09-14-2021, 05:21 PM
Cheri kept her eyes tightly shut. If she opened them she feared the worst: that Sorren would be cold and stiff. Lifeless. It was easier to see nothing at all and believe he was still breathing, that the ache in her muscles and the sweat covering them both meant her out-of-body experience had worked. She breathed in and exhaled slowly, waiting until that first twitch of movement signaled her suspicions to be true. And then she carefully opened her eyes.
At first she noticed the juxtaposition of their bodies tangled together. When Cheri had originally curled herself over the manticore it was to cradle him, not caress him, but somewhere in the mix of his changing animal forms that happened anyway. One of her forelegs was pulled up, allowing a leg of his own to snake underneath it, while the other was folded beside her but firmly pressed into the curve of his stone-colored belly. The one wing not supporting her was draped tenderly over the rest of him, a curtain made entirely of green feathers - each one acutely aware of his natural outline.
A while ago he’d said her name so softly that Cheri wasn’t sure he’d said it aloud at all. It could’ve been the other version of him, calling out to her from across the void. But looking at him now she could plainly see he was whole again, animated by the flame of life. To quell her deeper concerns the mare stretched out her dark nose and used it to trace the white markings on his face, smiling gently at the sound and feeling of his voice vibrating up through the skin. For the first time in weeks she felt exhausted.
All the effort of keeping him alive left her drained, but pleased. “You tried killing yourself and the thing you’re most worried about afterward is me, seeing you turn into a skeleton at night?” She laughed quietly, adding tenderness to chase away his shadowy concerns. “If I’d shocked you harder do you think I could’ve knocked some sense into you?”
She was joking of course. What happened here tonight was a one-off, hopefully not repeated for a long time. God help the stallion if he even considered it.
“Why?” Cheri parroted back at him, not because she didn’t understand. The tone of her voice implied skepticism. She thought for a second, the sound of their laboured breathing filling up the spaces in between, and then answered him truthfully. “You drew it out of me.” A rocky start. “There are … things I don’t really understand or have complete control over. Sometimes, when someone I lo-” she stopped, corrected herself, “When the ones I care about need help, my power reacts without my control.”
The pegasus breathed a heavy sigh. “I didn’t want to lose you, Sorren. The memory I have of our day is still so vivid for me, too real to let go of.” Her head lowered, burying itself carefully into the merle-dappled curve of his neck. “So please, I’m begging you. Please stay.”
At first she noticed the juxtaposition of their bodies tangled together. When Cheri had originally curled herself over the manticore it was to cradle him, not caress him, but somewhere in the mix of his changing animal forms that happened anyway. One of her forelegs was pulled up, allowing a leg of his own to snake underneath it, while the other was folded beside her but firmly pressed into the curve of his stone-colored belly. The one wing not supporting her was draped tenderly over the rest of him, a curtain made entirely of green feathers - each one acutely aware of his natural outline.
A while ago he’d said her name so softly that Cheri wasn’t sure he’d said it aloud at all. It could’ve been the other version of him, calling out to her from across the void. But looking at him now she could plainly see he was whole again, animated by the flame of life. To quell her deeper concerns the mare stretched out her dark nose and used it to trace the white markings on his face, smiling gently at the sound and feeling of his voice vibrating up through the skin. For the first time in weeks she felt exhausted.
All the effort of keeping him alive left her drained, but pleased. “You tried killing yourself and the thing you’re most worried about afterward is me, seeing you turn into a skeleton at night?” She laughed quietly, adding tenderness to chase away his shadowy concerns. “If I’d shocked you harder do you think I could’ve knocked some sense into you?”
She was joking of course. What happened here tonight was a one-off, hopefully not repeated for a long time. God help the stallion if he even considered it.
“Why?” Cheri parroted back at him, not because she didn’t understand. The tone of her voice implied skepticism. She thought for a second, the sound of their laboured breathing filling up the spaces in between, and then answered him truthfully. “You drew it out of me.” A rocky start. “There are … things I don’t really understand or have complete control over. Sometimes, when someone I lo-” she stopped, corrected herself, “When the ones I care about need help, my power reacts without my control.”
The pegasus breathed a heavy sigh. “I didn’t want to lose you, Sorren. The memory I have of our day is still so vivid for me, too real to let go of.” Her head lowered, burying itself carefully into the merle-dappled curve of his neck. “So please, I’m begging you. Please stay.”
@sorren