Halcyon
OOC: TW for mention of suicidal ideation
The sound of an unfamiliar voice beside her made the pinto mare flinch so hard that she smacked into a tree on her opposite side and ended up shuffling in place trying to keep her balance. She turned her green gaze toward the stranger and found nothing familiar in the face that stared back at her, which only made her more uneasy. She never encountered strangers in her dreams, especially not young children she had not birthed.
You could go. The voice said, and for one heart-stopping moment, Halcyon considered it. She could go. Go right into the ocean and follow that appartition until the dream faded from her eyes and she fell beneath the waves herself. She could, but that had always been the final step she had been too afraid to take.
The stranger speaks of a friend, and of them going home together. At first, this makes no sense to Halcyon. She knows neither this mare nor her 'friend,' nor why Fritjof would go to see them unless they were both at the bottom of the ocean. Home could be the Shore, of course, but the Shore had not felt like home in a very, very long time for her, having been abandoned, and tortured, and abandoned in it again. It dawns on her that this might be an apparition, come to speak to her. Like a guardian angel, or more likely a gentle reaper come to guide her to the afterlife. That would explain why they were in the dream, and how they seemed to know everything about her despite her never having issued Fritjof's name to anyone in the Forest.
No one is keeping you here, Miss Halcyon. That much was true. She had formed no bonds to speak of with the residents of the Forest, nor did she feel much obligation to Voyager now that it was clear he did not care for her. She still did not understand the point of claiming a mare you wanted no connection with, but to leave again meant risking the likes of Psychedelic or Ironclad all over again. If your heart guides you towards him, why not follow?
And why should she not? There might come a day when Hirka might need her, but the odds of them reuniting seemed impossible. She had no idea where her wayward daughter had ended up, and could only hope that she had made better choices in her life than Halcyon had. Holding out for the possibility that her daughter would need her seemed foolish now, in the wake of the apparition's words.
Why not follow him to a watery grave?
Blood pounded in her ears, drowning out the sound of all else as she wrestled with the idea, with the finality of it. There would be no one to miss her when she was gone anyway, so why not take that final step?
The little dun is halfway through her speech when her words begin to register for Halcyon again. He isn't the kind to woo someone after he met me mum. What? Hal's brow furrowed and she turned toward the girl, not at all following what she was talking about. Was she talking about Voyager? And why? Like an egg cracked over her head, cold trickled down Halcyon's body as the realization hit that she was not dreaming after all. At least not now, and that she was standing next to someone she did not know, struggling to maintain her grasp on reality.
"What are you talking about?" She murmured, her voice thick with embarrassment and confusion. "Who are you?"