10-22-2025, 03:02 PM
She watches in awe, and terror, as the ooze replacing the river climbs from the banks. Her legs won't move beneath her as she tries to step back away from the green creeping closer, closer, closer. It touches her hooves and her muscles tense, her instincts telling her move back, run Starbry. Every piece of her being demands her legs move - but she is stuck. The ooze seeps up and over her hooves, slithering gently over her blue hide and sending a shiver through her body. The wisps in her mind reach desperately for the mind of the mare next to her but she can't seem to direct them and suddenly she realizes that she is alone. This stranger won't - can't - save her. Her yearning for company had brought her here to die. Her brown doe eyes close tightly in fear.
Her racing heart is sinking in her chest as she realizes this is going to be it. Is it going to be painful? To die? She has no one to remember her. There is no one that will come looking for her as creatures dine on her corpse, insects clean her bones, and she turns to dust. Nobody will mourn her. Dying as she was born - nothing. It feels like a sob tries to escape her chest but is silenced in her throat.
It feels like hours have passed as the panic consumed her, despite it only being moments. She opens her eyes to take one last look at the world around her. She needs to see the stars. Death may come for her, but the glittering sky will comfort her like a soothing blanket as it had all of these years. Perhaps that's where she will go. Maybe she was nothing on earth, but in death she can become a glittering star to help light the night. And perhaps another will find comfort in the stars, in her.
But when she opens her tear-stricken eyes, still facing the ooze that she was certain would be making its way up her legs to consume her - it's retreating. The feeling of bone chilling dread begins to leave her body. She is still shaking, trembling. Her breaths come in shallow waves as she watches the ooze float down the river, away, towards the vast expanse of the ocean. Something feels different, like something settling into her bones, but she's alive. Starbry then looked up at the sky. She needed to be sure that the stars were still there, and they were. She could count on them to always be there.
A sigh of relief left her and suddenly she felt so heavy. She wasn't going to die tonight, not yet anyways. The mare that had been next to her is forgotten. Starbry isn't sure if she died, ran away, or was still standing there - she couldn't force herself to look that direction to see what the stranger's fate had been. Her blue legs, tinged in remnants of the ooze, began to move and she stepped away from the river. She kept walking, noticing that dawn was arriving and the ooze had vanished from her legs. Had the grass wiped it away or had it disappeared? It didn't matter. She stopped in front of a giant oak tree and admired the autumn colors dripping from its branches. Her yearning for company had evaporated just as the ooze on her legs had seemed to do. She took a deep inhale, dipped her head, and closed her eyes to relish in the feeling of her heart beating, the morning breeze against her body, and the sun arriving to warm the earth.
Her racing heart is sinking in her chest as she realizes this is going to be it. Is it going to be painful? To die? She has no one to remember her. There is no one that will come looking for her as creatures dine on her corpse, insects clean her bones, and she turns to dust. Nobody will mourn her. Dying as she was born - nothing. It feels like a sob tries to escape her chest but is silenced in her throat.
It feels like hours have passed as the panic consumed her, despite it only being moments. She opens her eyes to take one last look at the world around her. She needs to see the stars. Death may come for her, but the glittering sky will comfort her like a soothing blanket as it had all of these years. Perhaps that's where she will go. Maybe she was nothing on earth, but in death she can become a glittering star to help light the night. And perhaps another will find comfort in the stars, in her.
But when she opens her tear-stricken eyes, still facing the ooze that she was certain would be making its way up her legs to consume her - it's retreating. The feeling of bone chilling dread begins to leave her body. She is still shaking, trembling. Her breaths come in shallow waves as she watches the ooze float down the river, away, towards the vast expanse of the ocean. Something feels different, like something settling into her bones, but she's alive. Starbry then looked up at the sky. She needed to be sure that the stars were still there, and they were. She could count on them to always be there.
A sigh of relief left her and suddenly she felt so heavy. She wasn't going to die tonight, not yet anyways. The mare that had been next to her is forgotten. Starbry isn't sure if she died, ran away, or was still standing there - she couldn't force herself to look that direction to see what the stranger's fate had been. Her blue legs, tinged in remnants of the ooze, began to move and she stepped away from the river. She kept walking, noticing that dawn was arriving and the ooze had vanished from her legs. Had the grass wiped it away or had it disappeared? It didn't matter. She stopped in front of a giant oak tree and admired the autumn colors dripping from its branches. Her yearning for company had evaporated just as the ooze on her legs had seemed to do. She took a deep inhale, dipped her head, and closed her eyes to relish in the feeling of her heart beating, the morning breeze against her body, and the sun arriving to warm the earth.