OH, TO BE HERE ON THE GROUND
The crunch of snow belied the stranger’s presence long before Toro was willing to acknowledge it. He ignored the stallion, even as he stood alongside Toro, looking out, together - the word pained him - until, finally, he spoke.
Toro does not look at him right away; his lungs struggled against the chill air and he is certain a nosebleed is imminent. He wasn’t looking for company. Eventually, Toro turns his head, just enough to get a good look at this gray man, and says, "No.” His chest twinges with something that forces a vulnerable sentence from between his teeth. "I’m going nowhere.” Quickly, he looks away, as if the words stung his lips as punishment for speaking them. Idly, no, anxiously, his tails swish, more than before, maybe, and his ears flick once or twice until finally he eyes the stranger from the corner of his opal vision and asks, "And you?”
@
"What I say,"
What I think,
