Mother told her strangers were not kind. Mother taught her to remain in shadows and to avoid any who grew curious or bold enough to push through the branches to seek their company. Mother taught Idelle many things and yet, when mother was sleeping, Idelle would sneak away. It was never too far, for Idelle had never been brave enough; she never stopped to speak with any strangers, but adopted her mother’s lessons and avoided them, often returning to her mother if any perked their ears her way for too long.
It was morning, deep within winter. The world was frozen; white dusted the grounds in a look of pristine purity that had yet to be disturbed. Mother was sleeping, but Idelle was not. With her head turned, Idelle watched mother with her working eye, though she often did not think hard on the fact that she only had one she could see from. The lanky filly, nearly a year old (just a few weeks away and she would be), began taking small steps, testing how deep mother was in her sleep. When mother did not stir, Idelle brushed through a small break of bushes, made her way ‘round a few trees, and looked back to see mother had yet to stir.
Idelle swung her head, plunging the sight of mother in darkness as the side of her body in which she could see her was now looked upon with a milky white/blue eye. She looked upon the world, most still trapped in slumber, and watched how the first light of sun hit freshly fallen snow and made it sparkle like crystals. She began to walk forward, her little hooves crunching against the flakes, the cold nipping at her winter coat and her breath a soft exhale of white.
She broke free of the wilderness and stepped onto the beach, just at the break of the tree line, pricking her ears forward to the rolling waves of the ocean. Idelle had watched many horses take into the water and swim through the waves to get to islands which loomed like shadows on the horizon. She did not know why and she never asked mother, but as she grew older she began to wonder where they were going and why. The waters of the ocean looked dangerous to Idelle, who’d never dared to step into them.
The sound of footsteps was soft, but loud enough that she heard it. Idelle’s muscles seized and her neck turned, gaze seeking out the figure of a stranger. She watched like a frightened deer, frozen where she stood. Yet he paid her no mind, perhaps did not even see her, moving to where he could look upon the water that she’d previously been watching. What now? Idelle considered her options, realizing she’d walked quite a distance away from mother and that she was in the open where the stranger could see her.
She elected to stay as she was, frozen in place and out in the open where she would be unable to miss.
idelle
demons born of past wrongs that hound and harrass him
one year old filly. black. half-blind. sandman x cam