Novel
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
The first thing that she had known in this new world was confusion. Unfortunately it is a confusion that lingers, despite all the answers. There are too many answers, all thrown at once into a sea of uncertainty. She had been swallowed by that sea, one small, lost soul in the midst of hundreds, thousands of others. And it takes her time to surface. It takes her time to surface, because she has never learned how to swim. She only ever knew how to fly, and with flight taken from her, she flounders.
Of course, none of this is in the literal sense. She still has wings. But they are not her wings. They are a stranger’s wings. Ones given to her because the ravens and colors had been taken. So it is no surprise that she was confused. She really is still only a child after all.
But she has grown. Not quite into adulthood yet, but no longer such a youthful girl. She is at an awkward, in-between stage, one everyone must venture through. Of course, most do not take as long as she to do so, but she has always been a bit odd, a bit naive.
In truth, she could be ancient, but at heart she would still be young. Free and eternally fleeting and terribly unsophisticated. But she is not, so it is not yet a thing to be dwelled upon. For now there is only this, the two simple colors and the one single shape that had been hers before birth. Even if they now feel odd and cumbersome, like clothing that does not fit quite right.
She has retained that raven-like curiosity though, the odd quirks that make her Novel. The bird-like tilt of her head, the way she holds her wings at an angle when she walks, the way she ruffles her feathers on occasion to settle them into place. She might not be able to perch in trees anymore (she had tried. It had not gone well), but that does not mean she has to lose herself in the midst of all this upheaval. She could still be Novel. Even if she is a simple horse of dark navy and burnt orange with feathered wings and black eyes that watch the world around her a bit too brightly.
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before.
@[Kristin]