aurora -----
by covet out of raya
Aurora won’t admit it out loud, but she feels a little abandoned. When she had offered to show Bob and Talya the way to the Forest, there had been an idea for Aurora and Talya to explore once they arrived. It had been Talya’s idea, so that Aurora would have an easier time navigating the twisting paths through the trees. The snag had come when they’d arrived and Talya had immediately become obsessed with Persephone.
Aurora doesn’t blame Persephone at all; the mare is a born leader, someone who shows respect and so is easy to respect in return. Talya is young and had grown up without a mother, and it would have been foolish of the girl to use her new friend as a role model. They are too close in age and Aurora can’t see the world the way that Talya does. It wouldn’t do for Aurora to lead Talya in an inadvisable direction…Bob for one would likely never forgive her if she got his daughter into trouble.
Now at the height of summer, the gold mare thinks it would be the perfect time to get on with exploring, as she’s only been wandering around a tiny portion of the vast territory, if only her young bubbly friend would turn up. She doesn’t remember having seen Talya since before winter, so that would mean that the filly probably has a lot of stories about what she and Persephone had been up to. Aurora can almost already hear Talya’s excited chattering about how great her hero is.
She has been walking while lost in thought and hasn’t noticed the sky clouding over, bringing the promise of an afternoon thunderstorm. She doesn’t notice anything amiss until she does the one thing she’d been careful to avoid since arriving in the Forest – she runs right into a tree, the rough bark scraping her nose so much that a startled squeal erupts, made louder by the sudden oppressive turn in the weather.
Her ears, made stronger from having to compensate for her eyes, twitch at the low rumble of thunder in the distance, and only then does she take stock of her situation. She can still see, though not nearly as well as she’s comfortable with, and she’s unknowingly veered into an uncharted part of her home. She’s successful for the most part in quelling her panic, though her heart is racing and has migrated from her chest to her throat.
Even after all this time since her mother had told her it was time to learn to live on her own, Aurora still feels the urge to call for her parents in a time of crisis. She thinks of Bob, so kind that he would surely escort her back to familiar ground and see her hunkered down through the storm. More than that, she thinks of Talya, her would-be guide. The filly’s approach would likely be to keep Aurora’s mind off the storm with conversation, and really, that’s what the mare feels that she needs right now.
four - palomino roan - mixed - 15.2hh - the forest |