Desreal: Micah

She has not the power to part the thickets of bramble and thorn, and even if such an element had been swelling like the spring beauty through her kindly veins, perhaps Delilah might have resisted regardless. She chose not to venture along the clean, clear paths which normally would have guided her dancing steps between conversations; Delilah hid herself and her young son from those inviting eyes and warbling voices in the dark shadows of the forest surrounding Desreal. The long spear thorns and raking prickles gouged callously against her thinning spring coat and she did not notice. Casper was small and followed simply and directly behind her as though her gaunt body were a plough.

Delilah had lost track of the time- her world was a spinning mass of emotion and stiff confusion, and a part from any devotion for her child, the young mother could hardly keep a stable mind. “Quickly now.” She insisted, quickening the pace slightly to encourage him to catch up and obligingly, Casper’s long skinny black legs broke into a lanky trot. “Casper,” She began when she felt the swing of his tiny bony hips against her concave flank, Te…” But her ears began to quiver and she halted abruptly, lifting her lovely yet drawn face to test the scent laced air. Casper too heard the stranger’s slick, deep voice peeling through the air and trembling with sudden excitement fidgeted as he slid close against Delilah’s protective breast.

His voice was familiar as it called her name brightly, loud through the Glade’s overgrown forest and all at once Delilah felt small and discouraged. At fist, she could not place name or face to the gentle voice and then all at once she remembered. Spinning around, and almost knocking her colt to the ground, the bay mare turned to meet Micah who came springing enthusiastically through the trees after her. A smile cross her lips, but it was not so friendly like the day that she had insisted friendship between them, and immediately she was consumed by guilt.

“Micah.” She whispered, stepping like a fragile feather to nuzzle affectionately against his steamy warm neck. The stallion’s scent had matured, woody and earthen and she knew with dismay that his element would repel her. Never the less, Delilah quashed the urge to appease the sickening pressure of Earth and stepped still closer so that she could rub the ridge of her bony cheek against him. She realised now that she missed him enormously. “I have missed you.” She continued but there was no taste of anything greater than what they had built together long ago in her shallow, quivering voice. Perhaps she just needed someone to hold her again, someone from her past and that knew her not enough to realise how her heart wept.

Casper, still standing across re-balanced and splayed legs watched with concern as his mother fell into such an embrace. He did not speak though, simply staring with wide, uncertain eyes.

Delilah
unranked | lightning III + aurora australis | andarin