learning from what sad cause he pours his tears? Love hears his ladies crying their distress, showing forth bitter sorrow through their eyes because villainous Death has worked its cruel destructive art upon a gentle heart, and laid waste all that earth can find to praise in a gracious lady, save her chastity." While the battle droned on in the distance, Macabre was reminded of the Reaper. He had been quiet lately, as he does sometimes, but it was only a matter of time until he bubbled to the surface again. Perhaps this was the beginning of the next rift in her life. The Reaper often drug down those closest to her in his quest to torture her before the grand ending he had planned. He took Shiraz from her. He punished Dogun and even Dexter. She woke up from an unconscious state on the shoreline of the commons with no recollection how she got there. It's what stripped her of her status in the Peak and led her to Vaaco and ultimately here. Now Ailill was the target. Dark lobes flicked forward and back as the sea breeze carried the scent of the young stallion along with it. She cocked her petite cranium to one side, her marbled eyes looking into the dark jungle behind her just as the frames of two equally opposite horses came into view. Her heart sank as Ailill strolled up next to her. She could smell the sweat, grime and blood on him even if she couldn't see all of it under the night's sky. She whickered gently to him, concern and compassion etched in her tone. He told her what she already new, but Macabre was surprisingly emotional upon hearing him deliver the message. She looked away from both them, her dark gaze facing the sea once more before inhaling deeply. When Vodnik barked his orders, she adverted her gaze to the ground, her head held low but her ears firmly pinned against her skull. There was so much she wanted to say to Ailill. She owed him everything. But her lips remained shut. Eventually the mare gathered the strength to reach her muzzle to Ailill's shoulder. She touched him gently, inhaling and exhaling in one long moment before pulling away and looking him in the eye. "Stay brilliant, my friend." Only then did the slight chestnut mare move toward the towering mass of her new leader. She squinted in the night to assess the damage to his own body. She says nothing to him, but carries on at a quick walk past him and toward where Paradise ends and the Ridge begins. I saw him weeping there in human form, observing the stilled image of her grace; and more than once he raised his eyes toward Heaven, where that sweet soul already had its home, which once, on earth, had worn enchanting flesh." |