OH, TO BE HERE ON THE GROUND

”Not…me?” “No, of course not,” is what snaps in his mind, but he won’t say it because he frightens this one and for once he doesn’t want to. But he stays flush against the wall, ears still back, and Toro knows this could go sour quick. Now that he is here, he’s not sure he wants the little deer to go.

”Mine wasn’t that great either.”

This would be the one thing they had in common.
Eager as he was to move away from the previous topic, he had no desire to discuss his father, either, or this boy’s, or really anyone’s father because frankly it was the number one thing he was trying to leave behind, so he left a little silence between the stranger’s words and his next. ”What’s your name?”

@Anzhelo

"What I say,"

What I think,

OH, TO BE HERE ON THE GROUND

”Um…A-Anzhelo,” he stutters, like he has to think about it, like he doesn’t even know it. Toro is about to say his own name when the strange deer-boy asks, ”Are you Oriens?” Toro stares at him. 
”Am I who?” Maybe this is the some mountain hermit, infamously creepy and known to threaten little colts. Maybe he is a folk hero.
Toro would like to be a folk hero.
”I don't know who uh, Oriens is, but my name is El Toro. Call me Toro. I don’t know what the “El” is for,” he mutters the last part, the absurdity of being named something he is not going sour on his ears as he says it. His tails swish. He kind of wants to leave, kind of wants to stay, wants a change of conversation but doesn’t feel right leaving Anzhelo alone on the clifftop. He huffs. He’s not sure if his next question will turn the conversation on its head again. ”What’s your daughter like?”

@Anzhelo

"What I say,"

What I think,

OH, TO BE HERE ON THE GROUND

Toro flicked his ears dismissively at Anzhelo’s explanation; he didn’t really know enough about gods or Dawn or whatever else went on here and he felt strangely trapped and compelled to stay and oh, good, he’s talking about something else now—. 

Anzhelo smiles, Toro momentarily taken aback by the whole occurrence as the little stag’s demeanor brightens. She’s special to him, as a daughter should be, as any child should be. ”That’s a nice name,” the white stallion says, and he means it, though he is seldom one to comment on such things. Theodosia sounds like a warrior queen, cast in marble in a town square, once famous not for blood shed, but for the purpose of its shedding. ”She sounds like someone I’d like to meet.” Perhaps he thinks too much of himself in this moment, as if he is not a coward, not some whimpering idiot who would rather turn tail at a searching gaze or uncertain action than face what was really going on—
Toro huffs, gaze shifting to the cave’s entrance, warm orange afternoon light bled through by long shadows. ”I don’t want to be stuck up in the mountains at night,” he says, but really, he doesn’t want to be stuck up here forever with the kind of thoughts that rattle around in the heads of boys like them. He’ll slip into the shadows as soon as he - not as soon as he can. As soon as it feels right.


"What I say,"

What I think,

I’LL USE THE LIGHT FOR MY RETURN

”I think she’d be happy to meet you, one day.” Toro smiled a little at this; it was a nice thought to be worth meeting, even if it never happened and he never saw this boy again, and certainly not his daughter, no, it was unlikely that they would come upon each other once more. But who else had thought anyone would want to meet him?

He could think of no names. No faces.

”I can show you the path down,” the deer says. Toro nods. He slips to the altar-mouth, the shrine where no god waited for him, but one waited for Anzhelo. He hopes they walk in silence. He hopes they talk.

”Take me to Day, then, will you?” And two strange sad boys head down the mountain.

@Anzhelo The Earth Won’t Hold Me

"What I say,"

What I think,