tell me what you know of freedom
*
The other mare breaks the silence first and Calliope cannot help the smile that brushes across her lips in an almost kind, almost feral sort of way. Perhaps it's the meadow and the moonlight that chill the fury in her bones and keeps her horn tipped towards the stars instead of flesh and bone. It's a lovely night, free of dragons and blood and war. Calliope breathes deep and savors the taste of wildflower and sliver-light on her tongue.
“Perhaps,” Something like amusement taints her sword and bell-chime voice. At her back that lion tail flicks and all of her looks poised and waiting for something. “lurking might not be the word for it.” And when a cloud passes overhead in the pastel mix of moonlight and the first light of day and it catches the point of her horn it seems almost hungry, almost empty, almost parched.
No lurking is not the word for Calliope who tilts her head like a lion and watches the mare flick her ear back uncertainly. Hunting would be a better word for the quiver ever in her skin even when she appears to be as still stone, for the spark of rage always dancing in her corner of her eyes where joy and sadness should be.
Calliope lets the amusement fade as she leans forward just enough to taste the smoke and spice and moonlight on the mare's silver skin. Part of her hopes it would have been tainted by the musk of dragon fire, part of her is glad it smells only like night and bonfire wood. “I came because there was a wall.” Because unicorn and lions full of fury hate walls and the monsters they thing lurk behind them.
She came for justice and vengeance for an antlered stallion and a flower mare who refused to take what was owed to them.
"You walk the meadows when others want only slumber and dreams. Why?" Calliope smiles like a lion and her teeth flash strangely in the between light. But for a moment she lets her fury remain buried for those deserving of it.
@Jezanna
