09-14-2017, 02:15 AM
Diable Rouge
>The world is quiet around them, and for a moment, his mind feels silent as well. Her laugh is gentle, unassuming, and he feels himself smile at the thought they share the same nickname. A nickname his mother had given him, because the name Diable Rouge seemed "too harsh" for "how sweet he was." He looked down to the ivory fluff beneath him, pawing it gently. He could hardly remember the way he acted as a colt, but some memories seemed clear as day - his mother singing him lullabies, their evenings watching sunsets, playing with his mother because he had no other friends.
Her murder.
He closed his eyes, and inhaled deeply. It was so long ago, but it seemed just like yesterday. When he opened them once more, he listened to Aurora reveal that mostly children called her that...his heart sank. Children, plural. Yet another equine who had what he had always wanted - a family. And the only thing he had ever gotten that was even close to it, was now gone.
"I don't have any children." She says after a moment, and he watches her golden eyes fall. He stares intently at her, and Diable Rouge can see the pain that lingers in her eyes. From what, he does not know. He feels suddenly guilty, beginning to move forward but stopping himself. Instead, a confession...something he hadn't wanted to reveal; but she reminded him of a distant memory, and he felt he could trust her, even if it was only slightly.
"I did," He starts, head moving to glance at the sky, a sigh emerging from his chest. "I adopted him when his mother left him but I couldn't protect him." He swallows, and looks back to her. "I have none of my own...but I loved him like he was."
He tries to move past the pain, and answers her next question as if his confession hadn't torn him apart. "I had wandered around, but a recruitment brought me to Tephra. I enjoyed it," He began, thinking back to the golden mare who brought him to the island. "Circumstances have left me wandering again...too many memories."
He shook his head. A coward, that was all he was. Running away from his problems so the hurricane could not catch up to him. Abandoning post because of a death; pathetic reasons, he knew. He just wasn't sure how to cope.
in the eye of a hurricane, there is quiet.