only the moon howls; laura-pony

[magnus]

you and I both know that the house is haunted
and you and I both know that the ghost is me

Every day, life was coming a little easier to him.

The scent of saltwater was beginning to wear and he no longer flinched whenever he walked by the path leading to the beach. He was settling into old rhythms, ancient patterns that were beginning to come slowly back to him—his motions becoming more organic and less mechanical. Still, as grateful as he was each morning for the sweet air of Heaven flooding his lungs, he couldn’t forget his ghosts. They haunted him everywhere. He saw her in the trees and in the once lush landscape. He saw her in the wind that ran along his scarred cheek and the ground opening up beneath him as he ran unbridled.

But, sorrow was nothing new to him—it was just another bitter pill to swallow. He managed it, as he always did, and he continued to drive himself along the same road, picking up pieces of his personality and memories as he went. Often, such moments of retrospect drove him to the meadow. The place that he had first come to after crawling from the belly of the ocean. The place where he had been reunited with his son. The place where he had met the girl with bruised eyes who had told him that his brother was still alive. The same brother he had killed. The same brother who had stood there with blood smeared on his body as he stood above the broken bodies of too innocent mares. It was all just too confusing.

Tied up in his thoughts, Magnus came upon the other quickly, faster than he intended to. The joy on the other was clear, and the rogue stallion paused for a moment, hating himself for interrupting the boy who was so clearly enjoying himself. It was nice to see someone so happy. “Hello there,” he called in a voice of ash and soot, the sound husky as it poured from his throat. “You seem to be having quite the day.” He tilted his handsome head, the sun reflecting off the gold of his coat. “I’m Magnus.”

MAGNUS

once general. once lord. once king.