The morning is painted with frost glimmering like diamonds in the early sunshine. It’s a marvelous view, really, as autumn slowly creeps toward the beginning days of winter. Temperatures are steadily dropping, but during brisk mornings such as this, Valdis has her own independent means of warmth.
 
Leading herself astray, the lake with its ice-crusted shallows breaches her vision. Its surface ripples and beckons her nearer, a siren in a field of green. A glance to her left, then her right, confirms her solitude. She had left her family asleep, eager to observe the hillside as the sunrise paints the meadow in shades of scarlet and orange. The magical display enraptures her and thrills her. For a few long minutes, her home is painted with fire.
 
A chill shudders through her small body, but she responds by igniting a faint aura of flame around her. It incubates her, the flames just barely out of her skin’s reach. Too weak – too young, really – to sustain it or to amplify it, the fire simmers then flickers away. Although disappointed, she doesn’t brood long as she continues at an ambling walk toward the water’s edge. It won’t be long until everyone – mother, Kagerus, and Velk – stir from their slumber. Either they will find her or they will allow her a fleeting sense of freedom. For the time being, Valdis embraces it and peers down at the thin layer of ice. She cannot see her reflection. She has multiple times before and knows how her molten locks stand on end along her arched neck and how her eyes match in color, gleaming radiantly when hit by a peripheral ray of sunlight. ”I’m pretty,” she whispers to herself, but is unable to confirm it again without her reflection staring back at her. ”Stupid ice,” with the childish energy she has, she ignites the air surrounding her and presses a single hoof against the ice. Immediately, it melts beneath the small tongues of flame before the fire, again, distinguishes.
 
But that was enough; it was all she wanted. Nothing would stand in her way.
 
With an amused grin, Valdis peers down at herself in the water, watching curiously as steam rises and kisses her face before disappearing.


VALDIS

But then a strange fear gripped me and I just couldn't ask.

Of course I am, she doesn’t say.

Valdis peers back over her shoulder as Abysm closes the space between them, crackling the frost underfoot. Her eyelids drift shut for a heartbeat as he touches her sentimentally. A languid smile dreamily materializes and softens the edges of her face. ”Abysm,” she prefers to say his name, to taste the sweetness of it, instead of referring him as something he isn’t. Brother. They aren’t related. They don’t even share the same mother, but all of them have been clustered together as a display of their parents’ relentless sex drive. All of them could make a separate herd. Kagerus and Solace, the Queen Mothers, and their six children all born within the past couple years. Quite a picture they paint, no?

Despite their shared blood, however, Valdis holds only love for Abysm. When her eyes open, her beauty comes together. Her molten gaze matches the rest of her body – gold, buckskin, black points – and she looks almost otherworldly. Angelic, perhaps? She would laugh at the word and scorn the idea of being so dainty and pure. That isn’t her. Beautiful, yes, but fragile? No.

Turning to face him – to breathe him in – Valdis casually looks over him and takes note of the similarities he shares with Kagerus. A brow lifts and their eyes briefly lock. ”Am I the prettiest sister?” A glance to the left and right ensures that no one is near enough to hear them. Is everyone still soundly asleep? Edging closer, she whispers, ”It’s okay. I won’t tell our siblings.” She treats Abysm to a coy smile before slipping away and staring at the surrounding hills. ”Do you think we will have more siblings in the spring?” There is a lightness in her voice despite her thoughts souring at the idea of it.

VALDIS

But then a strange fear gripped me and I just couldn't ask.