"If Love himself weep, shall not lovers weep,
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."
Macabre was used to living alone.
She had traversed miles and miles completely by herself, attaching herself to any horse that crossed her path, before she stumbled upon The Lost Islands. After the Quarry had crumbled into the ocean and there was no signs left of Midas on Atlantis, she continued to wander alone. After Dogun, after Dexter and after Shiraz. She wound up on Atlantis again, where she suffered under the blazing sun alone for months in Paradise.
The Peak, however, was never a place she expected to feel so alone. Ever since Jetta's mother convinced her to seek out this domain, she'd treasured it as her safe harbor. Macabre had friends here. She had a purpose here. She had family here.
But what the Peak was then and and what it is now were two very different things.
As long as Jetta was here, Macabre wouldn't abandon the rocky terrain and mountain top. But she'd spent weeks wandering by her lonesome. It seemed that the solidarity of this place had grown to be too much for Lillith and her foal, who seemingly left without saying goodbye. It was difficult for Macabre to process that at first. Lillith and Lluvia were the only things she had left that connected her to Vodnik. But the big stallion had left too, and now whatever reminders she had of him and the Ridge would be forever only in her memories.
Macabre didn't want to bother Jetta with her loneliness. Jetta had taken the death of her mother harder than any other sibling, or at least, that was the perception Macabre came up with. The petite chestnut mare wanted nothing more than to baby her, to wrap her warmth around Jetta's massive body and tell her everything was going to be OK. She was heartbroken for her and the rest of Inka's children. But Jetta chose to be alone. And thus, Macabre was left alone again with her downtrodden thoughts.
She was grazing lazily in a small field with green blades that reached to her knees when she heard Jetta's faint call. She returned the mare's whinny with one of her own, Macabre's sharp and high pitched. The mare's dark marbeled eyes looked for Jetta's familiar frame in the distance. Macabre smiled at her sweetly when she finally spotted her, and watched her as she moved to meet her in the grass. Macabre chewed haphazardly on the delicate strands in her mouth, swallowed hard and waited. Macabre, too, felt nervous. She swished her thin tail quickly across her haunches. "Jetta." She finally spoke, breaking the awkward silence. "How are you?"
"Hear then how Love paid homeage to this lady;
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."
Macabre | 6 | Mare | Mustang X Morgan | 14.2 HH | flaxen chestnut | © Vinyl
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