Since her birth, she had been content in the peace and quiet of her idyllic life. The humid slopes of the volcano provided everything a young child might have wished for in marvel and adventure, cloaked in the safety of her parent’s obvious affection. But as with all young things, age comes. It is inevitable.
And with age, a yearning. The desire for something more. Perhaps this had been in part driven by the arrival of newer and younger siblings. Though she had never felt neglect, it is the very nature of brand new things to demand attention. And by that same standard, the older and less novel must find other ways to be entertained.
For days she had ventured close to the border, staring out past Tephra’s edges with a contemplative longing. But today - today is the day. With a deep breath and a furtive glance around, she bounds forward, entire body contracting and shrinking, pressing into the slim and agile form of a mink. Moments later, she is scurrying, nearly undetectable, through the long grass until she reaches the shaded copses of Sylva’s edge. An elation fills her, the thrill of someone doing something both dangerous and new. A sense of freedom she hadn’t known existed before today.
Small form finding a tree trunk, she scrambles up (a bit clumsily) before steadying herself on a branch. Breathing slowly, she closes her eyes to concentrate. When she opens them, she is a small sparrow, clinging eagerly to the limb as she tests her new wings. She hadn’t really practiced flying too much, but she really, really, really didn’t want to have to walk the whole way to… well, to wherever one might go to find new horses.
She flutters her wings uncertainly a few times before finally taking the plunge, both literally and figuratively. She wobbles wildly in the air for a few seconds, unceremoniously buffeted by the slight breeze before finally finding her wings. It takes her some time to find the right rhythm, but when she finally does and rises above the trees, a transcendent joy swells in her chest. Bursting out into a brief, trilling song, she shoots forward, flying as quickly as she can towards the unknown.
It is only when, sometime later, she begins to grow weary, that she pauses to wonder if she had perhaps made a slight error in judgment. Dropping quickly from the sky, she finds herself fumbling her way towards another thick canopy, though this one is much less colorful. She bumbles gracelessly through the leaves as she remembers abruptly that flying is NOT the hard part.
She had forgotten entirely about landing. With an alarmed trill, she flutters and stumbles through the branches until, nearly at the ground, she shifts abruptly to her own form, pale wings flaring wide to soften her landing. With a loud oomph and a jarring thud, she crumples. Just as quickly, she is back on her feet, eyes roving with wide-eyed curiosity as she tries to take in her new surroundings.
Azure
you take the shape of everything I'm drawn to
@[Jassal]