[private] I think it's strange you never knew

[Avelina]

Be brave he says and though the filly does not know what this means, she is willing to try. If it will help, because though she does not understand what is happening she knows instinctually that something is wrong. Just as she knows that it will be fixed - one or both of her parents will fix it. They must. The girl that Avelina has not yet given a name - though she had dreamed of many and decided on one long before the girl had been born - nods her agreement to her father’s request. Her crying calms, though the hunger aches in her belly, she does what little thing she can and is brave - the first true thought she’ll have in her life is being brave for her parents. Avelina wants to tell him that she can’t but the firmness in his voice encourages no argument and she fixes her shining eyes on his face - breathing in with him. His next instructions are harder - Avelina cannot remember what makes her real but she tries. She tries for him and she tries for the now-quiet filly, watching her parents with wide golden eyes. Seeing them is a distraction at first so Avelina closes her eyes, trying to focus on her breathing and then her bones. Her hooves and then up her legs to the knees she only ever scraped a few times before she learned to play more gentle. Her hips and shoulders, the graceful curve of her neck. She had begun to solidify but flickers here, thinking of a swan neck for a moment her deep breathing becomes ragged. So she opens her eyes, and she looks at Isakov - she looks at their daughter - and she sees two things that make her real. Not her body, but her love for them. The deep charcoal of her hide becomes a solid thing then and though her breathing is still rapid, she manages a small smile for him. She’ll always find a smile for him.

@[isakov]