07-26-2017, 08:51 AM
tangerine
face to the sun
Tang sighs under the weight of his confession. His words reach her hot and shaking, suppressed too long. A hoof strikes the ground, emphasizing the guilt he carries. She thinks, trying to place herself in that small neglected boy's place. “You were a child.”
She pulls him into the golden warmth of her chest, the boy who has never known love. She realizes with a pang of guilt that the broken colt still hides, curled up and small, inside the lithe desert warrior's body - she had been blind to not see him until now.
He wants to be a protector, he wants to be worthy of his kingdom, but the scared colt who ran had carried no crown. "You can't hold that terrified child to the same standards you hold yourself to now." Of course, he would do it differently now; the years had built him into a man. “You have to forgive that boy.”
Then he is speaking again, the frustration in his voice making her feel helpless. His body seems to crumple in defeat as his head drops towards the ground.
Iset.
Tangerine was so different from the fierce Queen she could hardly assume to know her intentions, but she did know Iset was just as confused and broken as Amet. Iset burned hot and wild and Hyaline had burned with her.
Hopefully, that night had been the consequence of a chain of bad decisions, not a calculated plan of revenge on her brother. "That's a conversation you will have when she returns," Tang says, aware that they are not the most helpful words, wishing she could give him better answers. He deserved a true counselor, a knowledgeable advisor, but it seemed she was what he had. So, she did what she was in the habit of doing - she looked to the future and adventures to come.
"It's almost spring, Amet," she smiles softly, lowering her head so her muzzle can trace the line of his cheek. "We just need to think about what Hyaline needs now."
The fire was behind them, the land was healing, it was time they did too.