all these voices in my head get loud
i wish that i could shut them out
i'm sorry that i let you down
The sound of Mazikeen's voice seems to call the wisps of sunlight back to Anath. The filly turns toward the mare quick but clumsy, surprised out of her play. She might be innocent of fear but her companion sunlight, now coalesced into just three warm translucent shapes, slithers over her little body in a quick anxious way. The light is conjured, not alive or independent of her but the absent way she moves it around her very young self could almost convince one otherwise.
"My name is Anath. Malik is my friend." What is a pet? She does not ask, just bites the inside of her lip and looks back at the white mare anxious but unflinching. Of course Malik must be the son she speaks of, she is grown and big like his father. Anath may not seem a clever thing but she is learning quickly, maybe not quickly enough for a girl in her situation.
As a child will, she shares an insecurity with this new adult. "I don't shift like him. He said maybe I can learn.” As inclined to hopefulness as the girl may be, she knows that this is unlikely. Her small ears flick to the side, disappointed. “I think I can only be this one shape, but I can do this." She ceases her words, calls more sunlight around herself so that the gold painted over her body glitters fuzzily. She makes it into horns like Mazikeen's, horns of eye-piercing, burning light and nothing else. Then she drops these, bends the light to make herself invisible in a flickering way, unpracticed. Despite this last poor execution, Anath is naturally gifted, manipulating the light as easily as she breathes.
Anath lets go of the last illusion and asks a careful question. “This is not as good?” She already guesses that these skills are not desirable as shifting. Anath was left behind for some reason, maybe it was this.
@Mazikeen