jane
Jane watched the world around her change, slowly and then all at once. The forest was bigger than any she had seen, the bark a dark that seemed to slowly consume her as she passed. The far reaches of the Dawn Court, Jane thought that maybe this shouldn’t be where she decided to spend her time.
But it was lonely, in Day. She saw the other mares with their groups of friends and their men, quick lovers who thought they were beautiful. They were happy and laughing and gossiping- surely about Jane, too. She felt her accent distinctly, an outlier among all these people who were so like her but not quite. She had received her education in the upper echelons of her herd as a lady in waiting for the queen, her expertise had been with mares many years her senior.
The rain had caught her out for a change. Jane now travelled under the certainty that she belonged to the Day Court by name, but her loneliness led her to travel; exploring with a latent interest the fields of this new land. Summer thus far had been hot and even slightly claustrophobic. Around her, the fillies her age exploded with the first year of availability; they hung together and gossiped under the eaves of the Day Court while the soldiers passed.
How Jane longed to be like them. Not one of them had spoken to her- instead, each day she went to court and stood in silence as she heard the news. There was one interesting thing going on; the changing of the king. She had made her vote after not being there a month, and she hoped that it would not come back to bite her.
The rain started to move harder and she pushed herself into the copse of trees, shivering slightly. Summer rain is always more vicious than winter rain. While a relief from the hot weather, it was more like rage than any other emotion. If winter rain was spit and drizzle, Summer rain was a whipping; a cat o nine tails against the flank.
Jane glanced around the trees. She had managed to find a spot where the rain didn’t reach the ground as easily, but every now and then a droplet would find her shoulder and shock her like lightning.
These trees were not a copse, but a hallway, she realised latently. As if in a dream, she turned and started to follow.
Soon the world became shelves, books, scrolls. Deep in her chest, Jane knew that she’d found something that didn’t belong to her.
But she wanted to belong to it.
A gossipy young girl like any other, she stood in the dark of the library with her ears piqued for input. Gold tips twitched, quivered, and she scanned the darkness for predators. Or anyone. Dust floated gently. There was light, somewhere, and she could only imagine where it came from.
She walked, curious. This was a good place. She turned the corner and froze- for there stood a stallion; a pegasus. Jane was frozen in place, her coat shivering in the golden light of her markings. She turned to sneak out, but immediately crashed into a piece of furniture that then fell to the floor. Jane yelled in surprise and then cursed internally.
@[Abbat] / speaks / notes