06-19-2017, 10:11 PM
This time, she rests her head on his back.
Spear & Spark
He indulges her, always has. That’s what big brothers do to little sisters, even if it is only minutes that separated them at birth instead of years. How could he not indulge her when she is like this, unarmed and herself? The fire is dormant somewhere beneath her skin, tucked back in the hot folds of her heart, where other things like greed and love also lay.
Spear cannot see the sleepy smile that rests on her face but he can feel the way her teeth sometimes grasp a strand of his mane, testing it with the smallest of pulls to see what kind of reaction he’ll give her. He responds with a teasing nip to her pale shoulder, a light brandishing of teeth against skin that makes her lift her head from his back to give it a shake then resettle herself there, stuck like a fly to him. If she thinks it annoys him, she is wrong and he’d love to tell her as much but he merely chuckles.
They could stay like this forever.
But neither of them has forever, like their mother does.
All they have is right now, and in the midst of it, comes a familiar smell: Tephra.
Both sets of nostrils flare, suck in breath after breath until it seems like they ought to hyperventilate like one great big eight-legged beast. Neither of them could ever mistake or miss the sulphur-ash scent of that place, since it is on their own skins and ingrained in their lungs for all time or as long as time allows them. Almost as one, both their heads turn for Spark is shoulder to shoulder with him now, and two pairs of mismatched eyes look for the source of the smell.
It is not one that is recognizable to either of them, but they set off in search of it, forsaking the bright sunlight that has warmed them into a lazy stupor for the cold reach of the shadows beneath the trees. The scent grows stronger here, and then they find her tucked up against one such tree, smelling of home but looking for all the world like a lost thing.
“Hello,” says the medicine hat mare.
“Why are you alone?” asks the overo stallion.