it's an empty world up here; colby

[obsidio]

He wakes suddenly, and for a long moment he cannot tell if the thunder in his ears is that which persists from within the cage of his own chest, or the residue of a dream that has been his constant companion since childhood. His mistake is in considering the dream at all, as if acknowledging the thing is all it needs to sink those spindly fingers into the tender of his roiling gut.

There will be no more sleep tonight.

Tension tightens in the dark of his mouth as he heaves himself away from the tangle of deciduous trees, only looking upwards for the briefest moment to note the indigo black of a star strewn sky straining to find him through the branches above. Where once he had marveled at those tiny sparks of light, the same ones spilled over so much of his face and legs, he pretends they mean nothing to him - and maybe that is true, now, when the one he traced constellations with is forever sleeping beneath such violent fathoms of sea.

He flinches, blinks once too slowly, disappears into the black of deep forest where the stars can’t find him.
Where the dream, now fully awake and watching him, can’t show him the things he would otherwise prefer to lose to the blur of time since passed.

He thinks the dark is safe, these places of deep forest where the moon can’t spill silver over the curve of his glittering spine, where there are so few faces that turn to watch him as he pours like shadow through the roots of ancient trees. But he is not paying attention, not hearing anything but the thunder inside his own chest, and so he does not notice when the burbles of a quiet stream start to whisper in the dark.

Does not notice until his hooves touch the waters edge, lap at his heels.
He is not thinking when he pauses and allows his eyes to fall, to find the mirror of a face looking back up at him with such dead, dark eyes.

“Do I know you?” He breathes, wonders at his own reflection, at the trails of bright gold stardust along his face and over the tips of his ears, spun into the strands of his mane and illuminated at the ends. He examines the points of glowing lights on his chest, a constellation of seventeen stars though he isn’t sure which one it might be.

But it isn’t until his dark gaze settles on the thick curve of golden, glowing light tracking beneath each eye and over the curve of a clenched jaw that he truly comes undone. Guilt explodes inside his chest, breaks each rib until he feels like gagging on it, until he is sure that the storms buried beneath his skin will consume him - until he is afraid that they won’t and he will be left to fester like a wound. He inhales raggedly, just once, grasping at control while the metallic scent of ozone stings in his nose.“No.” He groans, so quiet - and even he cannot tell if the sound is trapped inside him like the thunder in his chest or the arcs of lightning in his eyes. 

OBSIDIO

[Empyreal]

who could ever leave me, darling,
but who could stay?

She does not usually venture this far into the forest. In fact, she does not usually venture into the forest at all.

The towering trees obscure the sky, and she finds herself constantly looking upwards to assure herself that it is still there—small patches of it glinting through the tops of the trees, winking with flashes of silver stars. Every glimpse triggered a pang in her chest. She was trying so hard to find a place down here, no matter how the clouds might call to her. It was hard to deny though that things had been so much easier up there. Easier to imagine a life rather than live it, to live in a cathedral made of dreams rather than be on the ground and realize how easy it would be for it all to collapse around her.

But she comes to the forest anyway, fueled by curiosity for why someone might be drawn to a place so dark.

To her, it felt stifling, as if the dark were a living, breathing entity that was standing far too close. Even the soft glow that radiated from her body did not seem to be enough to drive it back, and she looks upwards with a soft sigh, seeking out the moon she knew had to be there. Brushing the clouds aside like one might a cobweb, she finds the silvery light and draws on it, sending it like a beacon to the forest floor and illuminating the space around her.

She continues into the forest with her moonlight and her daydreams, her mind drifting to the sky and being asleep in the stars, above the threat of the impending rain she could now smell amongst the other scents of the forest.

She realizes a breath too late that she is not alone, when the moonlight reflects off the gold-flecked stallion that had been swathed in shadow. A gasp catches in her throat, her tentative hold on the moonlight immediately blinking out. They would have been in utter darkness if not for her own glow; the gentle light illuminating the pale galaxy color of her skin and the golden stardust that spills from her wings, and the apprehension in her dark eyes reflecting beneath the hazy light of her halo. “I’m sorry,” she breathes, and she cannot explain why she is so quick to be afraid of his reaction, why the fear feels like ice running down her skin.

It takes a moment for her to see him, truly, beyond her initial startled reaction. The way a constellation glowed on his chest, the stardust spilled down his face, and the flicker of something like lightning in his eyes. She realizes then, too, that the smell of rain is coming from him, and she takes a cautiously curious step towards him. She will never not be drawn towards the things that remind her of the sky and the heavens, and now she is staring at him with those wide, doe-like eyes that still sometimes cannot believe creatures like him are real.

“Did you want to be alone?” She asks him, guardedly hopeful that his answer will be no, and her voice still nearly a hush as if he might be a thing she made up and being too loud would send him back to wherever her dreams went when she was awake.

Empyreal

@obsidio