life's but a walking shadow
The Dawn festival was like nothing that Indra had seen before. All around her, the trees were strung with garlands of flowers and flickering yellow lights, and music drifted from a dozen different sources, now soft and lulling, now bright and swift and heady. The air smelled of fresh grass, and honey, and summertime.
And all of the people looked so... happy.
The unicorn eased her way among the crowds, her silver shape melting effortlessly into the patchwork of moonlight and lamplight and shadows that pooled among the trees. It was hard not to tense each time a passing stranger brushed against her shoulder—hard to shed the wariness learned in a world made of sharp edges and survival, not starshine and song.
But all fairytales have their monsters, and all monsters have their teeth. Indra couldn’t shake the feeling that behind its pretty smile, this place was readying to bite.
She neared a clearing where a piper trilled a high, sweet tune, encircled by dancers painted with dark whorls of color, their manes streaming with ribbons and tinkling bells. Pausing beneath the outstretched arm of an oak, the unicorn watched them, lipping absently at the single white strip of silk that tied her own braid. It would be easy, almost too easy, to slip in among them, anonymous and wild; it would be easy to close her eyes, and lift her face to the night sky, and let the music make her into someone else.
Easy, and ridiculous. Indra shook herself briskly, her braid loosening into a scarlet spill across her shoulders, as cold practicality chased away any lingering scraps of whimsy. She was glad, in her way, that across time and across worlds there was still a place like this, a night like this, for people to celebrate and to be at peace. It just didn't belong to her.
When another shape came to pause beside her in the dark, she allowed herself to turn from the revelry and toward the stranger, her head tilting slightly with detached interest. "Enjoying the festivities?" she asked, her voice low, her golden eyes glinting in the moonlight.
i n d r a
@ anyone! :)
