well I've got thick skin and an elastic heart [Demian]

[Tantalize]

tantalize

infinity overhead

and i whisper, are you listening?

It was crazy how quickly change could come and sweep you off your feet. One day you were one of the crowd and then a figure of power. Or vice-versa, everyone forgetting who you were and what you were capable of. It was the latter state that she was in but the winds of change were close again, her skin itched with anticipation. The tension in the jungle was palpable and this time she knows her role will be much subdued when that change comes. This is something she has accepted and is for the most part ok with. She is still not herself, still searching for answers and trying to piece herself back together. Back to the former strong mare she had once been, the reason she had been chosen and respected to begin with. There were more flare ups of recognition, of feeling almost normal. Yet she still hung in this balance between being a wisp of herself or a shell of a horse. There was much to overcome.

The winter called her out of the humid warmth of her home. More and more she seeked the cold which was so unlike her. The short fur that came with living in the jungle gave her no protection from this environment but she had longed stopped caring. The chill made her feel alive, gave her feeling. That thing she kept grasping for but was always just out of reach. Bare tree branches scrape against her flesh but she’s numb to it. The jaguar mare moves out into the open just as a stallion falls from the sky. This is starting to become a normal thing, men hurtling from the sky. First Carnage and now this dude. However her golden eyes can’t rip away from the winged man, she stares blankly for a moment as something sparks in her mind. Glowing jaguar spots. Jaguar spots… Like hers. The only other creature she had ever known to have those spots was her mother and of course the big cats that she shared her home with. While hers didn’t have the orange glow about them, they were still similar enough.

Quietly , although her hoofs crunch over particles of snow and ice, she follows the stallion from a distance. Tracing his steps as he moves towards the almost frozen waters of the river. When she finally approaches him, not wanting to ambush him as he drank, his eyes are closed and a look of peace is etched in the features of his face. That must be nice, it’s been so long since she had felt anything resembling peace. Envy fills her heart as her golden eyes narrow at him however her faint smile tugs at the corner of her lips. Quietly addressing him and not upset in the least to disturb his tranquility. ”And how is it that we have never met before?” No word of the Valley disruption has reached her ears, she has been quite out of the loop when it came to politics and other kingdoms. Nor was there much desire to find out, not until she had rediscovered herself. So this spotted man was a stranger, a stranger who had her spots.

@[demian]