Falls

Like the forest the girl wandered through, her skin was a dappled mixture of shadow and light. Faerie-kissed. From birth she’d been recognized as one of their own, a child of boundless joys and eternal wanderlust. A spirit who could not be caged. And so it was that the young mare found herself leagues from home, striding through the trees like a doe who’d never known the threat of a hunter’s teeth. Fear was as foreign to her as the faint tang of ocean-salt still borne on each breeze, as nameless to her as the island to which she’d come. Curiosity, however - that did swell in her chest like a flower opening in bloom, forcing the breath from her lungs in a soft oh of wonder when she emerged into a clearing, watching the endless rain of the Falls spill into the pool of their tears below.

“Mother!” The slender bay breathed softly, at first, her voice growing louder with her excitement. “Oh, Mother, look!” Seelie turned to look behind her, confusion yielding to understanding as the truth settled over her thoughts like a sifting of snow. Her parents were not here, but back in the coniferous forests of their home tending to their new daughter. And she, their child of two years, had been sent on. A brief frown curled the girl’s freckled pink lips, but as a morning frost kissed by the sun, it melted quickly beneath the warmth that bubbled inside her. If she had no one with whom to share the magic of this place, then that made it hers, and hers alone.

Kicking up her heels and giggling as only a child can manage, Seelie began to run, circling the clearing. Each lap gradually tightened until the young woman found herself in the center of the glade, spinning slowly in place with her muzzle thrust up towards the heavens. After the chill of the sea, the sun felt like a warm kiss on her pale skin, and the tickle of grass against her salt-crusted fetlocks was like the comforting touch of an old friend. Breathing deep, the bay mare let her mind wander, sifting through the scents of this land absently. The faint musk of earth buried beneath the stronger perfume of flowers. The smell of her own sweat and the cleaner flavor of the nearby pool. And the crisp spring air itself, which carried traces of other scents that Seelie could not discern - such as the individual colognes of her own kind.

For all that the white-splashed girl knew, she was the only creature who lived and breathed in this corner of the world. But where her surroundings lacked company, Seelie’s bright and imaginative mind filled in the blanks. Closing her sky-colored eyes, she twisted a pale ear towards the sound of an imagined voice, a smile curving the corners of her lips up. “I know,” she answered warmly, ease etched in every soft line of her body. “It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before - but for now, just hearing it is enough.”

Her ears tilted back towards the Falls, listening to the silver music their passage over the rocks made. And Seelie stood in place, her white head still pointed up towards the sky, and let herself drift further.