Common

I've grown bored of you.

The words bore themselves through my brain, sizzling like acid through every barrier or distraction I try to erect to save myself. It rips through my self-worth, dissolving it and leaving me naked and bare before the only creature that I had ever truly loved other than our daughter.

And still he does not save me.

By the time I stumble out of the Lagoon, I am nearly blind with tears, their weight heavy on my lashes. I navigate forward without seeing, without thinking, my fluted ears twisted back only for the sound of our daughter's hooves on the ground behind me. She is all that matters now, and I have no idea what to do with that.

Days pass in a fog of survival as I hover near the Lagoon but no longer in it, my neck unchained and yet like an abused dog who still loves his master, I linger. I cannot bring myself to believe that Garmr meant what he said and yet my pride is adamant that it does not matter if he meant it or not.

He said it, and therefore, I could not go back.

---

Days later, I wake and run my muzzle across my daughter's face. I do not like leaving her, but it is a quiet day and I only mean to get myself a drink. Soon, I will need to decide what will come next, but I have not made it that far yet. It is all I can do most days to accept that I am free of the Lagoon and that my destiny is once again my own. For so many years I had wished for just that, but having it now just felt overwhelming, as if Damocles' sword hovered just above my head.

I threaded my way northward, intent on my mission when the sky suddenly began to darken above me. Confused, I paused and looked up, only to feel my blood curdle in my belly as I was suddenly plunged into unnatural darkness. Panicked, I screamed out for Nazanin and began rushing toward where I believed I had left her, but it was only a few strides later before I was certain that was the wrong direction. I hadn't been paying close attention to my surroundings as I walked, foolish enough to believe it was just a routine sip from the water. Now, with the sudden darkness, my eyes could not adjust fast enough before my haste carried me far beyond where my precious only daughter lay.

"Naza!" I screamed again, the sound raw and bloody in my throat as I raced blindly across an open meadow that I was certain that I had not crossed earlier. I slid to a halt and went to whirl the other direction, only to narrowly leap sideways to avoid the sudden sense I had that someone else was here. Panting hard, I turned toward the feeling I had and spoke again, my tone clipped but the words thin with fear. "Who is there?"

OOC: Open for any outcome with her <3