until the lion learns how to write

She knew the fear was irrational, but that didn't stop it from swallowing her entire mind in those first few moments of her arrival. Did not stop it from feeling real.

Lakota had spent the majority of her life wandering the isles alone, but she had never truly felt alone until now. She had always had someone or something to go back home to. Family that loved her, somewhere. But now everyone was gone. Only she was left and the thought of that terrified her.

As soon as Bacardi came into view - understandably worried given the tone in which she'd called for him - reality crashed down around her shoulders like a bucket of cold water, and she was left gasping as she tried to reorient herself. Tears pricked at her eyes but she refused to let them fall, even as she began to shake with relief, sucking in breath after breath without saying anything at first.

She barely knew him. Had little reason to think he'd care about her life or what was going on in it, and yet she clung to the sight of him as if he were the only thing that could save her from drowning. "Nothing... everything." The tears burned hotter and she dragged in a heavy breath and swallowed hard, trying to force the feeling to relent. The last thing she needed to do was cry in front of him. Mares were not supposed to cry in front of stallions unless they were trying to manipulate them, and she didn't want to manipulate him. Or to have him see her as weak. She didn't want him to think less of her for being afraid, especially when it should not matter if she was alone.

She was grown and had not been reliant on her parents for years. So why did it hurt so bad?

"I'm fine," she tried to insist, although the tremor in her voice suggested otherwise. "I was just worried you were gone." Her lip trembled again and she bit it to steady it, shaking her head. She knew it was silly, there was no evidence he had left. All she would have needed to do was lower her muzzle to the ground to ascertain that his scent was still present and fresh to solve that particular worry and she knew it.

"You're the only one left who knows who I am." Not just her name - she'd given that out in passing over the years as one did in conversation - but who she was and where she had come from. "Everyone else is gone," she clarified in a smaller voice. "I was afraid you were too."

young mare // Mutt // gray // 15 hh