‘You can’t be real’ funny. Because it was those four words that were playing over and over in her own head. She had seen ghosts before, they walked her dreams like equines walked the earth. But there they were shadows, wisps of life that had come before. They would flit from one moment to the next, never in linear order. In her dreams time was a circle, not a line, where ghosts could switch from a living memory to a moment of death like a flame dimmed and flickered.
This was not like any ghost she had seen before. And yet disbelief warred inside her. She found herself longing for Picoro to come back to her once again. To pinch the skin between her withers and tell her whether or not the woman down below was real, or a figment of a fever dream. Or for Yara and Mithra (who were somewhere off in the meadows) to come running and barking towards her.
Io Kairavi
A name she had not said aloud in a long time. Somehow she stood below her. Also she was yelling at Luvena. The smaller mare flinched backwards at the sound. In truth, she was not used to being yelled at. Usually her soft tone encouraged others to match her the same. The mood switched so quickly that she was still taken aback, and simply stood on the edge of the path, frozen.
She didn’t hear most of the words. The roar of the waves below them felt deafening, and while she registered Io’s voice, it was all a muted blur over her head. She flattened her ears, trying to soften the sound around them.
“You-” she words came out as hardly a whisper. She tried again. “You’re… dead. I watched you die. I watched your heart give out and watched you and shanti die.” The words came out harsh, only accented by the rasp in her voice, one that hadn’t been present when last they’d spoken. How many years ago that was.
@Io Kairavi
This was not like any ghost she had seen before. And yet disbelief warred inside her. She found herself longing for Picoro to come back to her once again. To pinch the skin between her withers and tell her whether or not the woman down below was real, or a figment of a fever dream. Or for Yara and Mithra (who were somewhere off in the meadows) to come running and barking towards her.
Io Kairavi
A name she had not said aloud in a long time. Somehow she stood below her. Also she was yelling at Luvena. The smaller mare flinched backwards at the sound. In truth, she was not used to being yelled at. Usually her soft tone encouraged others to match her the same. The mood switched so quickly that she was still taken aback, and simply stood on the edge of the path, frozen.
She didn’t hear most of the words. The roar of the waves below them felt deafening, and while she registered Io’s voice, it was all a muted blur over her head. She flattened her ears, trying to soften the sound around them.
“You-” she words came out as hardly a whisper. She tried again. “You’re… dead. I watched you die. I watched your heart give out and watched you and shanti die.” The words came out harsh, only accented by the rasp in her voice, one that hadn’t been present when last they’d spoken. How many years ago that was.
@Io Kairavi
