that river will flow on even after we’re all long gone Posted on August 16, 2023 at 01:30:11 AM by vernonia
Life had become terribly exciting for a moment, then everything seemed to somewhat settle once more. As frightening as it had been when her father vanished, a part of Vernonia had felt somewhat of a thrill when faced with the anxietal unknown. The truth was that for the most part, the young fewspot mare had lived a rather comfortable and sheltered life. She had been content with it, not knowing she should want for anything else, and then the world she’d known had fallen to pieces. Her father reappeared after a season and a half of absence, having been injured by a bear and trapped in a ravine. He gathered the family who had stayed in the Prairie, hopefully awaiting his return, and they’d gone to stay in the Savanna. The injury he had suffered had been shocking enough, but what the entire situation really did was show Vernonia that her father was not the invincible hero she’d seen him as since she was a little girl. Life could change at any moment for the worst or for the better; the sibling she was closest to, Sidra, had chanced fate to visit the Forest last spring and was now happily in love and content as ever. You just… never knew.
At winter's arrival her father took back the Prairie without a fight needed, and after just a season in the Savanna the herd had shuffled their way back up Luthien and settled back home. Just like that, life was supposed to go back to normal.
But a restlessness had been birthed within Vernonia’s chest. It stirred her awake at night and kept her from sleep, eyes staring tiredly at the night sky and thinking existential questions too large for her to ever figure out. Things couldn’t just go back to normal for her, not after everything she’d just experienced. It was time for her to throw herself into the unknown, or risk melting back into the wispy, yellow prairie grasses until she disappeared even to herself.
That was why she had come to the Falls alone. Maybe she would only spend the day here, then travel back to the Prairie with that restlessness unanswered. Maybe she would have to come back week by week until fate finally showed the hand it had for her. Or maybe, just maybe, Vernonia would find something today, on her very first voluntary trip away.
With her lean face lifted high, Vernonia perked her black-lined, gold ears, and peered curiously at her surroundings. There were tiny falls among the winding river through the Prairie, but nothing as massive or impressive as the namesake for this gathering area. Vernonia tilted her head back, large, dark eyes watching the mist fly off the tumbling water and float off into the sky. It heightened the chill of the already cool, early winter grounds. She shivered, dropping her gaze level, and glanced away from the falls and toward the surrounding area, curious about who she might see gathered.
It was a dark stallion with a red mane that caught her attention almost immediately. Vernonia felt herself shiver again, though this time it rippled up through her and deep in her belly. It wasn’t because of the cold. That same feeling of frightened excitement she’d felt when her world had been turned upside down a few seasons ago gripped her again. She exhaled a shaky breath and then took one step forward, toward him, and then another, and another, until she’d carefully approached him, ears perked forward, and stood just a small distance away. A stretch of each of their necks could have their noses touch, but Vernonia did not extend her muzzle for a greeting just yet. She was too caught in watching him before she nervously said, “Hi, I’m Vernonia,” and stretched her pale, gold-freckled neck out, dark nostrils flaring and she drank in his heady, masculine smell.