Rivaini

Watching the sun rise and the sky blush a soft rosy pink, Rivaini contemplated the trials that today would bring. The peace she’d found with Faolain in the Ridge had always been fickle, and there was no shortage of hardships over the years. But listening to the soft music of the sea, she knew that this time was different. This time, the cause of this breach was not tied to some distant and unknown past; it was their own doing. This time, they stood against the world without the reassuring presence of her brother Iscariot, without the comforting, enduring courage of the mare Siobhan. And this time, the silver bay knew that their enemies would not rest until they’d destroyed everything that she loved.

Looking down at the curled-up figure of her daughter, the red woman knew that she had no choice— and that the lack of such freedom made the decision she faced harder, not easier.

"Selune," Rivaini murmured, pressing her muzzle into one of the white stars that marked the dark chocolate skin. The filly stirred, mumbling sleepily, but didn’t wake. Glancing across the grasping waves, her mother noticed that the sun had climbed high enough to peek over the horizon, and felt a sense of renewed urgency. Not because the danger that loomed was any more immediate now than it had been an hour ago, but because each hour that passed would only make it more difficult to let go. "Lune," she spoke more firmly, raking blunt teeth over the curve of the girl’s back and— when that failed to elicit a response— nipping one dark, pointed ear. "Come on, you lazy creature. Up."

After a moment of tousle-haired and bleary-eyed disorientation, Selune looked up and smiled at her mother. And Rivaini— Rivaini felt a familiar ache at the brightness that emanated from her daughter. At the way that the almost-black filly cast a glow on everyone and everything around her; the way that she could light up even the darkest of shadows. “M-m-morning, Mama,” the girl yawned. And then— shrugging off the veil of sleep as easily as the sun had shrugged off the grey shroud of twilight— her childish voice rushed on excitedly. “Are we going somewhere? Ooh, are you taking me to visit the birds with Vesper and Mama-Faolain?” Wriggling with excitement, Selune scampered towards the sea, and was up to her belly in the surf before her mother could even formulate a response.

"Selune, no— Selune, get back here," the tobiano mare hissed, herding the girl away from the beach and into the jungle when her words proved as ineffective as ever. Holding the sulking child close— her muscular neck arched over the small slender body— she began to speak slowly, hesitantly. "I know I promised that I’d take you to see Vesper. And we’ll go to her soon, love." The lie fell easily from her lips; far more easily than the choice she’d made. It seemed cruel to part the sisters, inseparable as they had always been— but both Rivaini and her beloved shadow had agreed that it was better. Safer. "But today I wanted to— to show you somewhere different. A new place full of new birds for you to visit." “Yay new birds! New birds, new-ew birds!” She didn’t actually know whether there were many birds where they were headed, but did it matter? How much could one more lie matter, when the time that they had left together was so brief?

Releasing the filly with a gesture that indicated she should stick close, Rivaini began to pick her way through the jungle, wondering whether Faolain would join them during this first leg of their journey. Whether she would come to say goodbye. Not that that silver bay could blame her if she didn’t; the black ‘Teke had already made her own sacrifice. And Rivaini... Rivaini had scarcely found the courage to face even this single one. Already she could feel her heart breaking into pieces, her chest aching with the emptiness where her daughter had once been. But this was the only way; she knew it was the only way. And if she had to tear her heart out to see this through, then she would.

Whatever else came, she was determined that Selune would not just survive the coming war, but escape it.

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