[private] the hand that pulled me through the center of the night was you

[Agetta]

At first, Agetta did not plan on returning to the Gates once she heard they were back. That part of her life had ended, and there were too many memories wrapped up in those rolling green hills and wispy willow branches.

But here she is anyway, with Garbage beside her, and the entire thing feels surreal. Like they are walking side-by-side into a dream.

She is quiet at first as they move through wildflower-strewn meadows and see the expansive lavender field. The early morning air is sweet with the scent of the blooms and it troubles her.

“I don’t know if it has changed or if my memory of it has morphed over time…” She tells him, unable to bring her voice above a whisper. There is so much of this place that she does not recognize but small pieces of it do jump out at her. She cannot remember where she died that first time even though that memory had once felt so vivid. Cannot distinguish where it is she used to hold meetings or the space that she had clashed in a war the first time she ever shifted into a snow leopard. Was this the same copse of trees where she had refused to look at her first foal, so deep was her shame? The same meadows where she stood under starlit skies and discovered what love felt like for the first time?

So many firsts. The memories are there just as she suspected but they are behind a veil - understandable, considering how many countless years separate her from where she is now and that young black mare she had been.

She stops and reaches for him, letting the familiar feeling of her muzzle against his skin ground her wandering thoughts. “Did you ever visit here? Back… before.”

AGETTA

@garbage