all the stars are closer; leliana and prayer

[prayer]

There is a long moment of perfect stillness. The child lies there in stunned silence. The eyes open first and she blinks into the murky darkness. And then a great heaving breath that fills her baby lungs until she thinks they might burst. How strange to be made of elastic, she thinks. How strange to be anything at all. This place is hard and bright and cold and she wants to go back to the place she came from. She wants to listen to the sweet sound of her mother’s voice from someplace underwater. She wants to curl these limbs tightly under her and feel that same sweet embrace. Somewhere in the fray a bird begins to call and her ears swivel and she lifts her head – so heavy now that she is responsible for the weight of it. She blinks in the direction of the song but sees nothing beyond the light that puckers on the horizon. There, her mother’s voice. But it sounds different now, in this place, and she swings that great, heavy head around and peers up at the figure looming above her. Her mother. She strains to be nearer to her, stretches that great, long neck and tries to catch her – but she lingers just out of reach. The child kicks her legs out in front of her and struggles to stand before those matchstick limbs give out from beneath her as another figure appears, startles her. She lands in a heap, heaving lungs and splayed limbs. And then she is standing without knowing how she’s done it. She sways on her feet and takes one shaky step toward her mother and then another and another until she can nudge her greedy mouth beneath her and drink. p r a y e r