azrael
It couldn’t be a dream, he decided, the way the sea wind tossed his mane and the salt stung at his lips. The way the moonlight gilded off the ocean waves and fell like a silver curtain along the cliff’s edges. If this were a dream, then Azrael could simply dive into the heavens, swim beside the stars – but it was not. His feet were firmly planted on the earth, even as his mind dizzied at the touch of the sunkissed mare, very real beside him. His touch lingers too long against her skin, wanting more than just a fleeting brush as she turns into him, warmth meeting warmth. And just as fleeting as her lips touched his skin, they retreated once more.
He draws a steadying breath once more, concern edging in the depths of his turquoise stare, lost in his mind as the cries play out once more. But this time, he focuses on their source… for if Elena hadn’t heard the voice, it had to be meant for him alone. Just like Caligo and the child with her shadow demons, he mused. The plea-maker was meant for him to find, he decided. And time was already working against them.
“We must go quickly.” he offers in a rushed voice with an apologetic stare. “She is hurt – dying perhaps… I cannot heal her, but I trust the stars have an answer.” He turns from the sea cliffs, not sure where to begin, the voice trembling with a faint and weaker pulse.
Past the treeline, follow the mist.
Azrael shakes his head incredulously, unsure who’s dream led him here now, even as he nods to Elena’s suggestion that she would follow. Though he didn’t know where to lead, his feet seemed to know the way, picking through brambles as they trekked through thicker underbrush and far from the tumbling sea. Above the ground, a haunted sort of fog crept along the dark earth, and he instinctively pressed closer to Elena, throwing his light upon them as a cloak while the world around them grew darker and thick with foliage. “The stars cannot shine in a place like this.” he murmured as the canopy stretched to blot his view of the sky. Despite it, the stallion seems unruffled and comfortable in the night.
Silence fell easily between them as the invisible thread continued to pull him onward. “What is this place?” he asks after a pause, his voice the only sound to breach the quiet of the night. “It suits you – starlight off the wild sea…” It wasn’t the first time the stars had put her in his path, he mused – and Azrael hoped their chance meeting wouldn’t be the last. Perhaps she was meant to find him on the cliffs, and together, they would find the one who cried out to the night.
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