows well, where sunlight pools unbidden into the bright green of downy grasses and the wildflowers bloom with freedom beneath the golden rays. He smiles, handsome and thoughtful, as the brilliance of the springtime sun warms him like another he has become fond of.
“Aureline,” he muses, her voice bringing that lazy quirk of his lips into a full smile, one that makes the blue of his eyes turn crystalline with happiness when they fall upon her approaching him with that mischievous look that he loves so much. Her mouth finds his jaw and his neck, tracing it as his own grazes across the darkness of her cheek, inhaling the comforting scent of sky and sun that lingers on her skin. His golden shoulder rolls beneath her touch, stretching beneath the warm comfort of her lips on his skin. “Of course,” Svedka replies, “I’ve got nowhere else to go.”
The stallion’s casual posture pauses for a moment, turning his head slightly to look into her eyes as his handsome expression sharpens with concern. “You made it out okay?” It’s a question because there is no telling what nightmares may have plagued her the moment Gale had taken the throne and though physically she appears perfectly flawless, Svedka is far gone from the naive boy he once was. The eclipse had made sure of that.
svedka
@aureline