10-26-2020, 10:07 PM
echis
“ I will love you until we run out of mornings. Then I will love you in the dark. ”
She wakes to the sound of thunder, jolted from another restless dream. The rain is already pattering against her back and she wonders how she slept through all this. But then, she could only ever fall asleep when she felt the exhaustion down into her bones. Of course, it would take a storm like this to drag the lake of her nightmares and bring her here again.
The lightning flashes. A tree branch crashes to the forest floor nearby.
Echis rises onto her gemstone hooves and supposes she should get moving. She could go home, to Hyaline. To her family. But being near them and trying to remember everything felt like pressing her thumb to a bruise. She blinks, and warm droplets roll down her cheeks alongside the cold rain.
She moves light a phantom between the forest trees - her white hair blowing behind her as her feather-light steps carry her over fallen branches and wilted autumn shrubs. It took a few years, but she’s finally grown into her long legs. She’s not the clumsy child she had been only last summer, but she knew that girl was gone the moment she died on the beach. Is it a blessing that she can remember that much, now? Or is it only another layer to the curse she bears now?
Something stirs in her stomach and she winces before pressing on. There is no destination in this wandering beyond finding that desperate need for sleep once more.