N y x a
She’d never considered the idea of belonging to anyone, or anything. Nyxa is too torn of a creature, half her soul given over to the water while the other half longed for the feel of land beneath racing paws. She’s free from the bonds of her womb - Canaan and Jah-Lilah had abandoned her and Ischia without so much as a damn goodbye (had they ever truly cared about her mother, or was the coattail ride to glory a bit bumpier than they’d prepared for?) and yet, simultaneously, she’s bonded herself to Hod and this Island. She will love and live as she pleases, the rest can be forgotten.
These ideas arise from the whim of the moment; nothing is holding the pair back from doing whatever they please and, the more Hod talks about them journeying to the other side of this small, outcast place, the warmer she begins to feel inside. It’s a pleasant sort of pressure starting right behind her eyes, a dizzying feeling that some would call a buzz but it leaves her laughing again once he mentions the word ‘herb.’ “No, silly Hod. There’s no other herds here.” The youngling laughs, unsure as to why that notion seems so funny to her when he’d clearly meant ‘herb’.
She feels … silly. Silly enough that his stumbling jerk of a start doesn’t even illicit a laugh, only solemn worry that shades her features like a quick, passing storm. “Oh don’t say that - don’t.” She tells him, the light feeling in her skull beginning to drain into her limbs. Her body and mannerisms relax, accepting the drug she’s not even aware she’d been eating, and her lithe little hooves move slowly ahead until Nyxa can press the flat of her nose back against his own. It doesn’t feel odd, this time - it feels right. “I would never let you, Hod. You don’t say things like that, okay?”
He doesn’t mean it, but she does.
“‘Kay now let’s go.” She laughs again, the brightness and perk returning to her face in a flash of amusement. For some reason everything felt so soft! The gentle curve of Hod’s nose, the warm air around them, even the brush of sticky weeds against her legs as she turns to head off in the direction he’s pointed them. Nyxa won’t deign to correct the course - his ears were twice as good as any wolf snout. For the first time in quite some time, she feels the notion of contentment settle over her shoulders. The day was beautiful and bright, Hod was here, they were going swimming … it was perfect.
She needed to get out of her own head, that’s all.
The cream filly lets it go; Hod’s age difference, the shattering of her whole family, her uncertain and rather dim-looking future. All of them just poof and quite appropriately, she replaces them with a broad, unending smile. She could walk for days like this, so she starts up their pace again and strikes out to weave between the hard-packed stalks and onto the other side of the clearing. When the earth threatens to turn rocky and it’s clear they’ll have to skirt around the base of the outcropping, she pulls ahead and waits expectantly for the familiar touch of his lips against her croup.
“Will you tell me a story about the place you were living before Beqanna?” Nyxa calls out, cutting herself off from humming a nameless tune as her feet carefully pick out the most unencumbered path. They were some of her favorite and though she had a feeling Hod sometimes withheld information (she never strays too far from safe subjects, least she upset him) in the moment it doesn't seem to matter. The fact that Hod had came from ‘elsewhere’ had always been a fascinating idea to her.
Besides, like Hod said, it would be something of journey to the falls and currently they have nothing better to do aside from enjoying each other’s ordinary company. “NO,” She thinks quite suddenly, the curve of her head over a gold-tinged shoulder helping the young girl to pinpoint and gaze at Hod with renewed affection, “The company of one I love.
Every kiss is a door, Can I knock on yours?
@[Hod] <3