AuroraElis
AuroraElis
Watching the jay conceal itself in the wiry brush, she lets out a sigh. Something had brought her here, a longing deep within her core. What purpose did this yearning inside her serve? She had all she needed in the Dale. Her family, friends, safety. Everything and yet something was missing...
Her cream dipped frame turns, a front limb reaching to draw her away from this place and back towards her home. But rising from, now behind her, comes an undiscerned noise. Frightened, her body spins around to face the intruder, ears pinned and feathers clenched to her side like armor.
AuroraElis…
Hearing her namesake is not what she expects and so a singular ear twists forward as her navy eyes scan the stranger for recognition. There is a familiarity in the scars of his face, in the cloudiness of his eye, in the red of his hue. She mutters the only distant memory that surfaces, “Rou?” Stricken with disbelief she backs up a step or two.
He is standing before her, wet from the waters he has waded to reach her. The heart in her chest skips a beat as she thinks if this is just another mind trick. At least before her visions had been of his decomposing corpse laying at her feet. How cruel would it be to show her him just as she remembered, all those years ago.
With a gentle shake of her head to try and rid the vision from her mind, she closes her eyes with a silent prayer. It is then more words are spoken, causing her other ear to tip forward at the apology.
Her eyes open to find him just as he was, standing within the river, looking up at her with now tear filled eyes. The doubt on her dished face is still obvious, but her words sound more sure now, “Is it really you?”
A part of her wants to leap into the waters and embrace him as they had many times before.
Before he had left her…
Tears began to fill her eyes as she stared at him unmoved. She just began to heal. Just began to live again. All of that swept out like a rug from under her instantly.
It all came rushing back. The day he had left Tephra to go prove himself worthy. The days she spent searching for their son, Phoebus, alone. Then when she had finally returned -empty handed- to find his cold dead body on the beach.
The many years after that she had spent wandering her empty world. The hopelessness hanging over her like a suffocating cloud of ash. Everything came flooding back at just the mere sight of him. And yet hatred does not find her heart.
Thru the pain and the tears, she swallows the lump in her throat, and with a kind smile gracing her face says, "Y-you came back."
Not all that glitters is gold