[mature] how time twines around your neck; lepis

[Lepis]

There is still a smile on my face as I crest the green hill, remembering the sound of Pteron's laughter as he tumbled over in the grass. The smile remains even when I see the stallion, but it grows still, as immobile as the sudden marble of my muscle.

How is he here? Why?

At my side, the boy disappears, and one stormy grey eye watches the grass fold down in a colt shaped indent. It was his instinct as much as fawn's is to lie still, I have found, and I have never been more grateful for it as I sidestep a conveniently placed boulder and continue forward toward him.

"This still counts as Loess." I tell him, knowing that it really doesn't, not without the formalities, but betting on the fact that he does not know this. Gods do not have time for such petty mortal things like alliances and treaties and oaths of loyalty. Or so I hope.

"Why. Why..." Words fail me for a moment, an uncommon occurrence, and it takes each bit of strength in my still round figure to keep from looking at the hill where I know my young son is hiding. "Why are you here? Go somewhere else. Surely there's a world with no plague."

@[Elektrum]
you can take that to the bank
:|