[open] By the sun and the moon [Borderline]

[Borderline]

despite the overwhelming odds, tomorrow came

Wit watches his mother and father for a short while before he gives up and goes to sleep. @[Yanhua], however, refuses to sleep, exchanging that little bit of comfort for the need to watch over his two helpless wards while they slept instead. Meanwhile, the hours tick by...and by…and by while I sleep, my breaths coming slow and instead, very shallow for how they should be. The exhaustion in my bones slowly diminishes, and my body begins the painstaking process of healing itself from whatever it is that ails me.

Though Yan insists on not sleeping, time proves a worthy foe. It had been quite some time since we had rested, and the journey had taken its toll on us, and worry is tiresome work. Eventually, even he cannot keep himself awake while his family sleeps beside him. It is then that my body decides it is time.

My eyes flutter open. My legs twitch. My ears swivel, taking in the sounds around me. I am still exhausted, more so than I should have been, but my thoughts are clear. I blink, stunned by the realization that something bad must have happened that I can’t quite remember. I lift my head from the ground and look back at my sleeping family for just a moment. I know that Wit would need to eat. And soon. And I know that Yanhua will want to know I am safe, but still, something propels me in the opposite direction.

I gently shift my weight away from Yanhua, trying my best not to disturb him, and then I press my legs beneath me and lift myself from the ground. Unsure of what forces are driving me, I move away from my family into the darkness, away from the gentle glow the lifts from the stallion. I don’t have to go far before the jungle thins, and then it opens up to the ocean. In the darkness, it’s hard to see much, but not everything is dark here. My eyes widen in shock and awe as a soft, blue glow emanates from the crests of the small waves that lap at the beach.

Adrenaline races through my veins, and a burst of energy causes me to rear up and leap forward while a soft whinny falls from my lips. This was it! This was the glowing waters that Yanhua had told me about. I splash into the waves in a frenzy of delight. Where my hooves make contact with the water, the glow strengthens just briefly.

I play in the waters for a few moments, enjoying the effect that my presence has on the organisms that cause the glow. After a few moments, however, I stop and just stand there, staring at the mysterious blue glow. Time to see what I can do. I reach out with my gift for the familiar signature of plant life, and there it is! The organisms that cause the glow are some sort of algae, a plant! I reach deeper, searching through every fiber of the organisms to figure out what about this algae makes it different from other plants–what makes it glow?

That is when it happens. It doesn’t happen slowly. It isn’t a gradual change like one would expect, but suddenly the world around me is flooded with light–blinding light that is so startling and unnerving that I stumble backwards in the water and topple over into the water. Gasping, I throw myself back to my hooves as quickly as possible, blinking and squinting. The light hurts my eyes. All of this means it takes me a few moments to register exactly what is happening, but when I do, oh! The joy I had felt upon finding the glowing waters was nothing compared to the feeling that the light gives me.

The sun had returned!

Borderline

Image by Calcifer