BLURRY EYED AND TONGUE-TIED
trippin' over landmines
Sinopa came with the sunrise, but there was a spark in her dark eyes that suggested she was ready to claim, boldly and beautifully; ‘no, the sunrise came with me, silly.’ Her hooves sank into the sand as she pulled herself ashore, and for a moment she stood in the surf, gaping at the view. She couldn’t claim to have seen the world in all its majesty, but what she had seen had been more than enough for her. And breathtaking as the beach was, with the mountains rising like champions just beyond, it was a pale figure not too far from where the solitary bay mare stood that transfixed her.
Several evenings ago, when she and her sister had first laid eyes upon Asche of the Ridge, Sinopa had grown wary, felt shaken to her bones. She had feared that the capped stallion had somehow bewitched her mighty and mysterious sister. That is why I came… Isn’t that what Tolinka had said? Sinopa hadn’t understood then. But, she thought she was starting to… She stayed, still and silent, so unlike herself, just breathing in the heavy sea air. And, hidden inside, an insecurity so deeply buried that even Tolinka hadn’t glimpsed it in all their wanderings together, it grew deeper still. Fear not though, for the canyons in her heart weren’t without a flicker of hope.
“Hey there, mister!” she called, her voice just loud enough to be heard over the soft rush of water on sand. And finally, she found the courage to move towards him, though her steps were heavy, because she worried about her sister. Perhaps she was here already? Sinopa had returned to the falls, to the little glade she and Tolinka had found for themselves, and then to the little pool where the two had gone their separate ways, but the black and white mare hadn’t shown. Selfishness, and perhaps a kind of self-preservation, overwhelmed her concern for her sister the moment she made it to the stallions side, for Tolinka’s name did not rise to her tongue.
“You… Haven’t been waiting at the foot of your mountains for me, have you?” the bay mare said, a subtle purr to her words, and a glint in her wide, dark eyes. She moved close, her muzzle reaching for his, her body turning so that she stood by his side, facing out to sea. “Did you miss me, Asche?” And despite the lack of a smile, there was laughter in her tone. Coy as ever, she was. “Because it would be a lie to say that I didn’t miss you.” Truth be told, that wasn’t completely honest. She had missed Tolinka, definitely, and Asche had been fun to converse with… But she longed for whatever it was this not-so-stranger seemed to have with Tolinka. A bond, some kind of importance? Security? And oh, how she wanted to be completely honest with him, with them both. But she knew that she wasn’t strong the way Toli was. She wasn’t strong enough to bare her brokenness.
Sinopa believed though. She believed that, seeing as he had fixed something in Tolinka, maybe he could fix her too.
s i n o p a
gettin' lost in your mind
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