Half of my heart knows just what it wants of me
He scoffs at her comment, and sticks his tongue out even though he knows she's not looking at him. I am not growing a beard! He thinks, indignant. "I'm not old, you're just a baby." He rebutted, no bite in his voice. The familiar groove of the girl's spine was a comforting anchor, holding him down in the dark. The dips and planes of her are still young, still childish, not yet filled out to womanly curves.
The trust she holds in him is implicit and complete, unwavering despite the chaos that seems to dog her steps. He treasures it, more than she knows. It is lucky, perhaps, that his acquaintances are so few. There is no one else to turn his head, no other sweet voice in the darkness, promising him light. There is just Nyxa, and the hope that they may remain enough for each other all their lives.
His head feels funny, like it's been filled with tufts of wool. A sense of thirst begins to nudge at him, urging him towards the water's sound. The stream they follow has been a constant guide. The path, fairly easy. The short, measured steps he has practiced so careful ensure that his longer legs do not interfere with the slighter ones before him. Until she pauses to assess their next move. He breaks easier now, but stumbles a bit nonetheless.
About to ask why they'd stopped, it becomes moot as the girl he'd follow anywhere continues walking on, though he can feel the path has changed. Twigs and brush now drag their bony fingers along his flanks, and where their way had been easy and gently curved before, now it seems the path is designed to hold as many bends and switchbacks as possible.
Through the fluff in his brain, he remembers he was supposed to be telling a story. A story... right, about the squirrels! His mind flashed back to that day. It was so soon after they'd left their home, enraged father hot on their heels. He'd been exhausted, frightened, half mad with the sudden uprooting. His knees had been scraped and bloody from constant stumbling, and all that seemed to exist anymore was his brother's voice, urging him on to safety.
" Not quite nibbled, no. I remember the scent of pines and ice. There was still snow on the ground, in places. I hate the stuff. It makes familiar places foreign, makes me lost all over again... anyway, the pines. We were walking through them trying to find food. Some of the trees were starting to produce new needles, soft enough to eat. That's what we were after. When all of the sudden, this awful noise came out of nowhere. I'd never heard anything like it, but it seemed like it was coming from everywhere at once. I could feel my brother tense up, just as confused as I was. And then a pinecone fell and hit him in the back. Okay, not so unusual. We were walking in a pine forest, right? The next one caught me in the ear, which made me shy into Bragi. It went dead silent, for just a moment. Then the terrible noise was back, louder than ever, and suddenly we were standing in a pinecone hailstorm! They were coming from all over. We had somehow managed to walk right into their squirrelly home territory, and they were telling us to get out! These vicious little buggers were throwing everything they could find at us, cones, twigs, bits of bark. It was mad. Bragi got me to hold on to a piece of his precious tail, and we ran until we couldn't hear that unholy racket anymore. At which point we stopped, had a good laugh about it, and got on with finding dinner." He finished with a laugh, remembering the absolute horror in Bragi's voice when he discovered the pinecone that had gotten twisted into his tail a week later. The fuss he put into that, you'd have thought he discovered he was fatally ill.
The greying stallion nosed back into his spot against Nyxa's spine, enjoying the walk. The birds sounded absolutely incredible right now, and he was sleepy after all this walking. How nice would it be, to just doze in the sunlight, right in the middle of his own personal mountain of clover. A contented sigh blew through his nose, ruffling the fine hairs under his muzzle. This rocking was going to put him to sleep if they didn't reach the falls soon. "Mmkay... your turn. Tell me a story Nyx." He requested drowsily.
@[Nyxa] <3