Do not fear change - any

[Amorette]

Down the mountain she went. She didn’t question the mystery of how she had gotten there. It wasn’t like Amore didn’t care for what had happened, but she had simply accepted the change. Though a bit disorientated she climbed down the mountain, a bit unsteady on her feet due to the thin air and rocky terrain. From the mountains he found her way towards the meadow. This was familiar, though she had never visit it often.

From first look it didn’t look like much had changed. Not while she was in the meadow at least. But at the same time, she didn’t know the meadow too well to notice any differences. Looking to the left she sees that what she knows as the ‘field’ in the distance, and at the right there is the same old forest. When she glances back, however, she sees the proof that the world is no longer like she had known it. Unfamiliar lands lay behind her and Amorette can only wonder what would be behind the meadow, forest and the field.

But more importantly than that: what had become of her family? Instinctively she knows the Gates is gone. No longer does she have a home to return to. The home she would miss, but it would be nothing to the possible loss of her family. Amore hadn’t seen her mother and sister in ages, her brother even longer. And the last time she had seen her father he had asked her the same question that had lied on her lips. Or had she only dreamed that?

Speaking of which. How much time had passed since she last had been aware of life? To Amore it felt like she had only blinked her eyes once or twice, but the season had changed. It was no longer spring, instead it was winter already. If three season had passed, who said it hadn’t been years instead? Her smoky black coat was too thin for the weather, for the snow that lied underneath her feet, and now she had realised the season, Amorette suddenly feels cold. To not stand still and freeze, she walks, without a destination really.

Amorette

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.
Gryffen x Minette

[Brennen]

hold me in this wild, wild world
'cause in your warmth I forget how cold it can be

He had found winter cold, once upon a time. As a foal, abandoned on the beach, he had gone to his father in the Tundra, and the first winter was nearly unbearable. His mother’s hot Arabian bloodline had not lent itself to frigid climes of the bachelor’s Tundra, and the first winter Brennen had often thought he might freeze. But as they say, ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’. The bay warrior had never grown much of a coat, always sleeker than most of his brothers even in the dead of winter, but he had his overlarge wings with their downy insulation to fold against his body and block out the worst of the icy drafts, and over time he stopped feeling the cold entirely.

Still, many of their visitors and newcomers had not been so equipped, and so he is used to the sight and signs of those who are cold, and how to help them before they became dangerously so. It wasn’t a skill he had ever thought to need outside of his lost Tundra, but as he stands today at the edge of the Meadow, idly watching the world go by, his eyes settle on the dark young mare and he can see the signs. Needing no further prompting, he wanders in her direction, making his intention clear with a quiet nicker so as not to startle her by suddenly being too close.

He comes to a halt facing her, purposefully putting his body between the girl and the biting wind, and wishing not for the first time that his control over the wind itself had not vanished along with his former home. It is, after all, the biting, freezing, invasive winds that make the cold feel worse than it even is. Still, even without the ability to quiet the wind with a thought, he has a few other tricks up his proverbial sleeve. Slowly, still working not to scare the stranger, Brennen mantles his over-large black wings and then extends them, using his body and his wings to form a windblock behind which the girl can take shelter. It would be better to have her step close, to share his body heat and drape a wing over her back to keep them both warm, but Brennen would never presume such familiarity with anyone unless they truly looked like they were dying, and she doesn’t seem that far gone.

“You look cold,” he offers in his typical slow, drawling voice by way of explanation. “I’m Brennen.”

hold me in this wild, wild world
and in your heat I feel how cold it can get

BRENNEN

[Amorette]

Moving is barely enough to keep her warm, but at least it kept her going. The possibility that she was walking around in circles was something she took for granted for now. Sooner or later she would run into someone, and it didn’t really matter if that was somewhere in the meadow, the field or some of the new undiscovered lands.

Turns out she doesn’t have to wait that long. She had avoided to move right into the wind, but it is his considerate  nicker that makes her aware of his presence. Amore answers with a soft whinny of her own. She watches him with squinting eyes, protecting herself from the strong wind, only to blink them once it’s gone. Well, not entirely, but still better than without any form of protection. Curiously had she watched him, wings slowly unfolding. The way he stood there almost reminded her of a peacock and its only with some effort that Amorette can stop the soft laugh from escaping past her lips.

When he speaks though, that attempt fails. She’s not humouring him, or making fun of him, neither are her intention either. ”Not just do I look cold, I am cold. Thank you” she answers with the laugh still faintly evident in her voice, her head dipping lightly. Slowly the smoky black girl moves into the shelter he offered, though respecting their personal space. ”My name is Amorette” she introduces herself, after settling in this little almost wind free place he had created.

She wants to ask him if he knows what had happened, but at the same time she knows that it wouldn’t matter that much to know. It had happened and that was it. Nothing she nor anybody else could do to change it. ”Are you always this much of a gentleman, Brennen?” she thus instead asks. Of course she’s teasing him, but she wasn’t complaining, wouldn’t complain either. Even without the wind directly lashing on her skin it was still cold, but so so much better than moments before.

Amorette

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.
Gryffen x Minette