In the brightness of day, Maziel could see light, but only that. There were faint shadows of ambiguous shapes, enough to help her avoid smacking herself into a tree or walking over a cliff, but as the years progressed their edges grew fainter and harder to interpret. Luckily for Maziel, living in the Bay helped matters tremendously, even as her already poor eyesight grew even worse. Every path was known by memory and it’d taken her little time at all to learn how the land had reshaped itself through the years of her absence.
She had known it was a mistake to leave the Bay and to stay away from it, but her heart had been broken for Mariael and because of Mariael. She hadn’t processed her grief enough to fully realize what she was missing while being away from the Bay. But now she was here, and when Mariael had tried to coerce her to leave, she had found it in herself to have a voice and speak on her behalf for the first time in her life. Too, the relationship that’d fostered between herself and Fell only increased her happiness at having made the decision to stay. Maziel had always been certain her heart would only ever be bound to Paradiso, but she was pleasantly surprised to see not only had she had a second chance at living in the Bay, but of love, too. When she had thought she would never be able to conceive a child she had not one, but two daughters. She doubted she would be blessed again given her climbing years, but she was happy enough with what she had.
Good afternoon, Maziel. A soft voice drifted with a friendly tenor from near her side. It is just me. Maziel’s golden-brown ear flicked, pointing toward the familiar voice. A smile immediately softened across her lips as she somewhat turned her cheek toward the mare. “Hello, Mṛgaśira,” Maziel greeted, voice ever-soft. She blew a soft breath of spring meadow air and inhaled briefly after, noting the scent of the Bay lead’s son was not as present as hers was. Her smile deepened a little before she said, “It’s bittersweet as the children grow up, isn’t it?” She asked. “I am so proud of the mares my daughters are growing into, but I do miss when they were curious babes stuck to my hip, too afraid to walk even a few feet from me.”
|
