While he had originally been reluctant to find her Tiphon couldn’t resist any longer. His heart yearned for her – her smile, her voice, her warmth – and he couldn’t control himself any longer. The years had blinked away (a decade is a beat of the heart when immortal) and he had begun to crave her, need her. ”Talulah,” he breathed her name into her skin as his heart fluttered against his chest. He had missed her so much.
They come together again. It’s the first time since their reunion, since their passions gripped them and took control. A smile spreads across his face; it warms him from the very core. His happiness wants to consume him, but there is still the darkness clouding his thoughts and reminding him of Tiberios. Even years after his son’s demise, the nightmare of it still haunts Tiphon. Often he wonders if a day will come that the burden will be lifted. The loss reminds him how delicate life is for the mortals and how easily he can lose another child of his. It’s out of his power and yet he feels like it’s his fault. If only his own immortality could bleed into his children. If only…
He watches from afar as she gives birth, his heart leaping. Another child, a sibling for Ramiel. The minutes feel like hours to Tiphon as he begins to pace along the crest of a hill, waiting. His molten eyes dance back to her every so often but every time he looks she is still down and still occupied.
A long breath is drawn in. His nerves are tingling when he takes a final glance to see her staring at the bundle behind her. The child is here, scrambling around in its sac. What strikes him as odd, however, is the absent smile on Talulah’s face. Tiphon’s eyes flicker between the two figures as he descends toward her and he notices her concern. ”What’s wro—“ he cuts himself off when he looks down to truly see the child for the first time. It isn’t the golden sheen glimmering from its coat that distracts him, but the protruding bone and lifeless appearance. ”… But it’s alive,” he whispers more to himself as he reaches down to touch the frail filly. It jerks underneath his touch and looks at him with golden eyes. They’re piercing, stabbing into him and clawing his heart.
”She looks like my father,” his voice is low as he murmurs into Talulah's ear somberly, ”This is my fault.” Tiphon leans down to press his muzzle against the cool metal of her neck. ”I’m so sorry.” The world is laughing at him now, mocking him for having lost his son. Now the world sees it fit to hand him a child that is already dead.
Is this punishment for having killed his parents?
Is this some cruel joke?
Is this real?
The child peers up at her parents with a deadened stare, observing their confusion and concern. She’s different, she gathers, and so she looks back across her shoulders to see her sunken in body and pieces of exposed muscle and flesh. She doesn’t look like her parents. Mother is a creature of silver metal and father is blessed by the heavens above. So why does she look like Hell spat her out? Swallowing a breath she tries to muster the strength and ability to speak for the very first time. ”I’m a monster,” it’s a statement, not a question. It’s a realization, not an idea. Beneath their stares she feels inferior and so she looks away and tries her best to ignore her father’s apologies to mother.
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