la jeune fille marquée (birthing); Gryffen & Leck

[Leck]

He was comfortable in the dark. He liked it in there. The light is too much. That he doesn’t like. The colt entered the world, and it is so bright that the pain, even through his eyelids, burned to the back of his eyes. He hissed venomously, like a snake, and pressed his face to the strange ground, trying to escape the burning. He couldn’t, and for a moment he withered and kicked. He was surprised to find that he could kick, that he could stretch his legs out all the way.

That distracted him from the pain.

Eventually he adjusted, and slowly opened bleary dark eyes. The world was colorful too. The colt’s lips twisted into a sneer. Bright and colorful, and full of strange shapes. One shape, large and looming and white reached for him. The colt recoiled, flopping like a fish. It touched him and he screeched, a strange keening sound that was too loud from his small throat. He didn’t like the touch, didn’t want it, and finally it was his resistance that caused him to get to his feet. He stumbled away, weak on unused legs. He didn’t understand why the shape approached. He didn’t know what it was and why it wanted him.

But, his belly hurt. He panted and whined. He had never been hungry before, never needed to eat. He didn’t understand the hunger just as he didn’t understand the shape before him. More than anything, it was his confusion that made him mad, vicious with bared teeth and ears laced against his skull.

Soon another shape approached and hovered near the first. They seem similar in size, texture and intent. He looked at them a little closer. Were they looking at him too? Are these shape like him? He didn’t understand, and he yet he felt tied to them, like an unwilling boat to a dock.

The colt shook his head violently, and nearly tumbled. His teeth snapped, and still his stomach hurt. Through the confusion and overwhelming bubbling rage he heard a single word. It drifted to his ears like soothing music. “Leck,” it said, and for the first time, the little boy smiled.