thick skin / elastic heart - EIGHT

[Thorunn]

thorrun;

She follows Eight's gaze over the expanse of the Valley. This is all she knew. Her sister, dear Val and her outgoing ways, parted with the Valley with much less fanfare than had been expected. The ache left behind by her departure is almost as strong as the loss of both their parents. In her short life the orange-eyed girl had been abandoned by everyone she loved and held dear. It's no wonder she mirrored Covet's general melancholy - that was to be expected. She can feel the pinprick of tears behind those orange eyes and wills them away, covering her sniffle by rubbing her face on a foreleg. She hopes Eight doesn't notice.

"Yes, I will stay. I want to stay." She knows her father was a transient beast and ruled in two kingdoms that were not the Valley. Her mother...she looks to the Heart Tree that gave birth to her mom a second time. She sits at it sometimes, wondering if it will spit out the chestnut mare that she looks so much like. She knows deep down it will never happen. Could she survive with the tree so far out of sight? No, no she couldn't.

She turns her eyes to the horizon then, and to Eight fleetingly. "I guess this means things will change then." It's a fact, a statement. A final conclusion that the world changes every day and holding onto the past and hoping it will stay the same is futile. She'll learn.

She's learning.