Only fleetingly did the sun-kissed femme wonder what it was that had caused the chestnut to stop her beautiful display of wild abandon. Shezira can remember countless times where she would feel the same music in her own heart that begged her to run. To where, she never really knew. She simply kept running until the her breaths were ragged and her arched nape was lathered with glistening sweat. Whether it was to the tallest of hills within her birthlands, or even through the trees of the grove her home was named after, it never really mattered for the sunfire maiden. For her, it wasn't always out of pure, unbridled joy. It had been an outlet for her as a filly, a way to escape the questioning glances of her mother's herd as they watched the odd girl whom did not bear the same pale champagne skin as a vast majority of them did. While there was perhaps one or two of the newborns given skin of brandished gold or perhaps brilliant and shining crimson much like the unfamiliar face Shezira has found today, many of the mares were either a pale gold champagne, palomino ranging from light to sooty, or even ivory champagne, they all shared the same long and flowing tresses of milky white save for the sparse few who sported locks of dark rich cocoa or inky black like a moonless night.
Not one other within Chrysó Álsos shared the same radiant shades of amber and citrine, nor did they have the same ruby red gaze or unusually short and seemingly cropped mane. Shezira didn't even look in the slightest like her mother. While Merelli was one of the few whose skin gleamed almost like that of a saltwater pearl, a beautiful ivory with silken tresses to match and depths of winter frost, her one and only daughter was a startling opposite to the mare she called mother. In most worlds, something as unique as the sunfire filly may have been looked upon with admiration. Perhaps, if she had been born to any other herd in any other part of the world, the colts would have strutted about and done anything possible just to catch her eye in passing. She may have been fawned over, and maybe her gentle yet timid mother would have been showered in countless compliments about how beautiful her daughter was. It was a fantasy that she'd had many times as a young girl left wondering why it was that the other foals taunted and teased, why their own mothers refused to let them play with her when she only ever wanted a friend to run and play with more than anything else in the whole world. Instead, she was left to play alone, and that often meant chasing the sun each morning and evening.
She pushes away those less than pleasant memories, though. Those days were far behind her now, just as the very grove she once called her home was countless miles from this new world she'd stumbled upon. She knows that she is not missed in the least, and though there would always be a part of the sunfire femme that wished things between her and her mother had been different, she also knows that there was nothing left for her there, and thus there was no reason for her to return. She would continue to follow the sun, an unknown spirit guiding her... well, somewhere. Maybe here! She didn't know quite yet where she was going, but something within her beating heart and burning soul was certain to tell her when she was where she belonged, right? That was the hope, anyway. However, for now, she puts aside those questions that often flicker across her mind. Instead, she tilts her refined head ever so slightly to one side, that white gold chain tinkering faintly in the afternoon as she watches the other mare curiously when she says that she cannot fly."Maybe not like a bird does in the sky, but you fly beautifully across the meadow I'm sure", she says then, a kind smile dancing upon her lips.
No, Shezira hadn't missed the way that those sky blue eyes traced over her brightly colored skin, but she also hardly minds the curious gesture. There was once I time where she would have flinched beneath the mares gaze, but that had been before she embrace her own unique appearance with pride. Now, the whole world could watch her if they so pleased! Hell, let them gossip and whisper among themselves even! Shezira knew who she was, and that was all that would ever really matter. The mare carries on for only a small breath about how it was she liked to run, and it seems as though she changes her mind on what it was she was about to say. Was she truly that taken aback by the sunfire mare? She shakes her head and Shezira allows for the chestnut to gather herself. The conversation shifts to the sunfire mare, a question poised upon her afternoon companion, and she nods."No, I'm not. Would you happen to know where 'here' is, by chance?", she replies, though her own revelation is also followed by what many would consider a natural question. Considering this was the sun-kissed mare's first encounter with anyone for, it seemed like a good starting point.
Again, the chestnut woman has taken to studying Shezira, and again, the brightly colored femme acts as though she is hardly aware of such a thing occurring. If it helped the stranger feel, perhaps, more comfortable with her, then she was content to allow it. After all, there was hardly a sneer or disapproving look flickering within those eyes of clear summer skies. Only a small note of silence befell the pair before, at last, Shezira has a name for her company on this beautiful new day."It's nice to meet you, Lilli", she says warmly, a kind smile dancing upon amber lips as she dips her head lightly to Lilliana. It was a lovely name, but it was Lilli's smile that has Shezira's own becoming slightly brighter. It seems that whatever it was that she'd been thinking or feeling since the sunfire woman's approach has now loosened its hold over her, allowing for the welsh cob to see that there is in fact a warmth there, whispering like the gentle breeze that blows through the trees."Are you a native here? Or are you also newer to this world?", she inquires curiously. Lilli carries the scent of mountains and forest more so than open grassland, and it had Shezira wondering just how vast this world she'd found was.
Besides, there was something about Lilli that she liked, and she was hopeful to learn more about the woman before her.
here's to the rest of us, to all the ones who never felt they were good enough
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