Ella lifted her head at the gentle sound of hoofbeats, a soft nicker slipping from her throat - low and lyrical, blending easily with the hush of evening. She shifted in place, the delicate brush of wildflowers grazing her coat as she turned to greet him properly. The petals, still fragrant from the day’s warmth, pressed softly against her shoulders, and a lazy flick of her ear caught the breeze that stirred through the meadow.
“My, aren’t you a feast for the eyes,” she mused, her voice unapologetically flirty.
Ella didn’t always speak in truths, especially when it was easier not to, but tonight there was no reason to pretend. She took in the lines of his frame with easy appreciation - muscles shaped by tide and trail, a striking pattern of freckles across his face and mismatched spots along his sides that just begged to be traced by her muzzle.
Her gaze wandered up to the sky, where streaks of coral and gold stretched above the hills.
“It’s lovely, isn’t it?” she said, softer now. “I hope it lingers a while longer. Summer feels like it slipped away too quickly.”
With a quiet step forward, she offered her breath, mingling scents beneath the lingering salty tang of the ocean. She would - beneath the overpowering smell of seawater - smell flittingly of spruce and crisp mountain air, of humid dirt and moss, of gray rocks and blooming goldenrod. All things she had left to find herself here.
✨ ella! ✨
everyone lives but us.