08-13-2015, 11:41 AM
 She is home, but she is hollow. It takes little effort to raise and move each leg because the marrow has been sucked from her bones. Her breathing is easy because there isn’t another life pressed up against her ribcage, swelling her sides. Not anymore. That life exists outside of and without her now. She’d left him - a chocolate brown tangle of legs and floppy ears - in the Gates with another woman as a surrogate. It wasn’t right, wasn’t natural (not when she was still alive and able – just unwilling) but she’d done it anyway. Her heart drains and she chills just to think of it. But there are other things to think of, too. She has responsibilities to return to while she waits for her next rendezvous with Emmerly and Eldrian. Perhaps they should have been the least of her concern when she left her son behind. Perhaps, if she was a better mother (the thought is a bitter pill on an empty stomach) she wouldn’t have cared what the others thought – Tiphon most of all. The Dale and subsequently, its people, have always been her priority, though. She couldn’t let one lapse in judgement jeopardize every other aspect of her life. Even if it meant that her son would grow up without her for a while. She can’t fully push these thoughts from the forefront of her mind (not yet, while she can still see the shape of his smile imprinted on the back of her eyelids) but she tries. An unfamiliar smell mixed with the cloying scent of Jungle earth on the breeze helps to distract her. The metal mare moves towards it, her instinct for border patrol always on alert. In her youth, it had become a joyful task with rather unfortunate origins. After her mother had been taken by wolves, she’d searched high and low for signs of her father, hoping he’d crossed back into the Dale. She’d asked Lion so many times if she had simply missed him on one of her many expeditions, but she’d been disappointed every time. Talulah wonders if it is an emotion Eldrian will come to know all too well. She hates herself for the thought. The stranger has moved passed the border, her scent a breadcrumb trail that is easy enough to follow. Her poor mood sours further with having to do so, however. She’s always believed that kingdoms have borders for a reason – had instilled it in Ramiel as well – and this new trend of ignoring them sits poorly with her. So when she finally finds the bay mare, she is somewhat glad that the stranger seems uncertain. The Jungle-woman’s ears are in constant motion as if she fears an attack from everywhere all at once. Good, Talulah thinks grumpily, maybe next time you’ll wait like you’re supposed to. She is outwardly neutral, her mouth a straight line that doesn’t lift into its customary smile. The Amazons are strongly allied with the Dale, she reminds herself, can’t be too hard on her. “Are our borders now open to each other with this new alliance? I hadn’t been informed if so.” She sighs, trying to shake herself of her sour mood. “I’m Talulah,” she says, her voice softer and the corners of her lips curving just slightly. lady of the Dale |
