She doesn’t know what she's done to deserve Brazen.
Lilliana knows she certainly has done enough wrong to not deserve her friendship.
There had been times where she had only wanted to be left alone. She smiled for Ruthless - sweet, golden Ruth who had changed since she came back to Taiga - but mourned for both of them in the quiet. It seemed whenever the worry and the fear and her own lamentations wanted to choke her, Lilliana would somehow find the somewhat apprehensive gaze of her roan friend. In moments like that, she can usually muster a smile - she’d probably look the same way if she could see around herself.
Still, its the fact that Brazen comes. She finds Lilliana when she doesn’t want to be found. The chestnut might have a talent for slipping through the trees but her smile never does. She has always been good - too good - at that. Lilli wants to vanish and Brazen, stubbornly, refuses to let her.
So goes the weeks that preceded the birth, Lilliana wanting wane like the spring moon rising above them. The moment that Kagerus had predicted had drawn closer and Lilli had just wanted to pull further away. How was she going to do this? Her family hadn’t been traditional in the sense that Brazen’s had (though from the glimpses she has seen, nothing about Dovev or Heartfire seemed.. conventional). Still, they had been a tribe of sorts, that veritable village coming together to raise the generation that came from the fallout and heartache of war.
They had been a tribe - her family - and in the final days of her pregnancy, Lilliana found there were whole new ways to grieve for them. To grieve for what her sons would never know.
Despite the glow of new motherhood on her (and in the literal sense of the boys resting on the embankment behind her), she is studying the tree. Her eyes grow dark in the falling twilight and can’t find the bird who calls out. Should she move them? Frantically, she looks back to where they rest and where their soft aura still flickers in the sweet meadow grass. Lilliana takes a step in their direction, no longer willing to be so far away and feeling almost overwhelmed at the maternal pull that calls her back.
Movement coming from the treeline nearby pushes her even faster.
The intruder might have seen a fiercer side of Lilliana had it not been Brazen. They might have seen a mare ready to pin her ears and do what she could to make herself seem fiercer, bigger than the slight-framed woman she was.
But it's a flash of white against the frame of red shadowed by the setting sun that eases her, tells her it isn’t a stranger at all. It's her friend, slipping in where Lilliana tried to drift out and for the first time in years, a layer peels back exposing a grateful smile. There are worse things to encounter, she knows. Other things to be afraid of.
She’ll worry about that later but tonight at least, she doesn’t have to worry about the stars going dark. Brazen keeps the celestial lights shimmering silently above, keeps guard with them.
Her nose reaches out and brushes tenderly at the where the skin and bone bind, thankful she’s come. Truthfully, Lilliana says, "We’re glad you came.” She glances down at them, pride shining on her face, cutting through the shadows that might otherwise be there. Her eyes linger on their copper coloring, a shade so similar to her own before she teasingly replies, "I’m not sure. What do you think?”
Lilliana knows she certainly has done enough wrong to not deserve her friendship.
There had been times where she had only wanted to be left alone. She smiled for Ruthless - sweet, golden Ruth who had changed since she came back to Taiga - but mourned for both of them in the quiet. It seemed whenever the worry and the fear and her own lamentations wanted to choke her, Lilliana would somehow find the somewhat apprehensive gaze of her roan friend. In moments like that, she can usually muster a smile - she’d probably look the same way if she could see around herself.
Still, its the fact that Brazen comes. She finds Lilliana when she doesn’t want to be found. The chestnut might have a talent for slipping through the trees but her smile never does. She has always been good - too good - at that. Lilli wants to vanish and Brazen, stubbornly, refuses to let her.
So goes the weeks that preceded the birth, Lilliana wanting wane like the spring moon rising above them. The moment that Kagerus had predicted had drawn closer and Lilli had just wanted to pull further away. How was she going to do this? Her family hadn’t been traditional in the sense that Brazen’s had (though from the glimpses she has seen, nothing about Dovev or Heartfire seemed.. conventional). Still, they had been a tribe of sorts, that veritable village coming together to raise the generation that came from the fallout and heartache of war.
They had been a tribe - her family - and in the final days of her pregnancy, Lilliana found there were whole new ways to grieve for them. To grieve for what her sons would never know.
Despite the glow of new motherhood on her (and in the literal sense of the boys resting on the embankment behind her), she is studying the tree. Her eyes grow dark in the falling twilight and can’t find the bird who calls out. Should she move them? Frantically, she looks back to where they rest and where their soft aura still flickers in the sweet meadow grass. Lilliana takes a step in their direction, no longer willing to be so far away and feeling almost overwhelmed at the maternal pull that calls her back.
Movement coming from the treeline nearby pushes her even faster.
The intruder might have seen a fiercer side of Lilliana had it not been Brazen. They might have seen a mare ready to pin her ears and do what she could to make herself seem fiercer, bigger than the slight-framed woman she was.
But it's a flash of white against the frame of red shadowed by the setting sun that eases her, tells her it isn’t a stranger at all. It's her friend, slipping in where Lilliana tried to drift out and for the first time in years, a layer peels back exposing a grateful smile. There are worse things to encounter, she knows. Other things to be afraid of.
She’ll worry about that later but tonight at least, she doesn’t have to worry about the stars going dark. Brazen keeps the celestial lights shimmering silently above, keeps guard with them.
Her nose reaches out and brushes tenderly at the where the skin and bone bind, thankful she’s come. Truthfully, Lilliana says, "We’re glad you came.” She glances down at them, pride shining on her face, cutting through the shadows that might otherwise be there. Her eyes linger on their copper coloring, a shade so similar to her own before she teasingly replies, "I’m not sure. What do you think?”
LILLIANA
all that i'm after is a life full of laughter
(as long as i'm laughing with you)
@[Brazen] i didn't spell check this so I'm sorry
but it's all in the past, love
it's all gone with the wind