Falls

There was no answer to her words, but the faerie-kissed girl remained at ease, her sides rising and falling with a steady rhythm that slowed to match the quiet thunder of the Falls. She remained that way - a deceptive study of tranquility whose every fibre hummed with youthful vitality and passion. This energy was expressed so subtly that it was easily missed, The occasional shiver that trailed down her chocolate spine. The rapid flick of an ear or flare of a nostril. All three of these actions occurred in tandem when the brush behind her grumbled its complaint, parting reluctantly for the large body of another creature. But still Seelie stood unmoving, undisturbed, perhaps assuming the sound to be a product of her imagined friend. Whether they came to her during slumber or while her senses were aware, Seelie’s dreams had always been vivid.

Which made the unfamiliar voice unexpected, even as far from home as she was.

Blinking her eyes open, the bay mare turned her neck slowly to gaze at the stranger with unselfconscious fascination. Her head, neck, and chest were a stark contrast to the rest of her body. The bold whiteness of them was so out of place, at first glance, that they might have been borrowed from another creature. As if she’d been haphazardly sewn together from whatever parts were closest to hand, a facsimile mockery of the mythical chimera. But the boy she stared at was no less fascinating to Seelie, who had never seen hair such as his - which flowed down the gray of his neck and hocks like pale waterfalls. Nor had she ever seen eyes of such a vivid color, which she could only think to compare to the sky where the sun had set it aflame. Tilting her head gently to one side, she wondered whether this stranger had also been kissed - if not by fairies, then perhaps by some other magic beyond her ken.

Suddenly, Seelie could be still no longer. Twisting her slender body around, she approached the silver grullo with youthful confidence. They were close enough to exchange breaths when she arched her neck and - without warning - lipped curiously at the tousled strands of his silvery forelock. After a brief moment of this, she released her hold without explanation, her pale eyes swimming with surprise and wonder. The young mare had half-expected his hair to be as frigid as the winter snow it resembled, but it was no different than her own strands, dark or light . Except that it had bits of leaves and twigs woven through it, of course. Struck by this observation, Seelie suddenly laughed, a sound that was as warm and liquid as the silver male’s eyes. Then listed forward again, plucking a burr from his mane with deft-yet-gentle lips.

Perhaps the boy would jerk away from this touch, startled or even irritated by his companion’s lack of regard for propriety and personal space. But if he looked closer, he would see the childlike mind staring at him from beneath the guise of an almost-mature body. It wasn’t that the brown-and-white girl lacked manners, she simply had the unrestrained curiosity of a creature half her age. And as if to prove this point, Seelie dropped the burr to the ground and finally offered her muzzle in greeting, freckled lips almost close enough to brush his.

Of course, once that courtesy was observed, she had to ruin whatever points she’d scored for her etiquette. Stepping forward until her left shoulder brushed his, she continued plucking debris from his mane without a thought for modesty, speaking through a mouthful of twig after a moment of this. “What were you doin’, trying to make a home for birds in your hair?” The twig joined the burr and several shredded leaves on the ground before she blinked, finally seeming to understand that the creature next to her was a stranger.

“Oh - I’m Seelie.” She announced, as if this somehow made up for her oversight and explained her complete lack of social grace in the same breath.