"But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura
09-15-2016, 10:43 PM (This post was last modified: 10-08-2016, 09:58 PM by Münfaede.)
Münfaede
When the dawn comes...
Like the bite of winter as spring came anew, she was fleeing. Her sides were thin with undernourishment, her mane a chaotic mass of curls and tangles. Silver-grey eyes darted about, swiftly absorbing her surroundings with trained precision.
Were she to stop here in the forest, she could recall in detail the fox den eight paces back and to the west, the brushrat scurrying below ground two paces directly to the east, a twitch and a side-step to the left was a stone, shaped like a tumbling castle and eroded from persistent rain and age.
But she didn't stop. Her walk was as hurried and steady as a power-walker, breathing easily with the familiarity of it. She welcomed the burn in her limbs. As long as she felt that, she knew she was gaining distance.
She suddenly broke through the treeline and into a meadow, her eyes widened in surprise. The forest was so dense, and like magic it was transformed into a wide open expanse. Immediately, she turned on her heel and dove back into the shadows. Carefully peering out, she scanned the horizon for witnesses, tucked behind a thick tree for cover.
It didn't help all that much, though. Her pale body was nearly luminescent in the darkness. She didn't realize how much, or she'd probably curse her mother's blood for it and work harder to better conceal herself.
Her watchful stare, unfortunately, noticed at least one person who had seen her. She noted everything as she spun around to step deeper into the treeline; gender, expression, color. The sunlight of day hardly slipped through the grasp of the canopy above, struggling to light the shadowed earth within.
She hoped they wouldn't take any interest in her, forget they ever saw her and go about their day. But that would be too easy, wouldn't it?
09-22-2016, 12:34 AM (This post was last modified: 09-22-2016, 12:48 AM by Smidgen.)
This is it. She's doing it. All by herself! Well, she pretty much does everything by herself, but details. All that matters is she's doing it! What, you may ask? Why, the tiny young girl is fulfilling a promise. One made to a recently-made friend. And that's what friends do, right? Keep their promises? She hasn't had many friends so far. The big Weir man is honestly the first real friend she thinks she has. That she hasn't made up. Pretend friends are fun too! But real friends, she decides, are pretty awesome. She wants more of them, really. And she thinks if a friend promises another friend something, then a good friend should do all she can to keep it. Weirry wants her to see if she can help find his family, and she really hopes she can. So far, it's been a little bit since she's seen the red speckled-y giant, and she hasn't found them yet.
Enough time has passed for the snow to start melting with the growing warmth of the coming springtime. She is so excited for this! See, Smidgen is a tiny thing, even if she doesn't really know her size. Probably the tiniest horse in all of Beqanna without being a dwarf, especially as a filly still. And for one so tiny, the several inches of snow they had gotten this year had made quite a hindrance to her travels, being much harder for her to pass through. Luckily, though, the meadow had been quite busy of late, so the small girl can jump into different trails left by larger horses. And the cold, white stuff is melting- thank goodness! The thing she is excited most about, though? For this super fluffy coat of hers to shed off! It would still be a little time before that happens, she thinks, but man! she can't wait. One tiny, grey-ish white, fluff ball she is indeed. Ugh.
She carries on with her little-bit-dished head held high, leaked blue eyes bright and scanning the area as she prances along in a trail that was leading her to the more foresty part of the meadow. Ah, good. The snow is even less dense through here, and there are even patches of green grass sprouting through. OOH, yummy! Tummy growling a bit, she stops for a snack. She does well on small and frequent snacks, and under all the fluff has remained a plumpish figure. One not fat, not skinny. Nom nom nom,fresh grass is ever so tasty. She doesn't linger long, though. She has work to do! The girl starts to hum as she trots off, then more or less starts to dance along to her own made-up rhythm, soon becoming distracted by her song and dance. Sidling the treeline, she notices some stand out more, in less of a straight line. So she smiles as she makes a game of weaving in and out, around and about. Such fun!
Suddenly, a fair distance ahead from where she is, somebody appears from within the forest. That isn't the part that surprises her, though. It's the part where the big, broad grey body suddenly stops and makes a mad dash back into the trees. This makes Smidgen stop dead in her tracks, craning her neck to see what in the world of the meadow had startled them. But all she sees is meadow, dotted with other horses in the not-so-distant, not-so-near vicinity. The small girl tilts her head, and walks onward again, curious about the other. She noticed a horse or two had lifted their heads at the action of whoever it was, but they had seemed to shrug it off and go on about their business. Not Smidgen! She wants to see what's up. It doesn't take her too long to find the spot where they had appeared and disappeared. It takes even less time for the cloudy-colored girl to mosey in through the trees and find that pale figure, apparently female, doing her best to hide behind one of the thicker trunks. Smidge can't help but to giggle a little, planting herself on the other side of the tree from the girl, more on the same side as her rump. "Hi!" She spouts in her small and feminine voice, smile wide and bright even in the dimmer light. Her eyes twinkle as she looks up at the white mare (though not as high up as she'd looked at Weir), and then- more musically- she asks, "Why you hidin?"
Flashes of sunlight riddled the ground like shotgun blasts. Her white coat blazed brightly beneath the light, like a twinkling flare in the surrounding darkness; glitter in a false night. Beyond the trees, a heated day warmed and played with the creatures of the earth, but deep in these thick woods was a shadowed world. Her world.
She stopped quietly, looking over her shoulder to see if anyone had chosen to follow her. Her thin frame perched carefully behind a tree, pretending it could actually conceal her. Some rustling in the brush nearby quickened her heartbeat, and she locked her eyes on the movement, tensed and ready to take flight.
"Hi!" a tiny little thing shouted at her as it leapt from the cover with bright eyes. For a bare moment, she thought it might be some sort of forest sprite, which was the only reason she had yet to flee from it. They were not known to be malicious beings. "Why you hidin?" the little fairy asked her.
She looked down at the imp curiously, not at all threatened for the moment though her heart still labored to return to a steady pace. Her eyes were too pale to be a blue, but only one was not covered by a clump of forelock across her face. Silvery gray gaze scrutinized the girl closely. She ignored her question and asked one of her own instead.
"Are you truly a child? You look much too young to be about on your own." Oh, perhaps she wasn't alone. She quickly looked around, her eyes wide. She was not comfortable with strangers, to say the least. Certainly, she hoped the girl was on her own, but it was a terrible thing to hope for. Finding no current evidence of another being, she returned to the sprite slightly more calmly, suspicion snaking into her tone.
"Are you a fairy? Some sort of forest spirit?" Her eyes narrowed. "Have you come to retrieve me?"
If this tiny little thing was working with the enemy, she absolutely needed to leave, as soon as possible. She nearly turned away just then, but chose to hear the girl out first. Benefit-of-the-doubt wasn't so archaic a theory, perhaps.
10-08-2016, 09:50 PM (This post was last modified: 10-08-2016, 09:53 PM by Smidgen.)
Looking up, as she nearly always is, it is easy to get distracted with what is all above her. The trees tower above her- above all their visitors really, but especially her. They are like skyscrapers, but more like their own beings, with their arms stretched out wide to the sky. Their trunks are wider than she is long, though in varying widths, and as she looks, they seem to go on and on. The forest is a community, with all their arms and fingers intertwined to create this shadowy shelter.
Smidge decides she feels comfortable here among them, under their love and protection. And clearly her new companion does too, with the way she has found the lady hiding- clinging almost. She wonders though, why the other feels the need to hide at all, and so she asks. Smidge herself feels perfectly safe here, although she can't remember a time she has truly felt fear or danger. Well, anyway. She looks up at the larger body, gray like her but more white, with her silvery eyes wide as they locked on her approach. She smiles big and bright up at her, especially as she watches some of the tension slowly leave the mare's body. Smidgen is nothing to be scared of, she doesn't think. She's only a very small girl.
The pale lady speaks to her a moment or two after she had asked her question, but instead of an answer, she has a question of her own. "Are you truly a child? You look much too young to be about on your own." Smidge tilts her tiny head at the bewilderment in her tone, her face is soft and fuzzy and the bone structure is very fine. She has never thought about it before really, her being alone. She is, most of the time, but not always.
When she was smaller, she had the fairies. As she grew, she had begun to wander more, meeting a few others along the way. And then she had met Weir! And he said he would be close, whatever that meant. But before the girl has a chance to answer, the taller lady is looking all around as though she has heard something and is all afright again. So Smidge looks too, craning her neck to see what she might see, but all she can see is trees and brush.
She hears birds and squirrels, and then sees where one is chasing the other in a small distance from them, chattering something fierce. The display is more amusing than anything though, certainly not enough to cause her friend to stir. Clearly, she must have realized that, because she seems to settle down again as she returns her attention to only ask another question about what she is.
This time, the filly giggles, the sound melodious and feminine. Looking back up with her leaked blue eyes bright and a touch concerned, she rolls her little shoulders. "I'm just a Smidgen." She smiles when she says her name, but then glances around and ducks her head a little before she whispers. "Am a faiwy child, though, but dat's a secwet. Don't tell nobody." She wants to snicker, but she stifles it. Although she can't hide her crooked grin at telling the blanched lady her 'secret'. She had told Mister Weirry man the same thing, but this new friend had guessed it herself. "But um.. Ret- retweeve you fum what?" Smidge can't help but ask. She still just can't understand what the pretty white-haired lady had to be afraid of.
She shifted nervously, listening to the wind sigh and whisper to her through the woods. It was nothing new; she well knew the sad story it begged to tell the strangers within its shadows, for it was her story too. It didn't matter that it was not her forest, where she had grown up thus far. The trees seemed to speak amongst themselves, retelling all the fables and myths on the grapevine. All the tragedies.
"I'm just a Smidgen," the little girl introduced proudly. And she was that: a very little girl. Not a fairy or malicious imp. She seemed to lean in conspiratorially, and told her secret; that she was a fairy child. Münfaede's heart clenched for just a moment in fear, but she could see now that the girl was pretending. No wings held her aloft, no magic hid her presence. She definitely still had her own little child's scent.
"But um.. Ret- retweeve you fum what?" she asked. Münfaede grimaced, then carefully plastered a smile on her face. Obviously she couldn't just spit out her problems. With her luck, that would just bring them right back down upon her trail and pick up where they left off.
Nothing at all! she said with a forced laugh. Out of habit, she still held her head up, towering over the girl. Part of her wanted to lower it but she didn't trust that someone wouldnt happen across them just as she did and then she'd miss the danger until it was too late. No that wouldn't do.
She'd always considered herself rather small, until she met this Smidgen. There wasn't a whole lot of people around to compare to, however, she just remembered how large the Retrievers were. And how dangerous. Best not to think on that either. Speak of the devil and he shall hear...
So what are you doing in here? Shouldn't you be with your mother, or father? Family? She was almost amazed at herself. This was the longest conversation she'd had with anyone since she last saw her.. father.
10-25-2016, 01:34 AM (This post was last modified: 10-25-2016, 01:37 AM by Smidgen.)
She watches the way she fidgets, standing there. The white lady looks at her, but her attention is divided, silvery eyes and ears flicking at every sound. And the forest is teeming with sounds. Smidge tilts her head curiously at the female, who seems to be under the impression that something is going to jump out at her. Unfortunately, Smidge herself just can't imagine what. Predators? The shadows? Maybe the sometimes eerie whispering of the late winter breezes through the trees. That could be sorta spooky sometimes, she has to admit.
But it isn't her fidgetiness that catches Smidgen the most off-guard. It isn't even the way she looks at our tiny girl suspiciously that she finds the most odd (although if she knew better, her feelings might have been a bit hurt by that. She is just a small girl who wants to be friends, not someone who means her any harm.) No, what sets the silver black varnish girl off most is the way the lady puts on a smile that isn't.. Well it isn't.. Real? Like she doesn't mean it. And the laugh that follows the too-quick answer to Smidge's inquiry puts an uneasy feeling in Smidgen's tummy that she has never felt before. Her big, blue eyes pore deep into the blanched lady's face, even all the way down from her slight height. She wants to ask more questions, to get the truth from her, but she doesn't get the chance before the woman speaks again, asking once more why she's here and if she should be with family.
Chewing on her lower lip, she sighs softly and lets her azure gaze fall from the lady's face. "I don't think I have one." She says somewhat quietly, appearing to mull it over for a moment. Family. The word is a bit forlorn to her. She knows what it is, but not really what it means, having never experienced it herself. In that same sense though, it was hard to miss something you never had. "I grew up in the foal place, and da guahdian faiwy was always vewy nice." Deep down, she knows she is supposed to have family, but such a thing hadn't been chosen for her, so she took what she had- herself- and whatever life and the fairies gave her along the way. It didn't seem like such a bad thing, she thinks.
One tiny, pale colored front hoof gently shifts on the dirt beneath it before she continues. "I like it here, wif da twees an' da aminals. I have a spot, umm..." She scans the area quickly, til she settles on a direction and gestures with her little head. "That way. There's a hole in the bottom of a twee. I s'eep there most nights." She likes her lil hidey hole. It was safe and warm and the perfect size for her to fit in. She chews on her lip again, shyly, and finally lifts her baby blues back up to the alabaster woman. "But I came here to you, 'cuz.. Well.. 'cuz you look like you need a fwend." A soft and gentle smile slips its way back onto her baby face, but the way she speaks is more bashful this time. Smidge has never really been the shy type, but then again she has never worried that someone might actually tell her no before this very moment. The thought sends a new feeling through her, causing her heart to skip a beat and then thump quicker. Our tiny girl has never felt nervous before.
"I don't think I have one," the girl answered. Münfaede's gaze softened. She knew what that was like, she'd been on her own from a young age as well. Far too young, probably. The girl says that she grew up in a place for foals, a place with a Guardian Fairy. The title sent tingles rippling across her skin. She'd definitely never be going anywhere near there. The girl thought it was a nice fairy, but she knew better and just smiled indulgently.
"I like it here, wif da twees an' da aminals. I have a spot, umm..." Smidgen looks about then jerks her nose in the general direction of a large tree. "That way. There's a hole in the bottom of a twee. I s'eep there most nights." Her gaze follows the girl's nod with a blank face. She, too, slept beneath hollowed trees. She was too large to do so in this form, but...
Smidgen's next words snap her attention back to her. A friend? No, certainly not. Her mother said she could never have a friend, could never trust anyone. The unicorns had their agents in the cleverest places, in the trickiest people. Münfaede suddenly looked down at her. Could she be one of those? Of course it was possible. It would be a wicked act indeed to warm her heart with such an innocent little face. But she couldn't let on that she knew, she would just have to play along then slip away as soon as she could.
A friend does sound nice, she said truthfully. They could detect lies, after all. Well, she thought maybe they could, anyway. Always best to lie with the truth; that one was from her father. Either way, she shouldn't stick around for much longer if she could help it. I should probably go now, I have somewhere to be, she said with a smile. And she certainly did.
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