fluo wrote:
The winter—and, yes, it was still winter—had been unseasonably hard and difficult. The whole swamp had felt off-kilter as the sky fractured the land in simultaneous sunlight and darkness. It'd been a treacherous idea to even attend the winter market, and that was without taking into account how harsh the previous attendance had ravaged her emotions, but softness, doe eyes filled with such hope, the most delicate of whispers. She was nothing if not consistent in falling head or hooves for such kindness that she could never warrant. It had made everything harder than it already tended to be and as the world righted itself, she'd made up some excuse about Legendary business that needed attending to, not a lie but not the truth either.She'd let herself fracture, a swan idle on the frozen pond, as the ghostly shade of the mare stood guard. Swans were not supposed to have such complicated thoughts and they didn't. Even as her own thoughts raced and tripped, the swan felt only the pull of another soul that could be helped. It should have irritated her, as it normally did, but she welcomed the distraction. She desired it. Perhaps, she even needed it herself.
And so she continued, still in her waiting. The doe—and, of course, it was a doe—would find her in due time. Enough, perhaps, to let her nerves calm and her mind solidify into a semblance of intelligence and decorum. It wasn't as if h—the swan squawked. This was not the time to let her thoughts wander. Even if spring was coming with promises of new life.
