Rivaini

The Ridge was quiet, but the heart of its red Guardian was not.

Rivaini left her son where he slept, the furrows of his face smoothed in a peaceful repose that was never present in his waking moments. It wasn’t easy to step away from the small dark figure. To follow the pull of her desire, even knowing that Çiçek remained to watch over him. To leave Hades, no longer certain that he would be there when she returned— not since the fateful night that she’d come so close to losing him. Exhaling a shaky breath, the silver bay yielded to the impulse to glance back, chest aching with love and longing and loss. Hades needed her less with each day that he aged, but she wished… She wished that she could tuck him into the warm cradle of her body one more time. She wished that she could hold him there until the fear and uncertainty fled from his ember-colored eyes.

She wished that she could heal the piece of him that had broken— that she could restore the bright, bold child he’d once been.

Treading softly through the shadows of the jungle, Rivaini followed the faint scent-trail left by her beloved. With each breath of it, she felt the fissures in her heart begin to knit back together— felt the force and wonder of her affection for the other mare as strongly as the first time. In the ever-changing world of the Ridge, their love was a comfortable anchor for the tobiano woman to cling to. Iscariot might have become as distant as the stars winking to life overhead, but her heart still fluttered every time that the ‘Teke was near. The children that they cared for might grow and leave them in time, but she would always have Faolain. And her little shadow would always have her. Always.

Stepping onto the beach with a new determination in her stride, the silver bay was drawn to her mate like the waves to the shore. Huffing softly to alert the slender black mare of her presence, Rivaini moved up beside her. Tracing the graceful arch of Faolain’s neck with her muzzle until it met the dip of her withers. Resting her chin in that gentle cradle, and feeling the corners of her lips curve into a smile. “Hello,” she greeted her companion simply, feeling the inadequacy of that single word. Feeling both unburdened and overwhelmed by the suffocating press of emotion that swelled within her.

As ever, she turned to the playful dance of words to ground herself.

“I’m hurt,” Rivaini murmured, the press of her lips providing a warm contradiction to these syllables. “All day I planned the romance of a sunset at your side— and you’ve started it without me.” Her nibbling kisses moved lower, tracing the ridge of the dark woman’s spine for a short distance before she pulled back— breathless, wanting. The pale rings of her irises all but swallowed by the dark pool of her pupils. “Of course, I could be convinced to forgive you— if you have a proposal for how else we might share this time together.” Chuckling throatily, the red mare stepped forward, curling herself around Faolain protectively; possessively.

Letting the swelling song of the sea fill the silence, and the desire that she felt fill every chamber of her heart.

mare / seven / silver bay tobiano / andalusian mix / 15.3hh