Common

One breath, two…. Each was forced in and out with such difficulty. The coal black mare could hear it scraping through her lungs and the flutter of her nostrils from the force. Still, she continued to fight, though she wasn’t sure why. What was there to wake up for? There was no face she wanted to see, no warmth she wanted to find. The mare was tired; so very tired. Somehow, she managed to open her eyes, the bright sun overhead filling her vision with only a few dapples from a nearby tree. The branch waved in the gentle breeze above, the leaves dancing merrily despite the impending death that came with the seasons change. Maybe she could be like the leaves? Changing into something beautiful and serene before she let go?

With a soft moan she couldn’t help escaping her salt whitened black lips, the mare attempted to rise from the waves that lapped around her along the shore’s waterline. She managed to get to her knees, but before she could fully hoist herself up, motivation and strength both fled her. With a dull thud, the black mare once again laid sprawled in the sand and water. Her eyes were even harder to hold open, and her body; her poor abused body, would not rise. What once was beautiful mane that hung down to her shoulder in lush silken locks, now stuck up like ragged spikes from her neck. Her tail was no better; only a few strands left long enough to even reach her hip. Old scars, new scars and even open wounds littered her otherwise markingless body. Once as black as a crow’s feather with a healthy sheen that nearly seemed blue, the mare’s body was nearly a dull grey. Like a slate rock that had been battered and beaten until its color was dull and lifeless. That was how the mare felt, and that was how she looked.

Crow, as she had once carried the name proudly, closed her eyes then. The exhaustion that filled her smothering her now. Perhaps when she woke, it would be more bearable. Perhaps she would not wake at all?

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