12-31-2025, 05:39 PM
all these colors fade for you only
She doesn’t notice the change at first, as at peace as she is in that first moment emerging from between the trees. Her eyes are soft, dreamy, and entirely focused on the distant horizon where a river seems to snake on and over the edge of the world.
She doesn’t notice him at first, either.
It is the play of light he sets about her that initially pulls her back to the present. Everything is suddenly brighter. She dazzles, casting glowing reflections on the ground around her. Golde gasps at the effect, at the new color of her coat, as she spins in a circle to take in both.
And then she sees the stranger.
“Oh!” An easy smile upturns her lips at his comment. He cannot possibly know how true he speaks. Cannot possibly understand the extent of her relationship to the light and all it has revealed over her young life - how she is still learning, of course. But as easy as her smile is, her understanding fails to catch up.
“Have you done this, then?” There is no accusation in her voice, only bright curiosity. She even spins to see the reflections she casts again. This time she watches for the sparkles, sees them across the ground and into the canopy of the forest just behind her, even the darkest parts where the shadows outnumber the trees. She spins until she is facing the stallion again, a wider smile stretching her face.
If she is made of gold and sunlight, then he seems pieced together by the very sky itself. But it is his eyes that draw her in especially. They remind her of the childhood she had just been reminiscing in the forest. Of merry days playing under a cloudless sky with her twin. Of the days feeling so slow and luxurious and carefree, until she left them behind her as she grew up. Of memories that destiny seems to not want her to forget anytime soon.
“I’m Golde,” she says, taking a step closer to the stranger. He won’t be one for long if she has any say in it.
She doesn’t notice him at first, either.
It is the play of light he sets about her that initially pulls her back to the present. Everything is suddenly brighter. She dazzles, casting glowing reflections on the ground around her. Golde gasps at the effect, at the new color of her coat, as she spins in a circle to take in both.
And then she sees the stranger.
“Oh!” An easy smile upturns her lips at his comment. He cannot possibly know how true he speaks. Cannot possibly understand the extent of her relationship to the light and all it has revealed over her young life - how she is still learning, of course. But as easy as her smile is, her understanding fails to catch up.
“Have you done this, then?” There is no accusation in her voice, only bright curiosity. She even spins to see the reflections she casts again. This time she watches for the sparkles, sees them across the ground and into the canopy of the forest just behind her, even the darkest parts where the shadows outnumber the trees. She spins until she is facing the stallion again, a wider smile stretching her face.
If she is made of gold and sunlight, then he seems pieced together by the very sky itself. But it is his eyes that draw her in especially. They remind her of the childhood she had just been reminiscing in the forest. Of merry days playing under a cloudless sky with her twin. Of the days feeling so slow and luxurious and carefree, until she left them behind her as she grew up. Of memories that destiny seems to not want her to forget anytime soon.
“I’m Golde,” she says, taking a step closer to the stranger. He won’t be one for long if she has any say in it.
Golde
