Stop shaking. You have to stop, he can smell it. She tries to make the trembling in her gold body stop, and with every second that she’s unsuccessful, her brain repeats the words louder until she’s mentally screaming at herself, STOP SHAKING!
But she can’t do it. With every movement he makes, her cloudy eyes stray to the bunching of his muscles, knowing how much power he has. In her current condition, he’d only need a fraction of that power to do her serious harm. The constant quaking of her muscles has already worn her out, given that she’d used most of her energy on the swim over here.
Her heart thuds hollowly, hating that she hates him. She hates the situation he’d put her in, hates the fear he’d instilled in her, forcing her to look over her shoulder every day to make sure he wasn’t coming back for her. The only good thing to come out of this whole wretched experience is her child.
Said offspring bashes her in the ribs again and she can’t help the soft whimper that breaks through her already parted lips. It can’t be much longer that she has to put up with this, she hopes. She’d barely been managing the physical pain before this emotional stress had been dumped on her. She still feels a burning urge to cry, as well as a near-desperate want to get back to the Forest.
It’s an interesting combination of sensations, her quivering skin twitching at every spot his muzzle grazes. She’s so tense that the feeling of her shaking, locked muscles reminds of her shivering in the middle of a blizzard. He’s either mocking her or toying with her, and she’s still not entirely convinced that he isn’t about to kill her.
His words catch her by surprise and she jerks her head back to look at him, trying to ignore how close his teeth had been to her throat.
”No she isn’t, and I would never do that,” she manages in a whisper, ”I found her by herself not long after-“ She cuts herself off, not wanting to voice aloud what he’d done to her. Shaking her head slightly, she continues, ”I never asked her what happened, but I wanted to keep an eye on her so I stayed with her for a while. It was nice, just the two of us hanging out like old times.”
Her lips twist into a fond smile (what a foreign feeling) as she remembers those many days, how she'd enjoyed herself despite the entire period being filled with her silent anxiety. Aurora hadn’t known that the two of them would end up being alone for so long, unaware that the stallion she’d known as Bob wouldn’t be returning.
Her eyes cut back to the painted stallion, doubting that keeping him waiting is a good idea. ”She doesn’t know about my…situation. I - when I realized, before it was too obvious, I headed off on my own. I didn’t want to give her the chance to ask questions that I couldn’t answer and she wouldn’t want the answers to.”
She's not sure if she's confusing his anger toward her with some kind of anger related to Talya (had whatever upset him about his daughter that horrible day not been resolved?), but she hopes this will pacify him at least a bit, enough that perhaps she could slink back home. The urge is almost unbearable. |