Not all that glitters is gold [Any]

Hephaestus

Taiga, half-burnt and abandoned, felt suddenly unfriendly as he stood there braced to depart. Her voice, soft and lilting, gave him a moment to pause as her question slowly formed itself in his head. His appearance, she began asking upon the travesty that was his face. The question haunted him and, it seemed, even the purest of heart couldn’t conceal their curiosity. Even more inspired to leave her there, he was halfway turned ‘round when her words faltered and faded. His ears trained themselves upon her as his eyes searched her. Admirably, she barely managed to finish her thought, but her words were quickly forgotten behind her strained apology and slowly descending realization.

She was pregnant, he remembered as he stepped instinctively forward. Disbelief filled him as he considered the moment that had snuck up on them both. Ready or not, her foal was set to make his appearance.

There were two options laid out before him. He could leave her there within the sanctuary of the trees or stay and offer his protection while she struggled to bring her new life into the world. However much he wanted to run, he remembered his mother as she birthed his sister into the world. For hours she’d labored and strained – lingering in immense pain only for it to end just as swiftly as it’d begun. Then, there in a bed of clover, lay a perfect blackened filly. Theodosia.

The pain even thinking her name brought, tore him from his memories and refocused his reality. Ru’s agony was potent as she denied the possibility of the events that were about to transpire. He knew he couldn’t leave her.

Lie down, he instructed gently. Angling himself nearer he offered himself as an anchor to ease her way down. It’s going to be ok.

He wasn’t sure if his presence there was much of a reassurance to her and he would leave if she asked him to, but he couldn’t abandon her there in the middle of the forsaken woods of Taiga. There was something almost spooky being whispered through the leaves of those half-burnt trees. Admittedly, this was not an ideal place for such a momentous occasion to occur. There was no time, however, to transport her to another place. No, it was better she stayed here.

I won’t leave you, he promised as he hesitantly touched the base of her plume. It’d been too long since he’d taken it upon himself to freely touch another. He’d grown so accustomed to being thought of as poisonous or contagious. No reaction would surprise him and he braced himself for the revulsion that, often times, presented itself as a forgotten companion.

Ru was different, though. He could sense it as her gentle kindness reached out to him from the depths of her gaze. He wanted her to be different and, for the first time in a long time, he found himself hoping.

Break My Shackles To Set Me Free