Suddenly confused, I shifted sides [ANY]

[Chryseis]

you were a vision in the morning
when the light came through,
i know i've only felt religion
when i've lied with you
and i'm still waking every morning
but it's not with you

.

She could be too much for some. She was too forward, too brazen, too reactive. As she grew older and matured,  she had learned to read other’s body language, and to quiet some of her chaos in response. She would always be somewhat unbridled, but she could see the tension building beneath his brightly colored skin, and she was subdued — but only a little bit. “It’s nice to meet you, Amen.” Her voice is softer, but her dark brown eyes still brim with the energy she has harnessed. “Oh, you definitely should stay! You haven’t even seen all the best parts of Beqanna yet.”

She is about to launch into what would likely have been a far too lengthy of a description of what she considered to be the best parts of her homeland; the mountains of Hyaline, the shores of Nerine, the kelpies that lived in Ischia; it was a near endless list. The sound of another joining them causes her to catch herself, though the look that she flashes the other mare is not a cross one. She has been so bored and starved for interaction lately that she didn’t mind another. It hasn’t even occurred to her that the field was meant for recruiting, and that she was maybe suppose to be inviting him to Tephra?

Dawn, she says, and her name has a spark of familiarity to it. She turns her brilliantly golden face towards her, her eyes alighting and a thrilled gasp of realization escaping as she exclaims in delight, “Oh, you’re Dawn! Rhaegor’s best friend. He’s told me so much about you, but I can’t believe we’ve never met?” Saying his name created a twinge in her chest; to say it so casually, and not as though he was gone (not forever, she reminds herself, over and over). Her inner sorrow reflects for a moment in her eyes, but she steels it away, as she so often did. She was sure neither of them wanted to see her breakdown.

“I live in Tephra,” She says as her attention shifts back to the newcomer, after Dawn has introduced Silver Cove. “It’s safe from the plague as well.” She pauses for a moment, before continuing. “I could show it to you, if you’d like. You don’t have to stay, but they always welcome newcomers.” Her eyes slide towards Dawn, as she adds with a mischievous lilt to her words, “Though just between us, I’ll always be partial to the East, being born in Hyaline and all.”

chryseis