[private] so give me hope in the darkness

[Islay]

If there is darkness in @[mariner], can she craft it?

Islay, who has used the darkness as a playmate and a helpmeet, is familiar with the darkness all around them. It is perhaps why she is so bold despite their circumstances. There are things to be afraid of in the dark, she knows. Shades to be watchful for. But there are also wonders to find.

So as Mariner grits his teeth, Islay sharpens her focus to him and spreads her shadow wings.

They turn to face the same direction and the two-toned girl watches as he stretches his wings. He tells her that it is like jumping and she imagines the leaping deer she once saw on Islandres. They were small, fragile-looking things and suddenly she wonders what happens if the leap were to fail? It's not a comforting thought and she decides it's not a particularly good one to have before a flying lesson so she swallows it down with her apprehension. She won't fall, she decides as if it were that simple. She simply won't fall. Her black wings shift nervously and Islay watches as the stallion gives a demonstration of the leap that she will need to make for herself.

Mariner finds the night sky easily. He is a blur above her and all she can hear is the beats of his wings as stays in the air. The winged stallion finally comes into view and Islay watches as he comes down. Try it, he urges and so she does.

She copies his canter - replicates it as best as she can - and stretches out her wings as she does her stride. There is a brief moment where her hooves leave the ground, where her wings lift but then she imagines falling and the ground suddenly seems too far away. Her legs reach down, striving to land and her wings close too fast. Her magic always comes so easily and always leaves her so assured but she has never tested it to this level; she has never used it to leave the ground. Her heart races frantically.

When she nears him again, her pale nostrils are flaring wildly. "I-," she starts, somewhat embarrassed. How? she wants to ask but Islay instead says this: "what if I fall?"