The Lost Islands
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Meadow

Force-claiming is not allowed here. This is a peaceful, neutral area meant for socialising.

there's something tragic about you
Posted on November 4, 2020 at 09:20:40 AM by Sabriel


SABRIEL

She wandered for a long time without knowing where her hooves carried her.

Torn into pieces by the grief that she felt, she drifted like a tattered leaf borne by the wind. And though Sabriel covered much of Tinuvel in her travels, her pale eyes saw little of it. Over her vision was imposed the sight of the dark boy who had never stirred outside of her body, who had never loved - or known love. She had not even loved him when he was still inside her; she hadn’t loved him until it was too late.

It was this truth that broke the silver black woman more than anything. That kept her bowed beneath the weight of her own grief as a brief but bright summer came to life around her. But awareness beyond the overwhelming burden of her emotions did come back to her slowly, and Sabriel began to process more of what she saw. She knew, for example, that she was not in the Cove; the mountains were to the west of her, painting a dark jagged silhouette against the fiery canvas of the sky. Sunset; it was sunset. Night was coming, and there was no shelter visible anywhere near - nowhere that she might take refuge from the cold and darkness that seemed to reflect how she felt within.

In the distance, she could see a small band of horses, and a short stocky figure watching them from atop a bluff. But the dark mare turned away from them, preferring isolation to the company of strangers who did not - could not - understand what she had suffered. Of the creatures who lived and breathed on this earth, there were only two who could fathom the depth of her pain. Solomon had grieved for the life of their child as well, and in the wake of the sorrow that they’d shared her hatred for him had been buried in ash. More than once she’d dug through the cold pile in her mind, yearning for a coal from which to stoke a new flame - even spite was better than sorrow. But there was none left. Of course, even this could not sway Sabriel enough to turn her back in the direction she had come. So thoroughly shattered was her broken heart that she could not imagine reconciliation. Could not imagine any words or actions that might make it whole again. And without a heart, whatever she felt for the champagne stallion now was inconsequential.

Rejecting both present and future, the sieve of her mind began to run backward. She remembered her swim to Tinuvel. The golden stallion, and their fateful encounter. She remembered heading south along the Crossing out of fear of being discovered by Solomon, and willed her past-self to turn around. To go back the way she had come, to walk back to the Falls and the warm embrace of-

Bondurant.

The slender black mare paused abruptly, her hooves sinking into the mixture of sand and rock that comprised the Bay’s shoreline. Her gaze turned southward, seeing the Crossing even though it was too far to be visible to the eye. Seeing the spotted stallion who had joined her in her fear and despair, and longing to feel as she had that night. Comforted, cared for. Protected. Without giving them the conscious decision, Sabriel’s limbs carried her forward into the sea, and began to stroke through the water rhythmically.

Again she fled - only this time, it was herself she sought to escape.

Only emptiness greeted her beneath the shelf of rock that they’d once shared, however. And the same emptiness stared back at her from the chilly pool at the Falls’ base. If Bondurant still resided on the Crossing, then he had abandoned this place - perhaps haunted by the very same memories as she. Without anything to hold her to this place, Sabriel let herself be borne away again, subconsciously retracing the steps she’d taken in the days that had led up to the attack… and the death of her son. She headed south, veering occasionally west or east - not following a straight line, but a curved path visible only in her own mind.

Around her, the night was almost stifling in its silence - a burden as heavy as that which she carried with her in her heart. But as with all things, the darkness inevitably came to an end. It lightened in small degrees, imperceptible at first - black became navy, then grey, before finally fading to pink and lavender, pale orange and light blue. And as the sky shifted, so did the landscape around her. Trees thinned, grass grew tall enough to reach her knees. The meadow unfolded before her, golden and resplendent - but as with the sunrise, Sabriel could appreciate none of its beauty.

Instead, she found her eyes drawn to a lone figure, felt the steady beat of her heart quicken to a thunder. She would have known him even in darkness, just from the silhouette of his body. From the memory of his scent, and the memory of his warmth. Then the breeze shifted directions, carrying her own perfume to the spotted creature - carrying the sound of her joyful-and-yet-heartbroken cry as Sabriel willed her limbs to move faster, faster. Racing to his side as if - by arriving fast enough - she could will the mirage before her into reality.

"Bondurant?"

4 | mare | mixed | silver black somatic brindle | 16.1hh


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