Falls

Lilija drew a breath as her eyes filled with the familiar, yet unfamiliar sight laid before her. An ache of nostalgia hit her heart and she felt the pain crawl up her throat, reaching to sting her eyes as though encouraging tears. They stayed dry, but for a moment there was the heaviness of lonely sorrows there, thinking the last time she’d been here she’d likely been with her mother.

She wasn’t sure that she would ever see her mother again.

There was a rumbling call up ahead, just when she was beginning to wonder if she should stay away from Tinuvel for too long. Lilija lifted her mostly-white, black-freckled face and pointed her ears forward, peering through the autumn browns and greys as a stallion emerged. His brown and white coat had been collecting mist from the falls he was near and was now damp.

For some reason it made Lilija smile.

She answered his call with a softly pitched whinny and kept her smile as he drew near. “Yes,” she agreed, nodding and glancing around them, “it is beautiful.” A slight pause of silence and she offered the explanation, “I haven’t seen them since I was a foal.”

Were they familiar to him? An old friend he knew so well, they shared secrets?

“I’m Lilija.” She said her name only because she wanted to know his.

~ ♥ ~