the sun shines low and red across the water,
Come away. Her parents had said the word to her each time she watched the corn stalks sway in the wind like willows. Each time her bones had begged her to run among the mystery of the maze like it was a forest begging for exploration instead of just some thing sprouted out by her city in a meadow. And when she looks to her sister she knows that the corn must be begging for them to come closer, run deeper into the black, listen harder and come closer.
Come closer, come closer, come. Avesta can imagine the twilight wind singing it to her. And when Foras presses against her legs they both throw back to bay at the rising full moon. It sounds like yes, over and over, yes
Moonlight catches on the tip of her black horn when she looks at her twin. “I bet we can make it to the center before anyone else. The corn can tell you the way.” There is something wicked in her gaze when she looks at the other horses (and other children) pressing into the maze. Earlier she had heard that in the center there was some secret hidden away there and even then she wanted only to learn it. Beneath her skin her heart aches like a wild bird pressing against a steel cage. It flutters, it dances, it prepares to leap.
So she leaps, in a lion-like arc of sinew and too long hair, she leaps.
“I'll race you.” She nips at her sister's shoulder and Foras presses against his brother urging him onward too. Small leaves caught in the tall grass chase after her like fairies with wings of almost brittle yellow. Avesta laughs at the sight of them trailing behind them. Even though she knows they should be quick and quiet so no one sees them disappearing into the maze, she can't help but be caught up in the recklessness of it all (and the way it makes her blood feel like it's waking up).
The darkness of the maze swallows her up as she rushes through the crowd and still she does not pause.
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