Once upon a time (birthing) - Gleam/Spark/any

[Spear + Spark]

This entire debacle is a car crash in slow motion;

She cannot look away --

Spark has fallen down the rabbit hole into a terrible vile dream - a nightmare, even.

She shuts her eyes against the miniature visions of them - Giver, Alight, and wishes hard upon every star in every constellation he has ever made dance across his skin and the air for her to go back in time, back to sleep, back to before - whatever that was, just before this, before she stumbled upon them and all the sad unhappy revelations of deeds done to everyone but themselves and mostly, to themselves. They are vile beasts, him and her and it is only the hurt in her heart that makes her think that because there is no way that Giver could be so vile as the viperous Alight in her happy gloat. Despite it all, she loves him and she plants her hardy feet in the ashen soils of the Tephran shore. (She should balk at this, she knows she should but some temperament of steel straightens her small backbone.)

“It is every bit of what it looks like,” she says to him, quiet in her assurance.

Spark cannot turn her back on him - not now, but she cannot quite go lovingly to his side at this moment either. She believes that Alight has tricked him and most cruelly, but she does not know how and doesn’t care to know. The knowing might further undo even her and she is fragile enough as is by the appearance of the foals, those poor beasts that seem so tired beneath their mother’s flaming wings. Unbeknownst to her, her heart goes out to them and some of the hurt leaves her like a sighed breath.

She says nothing further to him, for the moment.

Believes, but the fierce beat of betrayal is still strong like a war drum in her pale breast.

Spark stares at them, Alight and the twins; her eyes are a mismatch of black on the left and red on the right. She sees the colt collapse upon the dark sand and a tiny gasp leaves her mouth in response to it. Alight seems not to notice or care, and she almost advances a step as if to do… what exactly, she isn’t sure but there arises in her some feeling of responsibility for the poor thing. Some uncontrived spark of emotion that bursts inside her, completely unexpected as she stares at the jumbled heap of silver buckskin fur and exhaustion.

(So like Giver, so like his father…)

Alight’s glower draws her eyes away from the colt and to the mean mare’s face.

Spark’s face is set in a tired pinch of emotion, almost expressionless but the voice that leaves her once trembling throat is oddly calm - “No, no explanation is necessary.” She takes yet another step forward, hot on Giver’s heels as he begins to spark and react. The violence in him does not scare her but her concern for the twins begins to mount as Alight almost cowers before him. Spark detests the way that the petulant mare uses the filly as a shield, no - a bargaining chip, and clings to her as a lifeline. Above all else, Spark recognizes in Alight what the other fails to see - that she is pathetic, chasing after something that will never be hers because it is Spark’s, and that is Giver’s precious heart.

This and this alone allows her to temper the sting of Alight’s hurled barb about the babies being his firsts, even if ill-gotten through trickery and magic. She smiles sadly in the wake of Alight’s attempt to hurt her further and regains Giver’s side, not really forgiving him just yet but aligning herself with him in a show of solidarity. “You should go and leave them here, you don’t really care about them. It was never about them, only him and you’ll never have him like you did before.” It does not pain her to speak the truth, she states it in a strong hard tone of voice as she advances a step further than him towards the mare, the babies and the sea.

Spark