Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.
I've always felt my heart stir in response to being near her. It's something I have never let her know about or even gave any indication that I thought of her as more than a friend. However she is a brilliant and gorgeous mare and it would be arrogant of me to think that I was that good at hiding my emotions. There is always something that might have made her pause but go on, the way my body would sway towards her, or the light touches on her cheek. But for all she knew I could have done that with anyone.
I was surely free with my love around my daughter. I was always touching her and smiling, laughing when she had been nothing but a ball of black fluff and long legs. Telling her stories and holding her close when she had the very rare nightmare. Besides her family, Strangelet and whatever other children were close, we rarely invited others to our little conversations.
Myrna had always known, bless her soul. She had always known when Willa would come home and tell her mum all about her adventures with Sunshine mare and Strange-thing. She had known with a look in my direction and by the guilt on my face. But she had loved me anyways and so I had done my best to give her love in return. It had never been anything soul-rending, nothing that would break my heart into a thousand pieces. But it had been a comfort when I needed it and Myrna had needed someplace safe to raise our daughter.
So the light touches of her lips against my skin makes me tingle, makes my blood run a little bit hotter and I try harder to keep it hidden. To keep it from pouring out into the air between us. She speaks and I remember the stories she would tell the girls as they laid bundled at our hooves after a particular exhausting adventure. The gentle rise and fall of her words were like music...even now when the tinge of sadness and grief threatens her.
"Gra geal mo chroi." I say, barely above a whisper as she speaks before I touch my lips to her cheek again in comfort. "Ach grandchildren? That cannae be possible." I say with a laugh. But it could be, too easily, with the brood her and Nocturnal had always had. It makes a smile curl my lips once again. Ears flickering as I listen some more. Children, their mates and grandbabies. It sounded wonderfully wonderful. It was the kind of life I had always wanted for Willa, but hadn't found here. So we had wandered back and forth between our Irish family and this place where we had no one.
Until she had left to return back here and I had stayed there.
"Ya ken, wandering until my hooves are weary. Visiting some family when my gut told me to come back. So I did." I smile at her. "I know why now."
