Every day that the sun rose and set without Lilliana returning to Taiga was another day Yanhua spent waiting for her, fruitlessly. “Not fruitlessly.” He told himself, wading through the ferns on one side of Taiga’s kingswood and winding his way up a short incline to more level ground, where a green carpet of moss covered an impressively large, felled redwood. “Brazen comes and goes. Aunt Elaina keeps you company. Nash helps you practice with your horns.” The leggy chestnut colt named off the things he’d been doing to keep himself busy, trying his best to fight off an approaching wave of bitter depression. It was evening and the air around him was so thick it could choke a horse. He trailed alongside the horizontal trunk, dwarfed completely by the shadow it cast over him, and breathed in a deep sigh full of fog and the smell of rich, wet earth.
Usually the peace induced from a quiet walk alone was all it took to put him back into the right state of mind. He’d give Elaina or Nashua a little farewell and with a flip of his uselessly short tail, be off into the wood to find his center again. But neither the quiet hum of the redwood forest nor the effort he put into gathering his silver linings seemed to be doing the trick today.
To him, it felt like the entire world was shattered and changing. He was beginning to lose hope of ever seeing his mother again, and trying as he had been to stay positive, he was starting to harbor an undeserved bitterness against his twin, Nashua, for escaping Taiga and taking off on adventures.
“It’s like he doesn’t even care!” Yan’s silent thoughts burst out of his mouth, mirroring his unresolved anger at having to lose his mother so early and so unfairly. The chestnut yearling could feel his little tail working overtime, flogging his hindquarters as if brought to life by his emotional outburst. He trod along until he came to a ragged hole (perhaps made by some native bear, or maybe carved out by a gifted horse) looming like a dark, mysterious doorway into the hollowed out tree, and then without pausing he slipped inside.
In the dark within, his mane and that same little tuft of hair between his hind legs lit up with a start, illuminating the dry innards of the grandfather redwood so that he could see all that surrounded him. From within, the wood looked as if it had been carved into some intricate, swirling design, but Yanhua knew it was just the leavings of many a wood-worm coming and going over the years. He followed their little paths with his rich, blue eyes and went further into the heart of the ancient cypress, his hooves thudding a dull echo of noise.
In here he could be himself, feel anything he wanted to without fear of exposure, so he did. Yan let his proud head drop low and he slowed to a stop, closing his eyes and letting his ears come to rest lifelessly by his cheeks. With another deep sigh, the young stallion whispered out, “I wish you would come home, mother. Where you belong.”
@[Beyza] @[caledonia] in no particular order! <3 You get a sad boi, and you get a sad boi!
Usually the peace induced from a quiet walk alone was all it took to put him back into the right state of mind. He’d give Elaina or Nashua a little farewell and with a flip of his uselessly short tail, be off into the wood to find his center again. But neither the quiet hum of the redwood forest nor the effort he put into gathering his silver linings seemed to be doing the trick today.
To him, it felt like the entire world was shattered and changing. He was beginning to lose hope of ever seeing his mother again, and trying as he had been to stay positive, he was starting to harbor an undeserved bitterness against his twin, Nashua, for escaping Taiga and taking off on adventures.
“It’s like he doesn’t even care!” Yan’s silent thoughts burst out of his mouth, mirroring his unresolved anger at having to lose his mother so early and so unfairly. The chestnut yearling could feel his little tail working overtime, flogging his hindquarters as if brought to life by his emotional outburst. He trod along until he came to a ragged hole (perhaps made by some native bear, or maybe carved out by a gifted horse) looming like a dark, mysterious doorway into the hollowed out tree, and then without pausing he slipped inside.
In the dark within, his mane and that same little tuft of hair between his hind legs lit up with a start, illuminating the dry innards of the grandfather redwood so that he could see all that surrounded him. From within, the wood looked as if it had been carved into some intricate, swirling design, but Yanhua knew it was just the leavings of many a wood-worm coming and going over the years. He followed their little paths with his rich, blue eyes and went further into the heart of the ancient cypress, his hooves thudding a dull echo of noise.
In here he could be himself, feel anything he wanted to without fear of exposure, so he did. Yan let his proud head drop low and he slowed to a stop, closing his eyes and letting his ears come to rest lifelessly by his cheeks. With another deep sigh, the young stallion whispered out, “I wish you would come home, mother. Where you belong.”
@[Beyza] @[caledonia] in no particular order! <3 You get a sad boi, and you get a sad boi!