Burst into Stars [Merida/Any]

[Merida]

Merida

from the ashes, a fire shall be awoken

Kuma leans into her, despite the fact that the tall and beautiful mare does not need her motherly touch – but for many, many reasons wants it, and Merida does not refuse it. Methodically and thoughtfully, she lips at the flames of auburn red mane and forelock, grooming a somewhat stranger with a sense of purpose she had not fulfilled in many, many years. She would perhaps find herself silly; she’s not sure that she would be this delicate or soft-spoken with anyone in Loess (or in all of Beqanna, for that matter), but the fact that her own blood now has returned to her, the fiery and spirited mare seems quieter and gentler, at least when it came to that of her children.

Kuma returns the gesture, her the dark auburn of her muzzle gently grooming the blazing red of Merida’s tangled and thick mane. Her daughter pauses, her gaze falling downcast and the air hanging loosely with hesitancy. The fiery-gazed mare watches Kuma carefully, her black lips pressing in to a thin line.

She knows the answer to the question, for if Kuma had asked her, she would have hesitated as well. Most everyone had departed when the Reckoning hit, but Merida knew she spent too many moons away from Beqanna before returning, her wanderlust soul carrying her farther than she intended. She wonders now, if that’s perhaps why it has taken them so long to find each other again – because Merida had been gone too long.

But now was not the time to divulge in such disparaging thoughts, or to confess the dangerous treks taken to find their ways back home, or the promises made to more powerful creatures along the way.

“Of course you are okay,” Merida says with a gentle huff and a flick of her tail against her red-flecked ebony flank. “I didn’t teach you to not be able to fend for yourself!” The black mare laughs gently, bobbing her head forward to touch noses with Kuma. Merida brings her head to her chest, eyes like glowing embers finding her daughter’s. “I won’t allow myself to lose you again,” she says suddenly, almost to herself.

With a quiet snort, the mare lifts her eyes to gaze at the stars that had formed above them as dusk fell into early evening. A sigh leaves her lips as she inhales the sweet springtime air that flows around them in the wind. “This is Loess.”

@[Kuma]