in the darkest hour, the dead of night

[Pteron]

and since you’re the only one that matters,----------------
----------------tell me: who do i run to?

Pteron chooses a flower that hangs from her black hair, pinning it gently against her cheek with her lips. He takes just slightly too long to grab it, wondering if she might pull away and allowing her time. But her enthrallment is strong, and Pteron is not especially interested in resisting, and he soon swallows that poison she’d offered.

The petals of the flower are soft on his tongue, and the sharp tang of the sap lingers at the back of his throat even after he has swallowed. It is far from the best flower he’s had, but Rosebay does not break her promise, and Pteron does enjoy it quite a bit. The irregular heartbeat and disorientation are to be expected so near the bay mare, and even the way her face blurs in his vision does not strike him as entirely wrong.  He’s not pulled away, and though he slides his blue-green muzzle along the arch of the mare’s bay neck, he stumbles when he must side-step to reach farther.

Pteron grows still, the haze of oleander and enthrallment making balance difficult. The disorientation turns to dizziness, and Pteron immediately regrets looking up to try and find Rosebay. The world is spinning around him, twisting left and right and left and then…

It settles.

His healing has won out – for now – isolating the poison from the flower where it cannot affect him. The smell of the oleander remains strong in the air, and as Pteron regains his balance, he searches through the dark meadow in a vain attempt to find the bay mare.

@[Rosebay]

-- pteron --