There's a song in your lung and a dream in your eye. (Any)

[Joscelin]

Dark storm clouds hover in the distance, threatening rain on this otherwise perfect day. The sun still struggles to shine, but it is rapidly losing its battle. A few birds still sing, but many have already ducked for cover. None of this bothers the red filly as she dances into the meadow, the sweet song of freedom singing through her veins. Her mother had watched her since birth like a hawk. This is the first chance she has had to escape. And escape she has. Oh, she will return, but no doubt her mother would be in a frenzy of worry by the time she does.

That is the last thing on the small girl’s mind, however, as she gambols into the meadow like an ethereal sprite. Her gold gaze skips around, taking in every sight that she can. She pauses here and there to study anything that catches her fancy. First, it is a branch hanging by bare threads from a tree. Then it is a cluster of mushrooms jutting unceremoniously from the side of a log. Yet again is a small toad that takes umbrage to her walking too closely to its chosen resting place. Each time her nose follows where eyes lead, sniffing each item in interest. The toad had been more difficult. The silly creature had kept hopping away.

Before long she reaches the shade of a giant oak. As she gazes at it, gold eyes bright with curiosity, a thought occurs to her just as many thoughts do. Seemingly out of nowhere. This thought in particular though is that this would be the perfect subject on which to test her gift of light. Her mother had always strongly encouraged caution when using that particular power. Something or other about it being dangerous. But how is she to know without testing it?

Stepping forward, gaze fixed on the large tree, she focuses a beam of light upon the bark. She lets out a startled exclamation when a thin, dark line appears in the skin of the tree where the light had touched the surface. With eagerness, she attempts it again. She continues with the slender beam, drawing patterns and swirls and curlicues upon the bark, all the while grinning hugely. When she tires of this, she decides to see what the light can truly do. Focusing her gaze, she broadens the beam, opening up the floodgates within her. The light continues to widen, brightening until it engulfs the red filly in pure, blinding white radiance. She is so focused on expanding the light that she forgets to pay attention to what she is doing to the tree. That is until a forcefully loud crack splits the air. In a blink, the light winks out as she stares at the falling tree in abject terror as it races towards her.

Instinct drives her to leap, and in her fright, her leap brings her nearly twenty feet in the air. Heart thudding at a rapid pace, she stares in awe at the massive tree she had just inadvertently felled. Dropping back to the ground, her gold gaze remains fixed upon the tree until she quite suddenly tosses her delicate head, letting out a chiming peal of laughter. Bounding forward in excitement, she scrambles up onto to the trunk of the fallen tree, all the while laughing in merriment and delight.

joscelin