YOU'RE GONE BUT YOU'RE ON MY MINDI'm lost but I don't know why--
Midday sent Seraphina fluttering to the Oasis for shelter; in the midst of summer, the heat was so thick and dry that she felt as though her skin could melt off and her tongue went numb and rasping between her teeth. It was still not particularly cool amongst the lush greenery that surrounded the glistening turquoise of the Oasis, but the heat was at the very least bearable, and the sweet promise of water was enough to keep her moving forward, weaving between the trunks bent heavy with fruit in a stream of glistening, sweaty silver, like polished mercury. The rigidness that had marked her strides since the teryr hunt, much as she tried to hide it, had largely dissipated in the weeks that followed, and the scars that writhed along her sides were just that – scars, growing fainter by the day. Every day she felt better, more like herself, but no less at home in her skin and no more content with her new title. Failure seemed to constantly be grasping at her, nipping at her throat like a dog hungry for her flesh and blood, and she worried to breathe. She feared it in a way that she didn’t fear anything and had never feared anything before; in the past, it didn’t hold any weight at all. Now…now it held too much.
The waves parted before her gleaming silver hooves, droplets clinging to her fur and mingling with salty sweat; as she strode out into the water, cool depths brushing against the curve of her stomach, she dipped her head to drink deeply of the turquoise sky, swallowing the reflections of cloud and sun in one smooth gulp and leaving little more than a cascade of ripples in their wake. When she had drunk her fill and her stomach hung clunking and waterlogged between her legs, she returned to the bank, comfortably nauseas – too much too quickly, but she was so thirsty in this heat. She returned to the flickering shadows of the date palms, closing her eyes and leaning up against the rough, plated bark. Still dripping with cold water, the heat was quite relaxing, like stepping into a hot bath, and she had to admit that the sensation was more soothing than she would have liked. Seraphina needed to work, to meet with more of her court and more of the other courts and learn, but the socialization frightened her more than anything. (She had never been known for her tact or social graces.)
She stared up at the rows of dates that hung in thick clumps above her head, swallowing down a sigh. She would have to seek out the most powerful members of the other courts and get to know them, and, even more than that, get to know more of her own court – if she had expected this change in regime to mean a return to her routine, she was sadly quite wrong. Nonetheless, she wanted this more than anything she could remember wanting in her life, and she was determined to do her best work, if only because she was supposed to.
…Five minutes. In five minutes, she’d return to the court and the archives. For now, she would appreciate the day.
@Vadim <3
I'M IN A ROOM MADE OUT OF MIRRORSand there's no way to escape the violence of a girl against herself.☼please tag Sera! contact is encouraged, short of violence
