Prickles in the grass tugged at her feathered fetlocks, entangling their tiny burr shaped seed pods into her excessively long and tangled hair as they walked through the pretty fields of colourful cheery flowers, bobbing their little heads in the light breeze that carried in slight scents of honey and nectar. Bees buzzed across their path ponderously, having nowhere to go urgently, so surrounded by food that they never need hurry. Aoife enjoyed the silence between her and Mephisto, it wasn’t awkward or laden, just pleasant, like the sunshine, although that was a little overbearing at times.
As Mephisto fluttered her wings to shake off the heat Aoife did the same with her long heavy mane, flipping it to the other side of her neck as much as possible. She could sense they were growing nearer to their journeys end, something in her companions pace. As the other mare spoke Aoife felt a slight pang, as if a string from her past had stuck around her hoof, and walking away she felt nothing til that sentence pulled it tight. She had her mother, but family was something that eluded her somehow. “Family is...” she fumbled to know what to say “I mean to say I kind of know how you feel, I think, I only had a mother, but I just couldn’t stay there you know.” Of course she doesn’t know, even I don’t know what the hell I meant by that she thought to herself and rolled her eyes a little at her own ineptitude at talking out loud to other horses.
“I think I know what you mean, my mother chose another family after-” she paused to think of a good way to make brutal senseless murder less of a downer “after her family left. And they were kind of like family to me as well but, I just always felt like I was meant to do something bigger, you know.” This time she did know what she meant, and she was confident Mephisto did too. Surely she had had the same realisation when she came to the citadel. Or maybe she no clue and was good at pretending.
Finally she saw the citadel in the distance and let out a little gasp of wonder. The sun hit the buildings in a way that made them appear golden and shining as it bounced off, causing a sort of halo. She could already hear the bustle of civilisation to some extent, the general buzz and hum that came with a group of horses.
