05-10-2021, 01:14 PM
Time moved in the steady way, and Yanhua thought about little besides what was necessary. He missed his eldest children as a sire was apt to do, wondering about them constantly. Was Cheri happy in Loess? Was Memorie safe out there, wherever life took her? And as he watched Reynard patrol and then disappear again, he wondered if the young stallion was content to stay here forever or if he, too, would want to leave this place someday. When he wasn’t busy chronicling the new sights and animals in Taiga, Yanhua was catching up with Amarine and Staurnelle or looking for Borderline and Wit. The latter of his two wives had been recluse of late: since the two of them had gone to Tephra she’d not been well, but she had recovered miraculously and for that, Yan was grateful.
During the spells of her more extended absences he pondered the possibility of her leaving Taiga again, like she’d done before Mem had been born. He had tried, in his own unique way, to carve out a section of himself that was wholly hers - but such a task was never easy for a horse who gave openly and equally as Yan. When the days ended and night settled in, Yanhua thought listlessly about her disappearing without so much as a goodbye and he contemplated what his reaction would be if he had to summon the courage to let her go for a second time.
In all honesty, the prospect didn’t sit well with him.
So it was a relief to hear her voice calling out to him from up the trail, beckoning him in for a quick kiss and a long nuzzle at the old familiar phrase of “m’love”. He smiled, glad to put his concerns to rest for at least another few weeks until the worry came around again, and drew her closer to his side by nudging her with the flat side of his coppery cheek and the blunt side of his horns. He had opened his mouth to respond much the same way she’d started the conversation, a thought at the back of his mind urging him to ask her where Wit had gotten off to this time, when her expression darkened and like the plants she so loved, Borderline wilted.
That night in Tephra came rushing back. Yan bent his knees but she was splayed across the crystal flowerbed and motionless before he could catch her, his response a tight and frightened, “Borderline? Borderline!” Instead of the murmuring affection he would’ve had.
When his call failed to rouse her, Yan pressed his nose to the soft bulge of a vein running down the length of her pale neck and he grew quiet, hoping to feel the pulse he’d felt that night in Tephra when she’d first collapsed. This time, it seemed non-existent. This time, he wasn’t miles away from home. His head shot up, a strange sort of determination setting into the curves of his blue eyes as he drew in a source of power and then expelled a particularly strong wave of echoes drenched in the color red, the sign of alarm and the emotion of intense worry buried into their center. Whomever might be nearby would feel it, would see the image of Borderline collapsed underneath him in hues of crimson and certainly they would come - certainly they would come.
But he wouldn’t leave that much up to fate. He closed his eyes and prayed quietly, murmuring @[Leilan]’s name over and over again in hopes that the energy and familiarity between them would send the teleporting shape-shifter to their location.
YANHUA
@[Borderline]