"But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura
09-08-2016, 09:33 AM (This post was last modified: 09-08-2016, 09:36 AM by Maribel.)
Maribel
The day is in it's birth as the sun is cresting over the hill top. Maribel walks amongst the sleeping forest, encased in it's blanket of white like an eternal phenomenon. She is quietly observing the slumber of the forest with a depth of serenity washing over her. So much change has happened but in turn, Beqanna was blossoming like a seedling through the left wreckage of a forest fire.
Gold tinged limbs are pulling her along after her moment of serenity as she desires to explore the lands more. Was this still the same forest? If so, why did things feel so differently? Perhaps like a new pair of shoes, it just needed to be broken in by thousands of hooves. The chill of winter air presses against her throat, her sides, like a gentle lover. It reminds her so much of the Tundra that she must heave a large breath to clear the emotions of times passed.
Maribel watches the thick flakes of falling snow start to penetrate the naked branches with an upturned face. They spatter her face and stick in her mane. A small laugh can only follow as she crow hops to launch herself into a canter to be amongst the flora. Peals of laughter follow in the wake of white snow that she kicks up as she enjoys this freedom that has been granted to her.
And when she laughs you'll always take notice.
'Cause her heart's charm will shine right through it all.
The only time I got to see Mari, who is maybe Mama Mari?, was just for a minute right before everything went wrong again. Or. Right before everything went pretty right for her and Daddy and their other kids, but a lot less right for me. Or maybe right for me, but sad anyhow. Maybe this is how it’s supposed to be, me mostly on my own with just sometimes visits from people who love me. At least that’s better than life started out, anyhow. With nobody who loved me. At least now I’ve got people, even if I don’t get to be with them all the time.
Anyhow. I may not have spent much time with her at all, but she has a very distinctive appearance, pretty white with shiny gold hair and legs and nose and ear tips, and that’s actually kind of cool now that I think about it, because I’ve got gold too even if most of me is black and red. My gold eyes. I mean, I got those from my birth mother, who wasn’t good for much but a few quick meals, but it could almost be like I got my gold from her, yeah? And the black from Daddy Romek? In another life, where maybe I’d been theirs instead of coming from a mother that didn’t much care.
So right, she’s not exactly easy to mistake for somebody else. Her white kind of blends in with the snow, but the bright gold shines in the sun, brilliant and almost blinding when the light bounces off it just right. It’s her laugh that catches my attention first, the sound ringing through the forest like bells as she kicks up her heel and frolics in the snow. And it makes my heart hurt a little, wondering what it would be like to live in Taiga with her and Daddy and the kids. Espy and Duro, and the twins whose names I don’t even know because I only got to see them for a minute.
I almost don’t say anything, almost slip back into the shadows and leave her to enjoy the day. She doesn’t seem to mind the cold the way I do, and she seems really happy. I don’t want to spoil that or intrude or anything. But it’s been a really long time since I felt as happy as she seems right now. I step closer even as I tell myself to let her have some fun by herself, not having to take care of any of the kids Daddy Romek brought her or helped her make.
...oh, hey, I wonder how that works anyhow, Maybe I should ask him next time I see him. Or I could ask somebody else, I guess that would be okay too, it’s just he’s my daddy and he’s smart and obviously he knows how, because the brightly colored twins exist, right?
“Excuse me? You’re Mari, right?” I ask, sneaking a little closer, my footsteps quiet and hesitant, and I at least for once don’t trip over my own too-big feet as I approach. Small wonders. “Um, I’m Lilitha. Dad mostly calls me Lily, though, so if you’d like to call me that, it’d be okay I guess. It’s nice to meet you.”
