Beneath the ever-expanding branches of a green-leafed oak, the mare and her red painted filly stood, breaks of sunlight seeming to scatter patterns over their coloured skin. Sometimes, as leaves shifted in the early morning winds, the patterns moved rhythmically and spontaneously, but this never lasted long; the wind would stop bellowing, and then the leaves would almost freeze in place, as if to finally feel the icy fingers of autumn air.
Sirena leaned gently into the warmth of her mother's side, dark eyes watching stray leaves dance to a silent rhythm before they landed on the cold, hard ground. ”Sirena,” Georgiana said, ”are you awake, darling?” gingerly turning to rub her pink nose on the babe's fluffy neck. Breathing in the fresh morning air, the filly tried to stay perfectly still, pretending to sleep. Instead, though, she stared thoughtfully into one of her mother's sightless eyes as she pulled away from her neck, the left side of her face angled just in front of the filly's, red ears flicking as they listened to the almost inaudible sound of the child's breathing. The skin on the suspicious mare's nose twitched as the hot breath of her daughter touched it, before she seemed to internally shrug and slowly turn to face forward once more. She's still asleep, the mare assumed to herself as a heavy sigh left her lips, and her breath clouded like fog before her.
Resting her dainty head against her mother's shoulder, the filly now observed the horizon. The sun already appeared fully in the sky, but the clouds darkened her surroundings, even blocking out the sun as they passed it by, at times making their resting spot bitterly cold. The girl's mind soon wandered as she did this, and she thought mostly of her dam; it has taken her some time to fully understand what the mare meant when she said that she was 'blind', and even though she explained it in its simplest terms on numerous occasion, it never completely processed in the filly's mind that her mamma could not actually see what she could see, but slowly, even at her young age, the girl has come to understand in her own way. Georgiana often asks her, too, what the sunrise looks like on a particular day, or if there are any stars in the sky at nighttime. She would not ask these things if she could see them, the filly has also come to understand.
She felt sad for her mother because of this, and she even expressed this to her once, but Georgiana told her it was something called 'pity' and she should try not to feel this for her, and instead come to accept the blindness as something that cannot be helped and, instead, be grateful that she even has a mother at all. She seemed a bit angry with Sirena when she said this, but the filly didn't get upset, she simply took in what she was told, and tried her best to understand yet another strange word. It was all she could do.
As the red and white filly thought of her mother, her mother thought of her. Georgiana also thought of others she cared about; her small herd, that only seemed so large. Isobel and Braylen, they have become such an important part of the mare's world; she aches with every fibre of her being to be with them again. Her venture to the Falls on a lonely, desperate day, a day when she could not find anyone and desperately wanted to see Barylen again, turned into the day that she laboured for the birth of her first living child. A strong, strong child that found it's first few minutes of life so easy that Georgiana simply could not believe it. The filly was very independent when she stood on her feet, and then when she found her mother's teat, all on her own. It made the mare wonder if perhaps the filly's grandma had something to do with that, being a Peak mare and all, and it made the new mother smile with pride.
The pair merely stood beneath the oak, in a relatively secluded clearing, finding comfort in each others presence and as they breathed the same air. So natural and so right, but so lonely. By now Georgiana had a deep and festering fear that Braylen had returned to the Peak only to find she was not there and left with Isobel and her child to their new home, wherever that may be. Or worse; he had not returned at all. She would at least return to Skylar, but she fears not being able to watch over her child as she climbs the Peak would be far too dangerous, and she would never endanger Sirena's life.
She will not let another die.
Georgiana&Sirena
AND UNDER THE STARS |