04-23-2021, 02:04 PM
Mazikeen
The brush of his muzzle against hers and the words he says dissolves the wall she had been attempting to build which might have shielded her if he hated her for this situation. Mazikeen takes a step to follow his muzzle with hers, prolonging the contact, and then she brushes her red-marked nose against his cheek when she replies with absolute honesty “I always want you with me, Gale. Every moment I can get with you I’ll take.”
She inhales, steeling herself for what’s coming but feeling better now that she knows he’ll be with her. She should have just said that she needed him to come with her, of course - should’ve just said ‘let’s go’ instead of giving him the chance to opt-out. It felt like a kindness to give him the option even though if he had stayed behind she would have been hurt. But that didn’t matter now. He was coming with her.
So she offers him a small smile as she readies to take off. “Maybe it’s just a deeper bruise than I’m used to from our last wrestling match. And if it’s not… we’ll figure it out. It’ll be okay.” Mazikeen is not sure she believes it but they’re the words that she needs to hear and so she thinks maybe he does too.
---
They find Isilya, conscious but still where she’s been for the last few years - part of her body enclosed within a tree in the Tephra jungle. There are two young trees growing from hers which distracts Mazikeen for a moment before they get to the purpose of their visit.
She tells them Mazikeen is indeed pregnant, tells them the babies (twins - the word feels like it drains the blood from Maze’s entire body) were conceived as ospreys (all the laughter they shared that time feels very far away now) but they are going to be shapeshifters too and it won’t matter what shape she’s in when spring comes.
The horned mare doesn’t hear any more of the conversation, doesn’t know if Gale asks anything else from the kind magician that still calls him Blue. There’s a flower-bird given to them at the end, if they need help in the future it will let Isilya know, and Mazikeen needs a nudge to get moving again.
---
It takes half the flight for the white noise in her brain to die down enough for thoughts to leak in again, and in the other half, Mazikeen finds a steely determination to not give in to her fear. It was going to be okay. She is going to be an awful mother and she’ll be so fat this winter she won’t even be able to patrol properly but it’ll be fine. They can come up with a plan.
She knows she should be worried about the Curse, knows she should probably feel more concern about the foals and their safety than she does about Gale. But she doesn’t. She hasn’t even met them yet so how can whatever love she’ll feel for them compare to what surges in her heart when she looks at him now? She feels the same thing she had felt the day she had stood in the black waters off of Islandres and made the promise that helped damn her - she wants to protect him from what he might do. The concern about potential victims is there but it’s that heart of his she really wants to shield, that kindness in him which had inspired her to even want to try to help.
He won't care in the end but even if there will be a fraction of the Gale she fell in love with still in there, she'll do what it takes to not let that piece feel pain or guilt.
“This doesn’t change anything.” Mazikeen finally finds words when they’re back in Hyaline, having landed in a secluded spot in the autumn woods so they could talk freely, golden leaves littering the ground beneath them. Her voice doesn’t waver in its certainty because she does believe what she’s saying when she fixes her fierce gaze on Gale and wants for him to believe it too. “Not about me wanting you with me every second, not about my promise. Okay? It doesn’t change a damn thing.”
She inhales, steeling herself for what’s coming but feeling better now that she knows he’ll be with her. She should have just said that she needed him to come with her, of course - should’ve just said ‘let’s go’ instead of giving him the chance to opt-out. It felt like a kindness to give him the option even though if he had stayed behind she would have been hurt. But that didn’t matter now. He was coming with her.
So she offers him a small smile as she readies to take off. “Maybe it’s just a deeper bruise than I’m used to from our last wrestling match. And if it’s not… we’ll figure it out. It’ll be okay.” Mazikeen is not sure she believes it but they’re the words that she needs to hear and so she thinks maybe he does too.
They find Isilya, conscious but still where she’s been for the last few years - part of her body enclosed within a tree in the Tephra jungle. There are two young trees growing from hers which distracts Mazikeen for a moment before they get to the purpose of their visit.
She tells them Mazikeen is indeed pregnant, tells them the babies (twins - the word feels like it drains the blood from Maze’s entire body) were conceived as ospreys (all the laughter they shared that time feels very far away now) but they are going to be shapeshifters too and it won’t matter what shape she’s in when spring comes.
The horned mare doesn’t hear any more of the conversation, doesn’t know if Gale asks anything else from the kind magician that still calls him Blue. There’s a flower-bird given to them at the end, if they need help in the future it will let Isilya know, and Mazikeen needs a nudge to get moving again.
It takes half the flight for the white noise in her brain to die down enough for thoughts to leak in again, and in the other half, Mazikeen finds a steely determination to not give in to her fear. It was going to be okay. She is going to be an awful mother and she’ll be so fat this winter she won’t even be able to patrol properly but it’ll be fine. They can come up with a plan.
She knows she should be worried about the Curse, knows she should probably feel more concern about the foals and their safety than she does about Gale. But she doesn’t. She hasn’t even met them yet so how can whatever love she’ll feel for them compare to what surges in her heart when she looks at him now? She feels the same thing she had felt the day she had stood in the black waters off of Islandres and made the promise that helped damn her - she wants to protect him from what he might do. The concern about potential victims is there but it’s that heart of his she really wants to shield, that kindness in him which had inspired her to even want to try to help.
He won't care in the end but even if there will be a fraction of the Gale she fell in love with still in there, she'll do what it takes to not let that piece feel pain or guilt.
“This doesn’t change anything.” Mazikeen finally finds words when they’re back in Hyaline, having landed in a secluded spot in the autumn woods so they could talk freely, golden leaves littering the ground beneath them. Her voice doesn’t waver in its certainty because she does believe what she’s saying when she fixes her fierce gaze on Gale and wants for him to believe it too. “Not about me wanting you with me every second, not about my promise. Okay? It doesn’t change a damn thing.”
@[Gale]