I KNOW THAT LOVE IS LIKE GHOSTS /
WHAT AIN'T LIVING CAN NEVER REALLY DIE /
There is an electric shade of shock in her blue eyes when they meet his. Lilliana knows immediately who he is. Though her dreams have taken on other shapes, have since filled with other things, she has never forgotten him. (How could she? The murder of Craft has been the only killing she has ever seen.)
But she looks to him and Lilliana recalls what she had told his mother: You do not die here.
Craft and Anatomy had come to Taiga. Why hadn't occurred to her until now that the orange-eyed stallion might have met a different fate as well? The chestnut mare stays quiet as he moves towards his newborn and when Lilliana's gaze drops to the colt, the confusion briefly leaves her expression. The planes of her face soften and the angles reveal the tenderness of a mother. Her head drops slightly (she can't help it) as she peers at the colt before returning to look at his father.
"I-," Lilliana starts, with her throat suddenly feeling dry (parched for water, like sand could be lining it). "I don't think so." She tries to keep the memories of their last meeting (mirage?) at bay, knowing from experience that her echoes could ripple out towards some unsuspecting soul. And what would that do to him? What would the images of his mother dying, of his screams that had faded with the desert sun, do?
Lilliana blinks.
"Not unless you believe in past lives," she finally manages with a tentative smile, an attempt at cordiality. It's still such an odd thing - seeing this version of him here when the memory that exists in her head is so vastly different. The chestnut mare keeps thinking back to the Deserts and how she had been so certain that Craft didn't die there, that her story didn't just bleed out on those shifting sands.
A past life.
And now, here, there was a new one, a child to this stranger who had haunted so many of Lilliana's dreams.
"I didn't mean to disturb you," she quietly tells the pair. "My mind tends to wander these days and I'm afraid my hooves follow."
love like ghosts - lord huron
image credit to footybandit
@[garbage]