He is a tall, dark shadow standing atop one of the prairie’s gently-rolling hills. An occasional breeze rises from the distant ocean, dancing through the grass to reach up and play lazily with the curls of his hair, but the stallion remains unmoved. This place…it feels familiar, somehow. If he were to allow his eyelids to droop so that his lashes blurred his vision, Fang could imagine that he is home again—that the rolling valley is colored with the blue flowers of Vasanta, and the massive tree of Tyravahni’s Library stands not far off, with his beloved goddess’ shrine tucked just beyond. He would be able to hear the plants again, and listen to the birds as they sing praises of this beautiful haven.

He could lose himself here, in this place between dreams and reality.

But the sudden wrenching of his heart is enough to snap his eyes open again, grounding him in the unquestionable truth that this is not his home. His home, Blue Sage Meadows and everything that he had known and loved, is forever gone—swallowed by shadows and ash and death.
(Adira, the cavity in his heart cries, are you safe?)

Swallowing a groan that instead leaves him in a slow hiss of air, Fang shifts his weight against the pain, both physical and emotional, that will seemingly eat away at him until there is nothing left to fight back. He feels calloused, scabbed over, and raw all at once. I’m tired of fighting, he thinks to himself, and wonders if there is any truth in the words, knowing he doesn’t have it in him to simply give up. All the same, he is tired—tired of fighting for the chance to live, tired of fighting back the sorrow that twists tighter and tighter around his heart. He remembers the anguish he had felt after Bella had abandoned him, and reminds himself of a lesson he had learned: how important it is to feel.

So it is here, alone in this foreign prairie, where he doesn’t have to be strong for Requiem, or himself, or anyone else, that Fang finally begins to give in to the pain. Just a moment, he tells himself, just let me go for a moment.


tag; @Israfel
“…”

Fang

Rate yourself and rake yourself

and take all the courage you have left