The deep black of her feathered wings are neatly tucked into the gold and white of her sides. They rustle briefly with the wind’s playfulness, tugging most forcefully at the obsidian and cobalt tassels of her forelock and mane. Those unique leopard print markings of noticeable blue along her spine are hidden beneath the folds of her wings, only seen perhaps from above. She stares blankly into the river, realizing that its lazy current is nothing like staring into the ocean and with wrinkled waves that crash incessantly against the blackened shoreline of Tephra. They’re continuous and without fail; Olena decides this is why she had always been so fond of the ocean - there are no surprises.
The river does not give her the same feeling. It’s too calm and felt uncertain as if something is hiding beneath the surface. She snorts, lifting her slender head carefully until her chin tilts upwards to the summer sky, aching for the smell of ash and sulfur intermingled with salt and sun. She can’t go back there, she knows, but Tephra had been all she’s known. She had wandered and staggered out into the unknown, somehow finding the river out of luck after days of aimless walking. She’s barely ventured outside of those lava-filled plains and now, finding herself at some unfamiliar river, she is overwhelmed with sadness.
Her only safe harbor had been destroyed in the most terrible of ways, with darkness at each turn and nightmares roving like mad dogs whether her eyes had been open or closed. It has turned her memories sour (memories that she clung so tightly to - her mothers and her brother) and Olena’s eyes close tightly, trying to focus on the warmth of the sun on the deep gold of her face, the expressive leopard print markings of cerulean blue making her face appear a lot sharper than the mare truly is.
Even Rilian is gone - disappeared within the darkness without a trace. He had been a stoic, unplayful elk that could not have been more opposite of her when she was a filly. He had protected her, kept her safe when sickness plagued her for the first four years of her life. But he had disappeared along with the others, swallowed by darkness Olena assumes, and for the first time in her life, she is truly alone.
And she is absolutely terrified.
Olena lowers her head and despite the sunlight that pours across her back and those beautiful raven wings, she begins to quietly cry. She sheds tears for all that she’s lost and for the realization that she is as lost as they are.
OLENA
all the stars go dark