IPOMOEA
let's be wildflowers
H
e knows he should be running in the opposite direction, away from her, away from the rot. Delumine is still waiting, the court has been waiting for too long already; he knows the longer he waits the closer his home inches towards its own death. But he lingers.In the space between heartbeats, when he breathes in dead things and blackened leaves and his lungs ache with rot - in that space, he sees only her eyes. There is no hint of green or gold in them, even when she looks into the light coming down between the trees. They are only violet, and as bright as any flower had been on the island.
And he thinks that even in a forest filled with wildflowers and light and bright red trees, she is the only thing he wants to look at.
So when she leans in close and her lips brush against his ear, he does not run. He’s breathing in even while she’s breathing out, and he wonders (for only a second) if her touch will turn him to rot the same way it turned the leaves black and dry.
But when she pulls away he’s still himself, and he feels both relieved and saddened by it.
And when she first begins to turn and run, stirring leaves and dirt in her wake, all he can do is stand there and watch. He isn’t sure if he’s imagining the trail of black that seems to follow her like a shadow, or the way the trees momentarily pull their branches away so the tip of her horn won’t graze them. Maybe he doesn’t see it at all, because he doesn’t want to.
He isn’t sure when he decided to follow, or when he told his legs to run. But the dirt is soft and cool under his hooves, as he follows the trail she left. Ipomoea can’t see her anymore - he waited too long, he ran too slow, the forest seems to have swallowed her whole in shadows - but still he runs. He runs until he thinks his heart might burst from how hard it starts to beat, and he runs until he comes to the small meadow that was once filled with wildflowers.
All that’s left of it is blackened petals that coat the ground that a black blanket.
And that’s where he stops, surrounded by rot and staring after her.
@Thana | "speaks" | notes: <3
