there are many paths to tread
”When it suits us we are.” The words bring a smile to Toulouse’s lips - perhaps he’s found a kindred soul out here in the middle of sun and sand after all.
“Aren’t we all,” he croons, and there’s something loving in his tone as he sidles closer, the water rippling about his skin and darkening his pelt.
“Perhaps gods are only there for us to take,” he suggests, and the water is stirring around him as he moves. “Blessings, miracles, promises of wealth and good fortune. All we ever want from the gods is something good.”
His eyes are glinting in the moonlight, silver pools against the ivory of his face. There’s a fervor in them, a hunger that only grows at the mention of gods, a hunger that can only be satiated by one thing and one thing alone. He wanders slowly past the other stallion, choosing his steps carefully, his words wisely. “Even if they rarely have something good to give, it doesn’t stop us from trying.”
He’s on the other side of him now, between the monster in the water and the monster on the shore. His eyes flicker between the gryphon and the man, catching the way the moonlight reflects off the dark water and pools in each of their eyes.
He ought to be afraid, when they both raise up their wings. It seems like an omen, like a promise, the way those feathers sing to each other across the water. But he isn’t afraid.
Toulouse’s laugh is light and breathy, pouring from his mouth like a million falling stars.
“Would you?” he counters with a grin, his teeth flashing brightly. He’s walking again, approaching the shore this time, as if that had been his destination all along, and the stallion in the water merely a detour.
His thirst is sated, but his hunger grows stronger with every second. He’s ready to disappear back into the dark any second now, but the water whispers in his ear not yet.
He stops before the gryphon, but tilts his head back to the water one last time. “Ask me again tomorrow, and I may tell you.”
