It was her, and his heart ached. Before he knew what he was doing, he pushed off and then forward, wrapping around her in an embrace, swallowing her relatively slight build with his own. She smelled so familiar—faintly of the jungle and a new brine of ocean. His heart pounded in his chest, and he was flooded with memories. Memories of growing up with her, racing amongst the vines. Memories of her soft, kind eyes and welcoming smile. And, later, memories of hurt—of sadness tinging her expression.
He had hurt her. He had not meant to, of course. Joelle had been a supernova in his life that he could not have resisted if he had tried—and it seemed as if he was destined to forever chase the feeling of warmth she had left in his chest. But, regardless, what had been a beautiful collision of the heavens in his chest had been warfare to Hybris. In his youth, he had been nearly blind to it—was seemingly always blind to the small ways in which he hurt others—but he had never been able to shake the distance it had caused.
Of course, this is not what he thought of now. Not when she was so close—so familiar and yet so alien. Years had passed since he had last seen her, decades even, and she had not stayed the same. She had aged, beautifully of course, but she was not the youthful filly or even the softened woman from his memories. She was lovely, but different, and he found that the difference made his heart soften with affection.
Magnus was not the wild-eyed stallion he had been in his youth either, but time had run a different course for him. Decades buried in the ocean had left him relatively unchanged. Even his children had spent more time walking this earth then him; it was a strange thing to wrap his mind around
“Hybris,” he finally murmured, his whiskey-voice husky. “I can’t believe I found you again.”
magnus
@[Shan], it is super fun!
and whatever works although you don't need to. i am pretty good at following my threads. <3
![[Image: gqYjsHr.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/KjqNDKxc/gqYjsHr.png)