"You can't make me stay!" The words flew from Rosalie's throat in an undignified scream, ears pinned tight to her skull and dark lips drawn back into a venomous snarl. There was something unhinged in her wolfish gaze, orange eyes ablaze in the rising daylight as she defiantly faced down her dam, who'd expertly intercepted her nth attempt to escape to the Commons. Marceline had long ago stopped being surprised at her daughter's outbursts and attempts to get away, but something about it felt different this time. There was more conviction behind Rosalie's words. The fire behind her eyes burned brighter than Marceline had ever seen before.
"I'm so sick of being stuck on this stupid mountain! I'm sick of being told what to do, and I'm sick of not knowing the rest of my family!" Rosalie loved Savaşçı, there was no doubt about that, but she was keenly aware that she had other siblings out there that she had been denied the opportunity to get to know. Why, she never was able to figure out. Her mother rarely talked about her other children, and it wasn't as if Rosalie had been able to go find them. Marceline had never let her leave the Peak, always keeping one hawkish eye on her at all times. Even when Rosalie thought Marceline's attention was elsewhere, it was as if she had some sixth sense that told her just when Rosalie was thinking of making a getaway.
Rosalie stomped forward and shoved her face into her mother's, where an expression of stern disapproval sat. But behind it there was a flicker of shock. "I'm sick of you. And I won't let you keep me chained here any longer." With a harsh snort into Marceline's face and a sharp crack of her tail, the young mare turned and galloped away from her childhood home. She felt no great sense of loss as the mountain she'd grown up on shrunk into the horizon.
The steady rhythm of Rosalie's gait did not slow until she breached the forested border of the Commons. She set herself upon the first trail she saw, uncaring as to where it might take her - so long as it didn't bring her back to that gods forsaken Peak. Rosalie walked for some time, admiring the world through the lens of freedom for the first time. There was a beauty in the way the sunlight dappled the trail ahead of her, in how the songbirds sang so sweetly in the canopy above, of the smell of fresh sweet grass and flowers on the morning breeze.
But soon her wistful admiration came to a screeching halt when she heard the crackling of weather-worn branches beneath hooves and the rustle of parting foliage. Rosalie stopped in her tracks, one delicate foreleg raised mid-step. Dark ears swiveled around to catch the noise again, and there was no mistaking the steady thump of hooves against packed earth, practically upon her now.
"If you've come to try to bring me back- oh." Rosalie spun around and then stopped short. To her surprise - and relief - the horse behind her was not Marceline. "You're not- nevermind. I thought you were someone else. You know, you really shouldn't sneak up on others like that." The young mare eyed the stranger in front of her with mild suspicion before moving to turn around and continue her way down the trail. "Anyway, bye." |