There could be shadow galaxies - any

[Spear + Spark]

Dark.

Always dark.

But never starless, even if there are no stars to be seen in the night sky.

(She sees them imprinted behind her eyelids, constellations that are brilliant and numerous - too numerous to recall, but there all the same, patterned against the gray matter of her inelegant brain.)

That is why she hugs close the raw exposed shoulder of the volcano, close enough to a split in the rock that coughs steam and bright sparks of ash and magma. Her own brilliance is enough to keep the dark at bay and to shame the stars if they’d laid eyes on her now. She is swathed in pure flame, bright and burning. There is nothing recognizable about her now except those infinitely black eyes and her small thin shape. All else was flame, simple and writhing.

It should not have surprised her the way it did when the wind blew his scent to her off the sea. Or that with it, came the scent of the son that should have been her own but would never be despite how she told Giver as much. The flame that she had become grew brighter, burning white-hot as her anger lent strength and heat to it. She should not have been so angry with him but she was, and she could not help it - the anger had to go somewhere, and it had, after sickening her. It burnt her skin up, made her whole and strong. Made her clean and untouchable.

She smelled him - them, and debated going to where they marched through the night, luminous and bright, stars and fire, and all kinds of things that she could not name. Spark only looked after them, tracked them far enough along until they were more than shadows and snippets of talk that reached her flicking fire-ears. Still, she stayed. Uncertain. Angered. Lost. For she loved him still and his absence had been a huge ache in her heart until the fire came and burnt up even that.

(but she still loved him!)

Long last, she came forth. Burning and bright, a conflagration of a horse and not the Spark that he’d have known or recognized. She said nothing as she joined them in their march.

ooc: you're back! <3333333333333333333333