ooc: might be a slight trigger for grisly death?
Inara
She remembered the night that her mother had come to say goodbye. Little had she known, it would be the beginning of her life -- nearly five years after her first breath. Azaiel had been as resplendent as she had always heard, a golden coat as warm as the sun. Her hair had been pale and long, falling into a pair of sad green eyes that mirrored her own. It never occurred to Inara that her mother might have been as trapped as she was.
The red roan mare lingered near the cliff edges, a breeze from the crashing waves below bellowing up to ruffle the dark auburn strands of her hair. She could not see the waves below, save for the gleams of light catching the water further out to sea under the moonlight. She was rooted to a single place, her crown twisted upward to the skies like a flower searching for the sunlight. Her gaze traced the tiny specks of cosmos, searching for familiarity amongst the constellations. She had often stared up at the skies, counting the stars as her only friends in the prison that had been her home.
She was always kept close to the center, a pair of mares serving as guards and keeping the world away from her; and her away from the world. Soon enough, no one tried to see her -- and she had no one to see, including her mother. She had merely been a child then, learning quickly what her place had been in her father’s world. A bargaining chip, a transferable good. Her weight shifted upon the rocks of the cliffs, scattering pebbles down to the watery depths below; drawing her back to the warm spring night.
She was quite close to the edge, knowing that one wrong move would send her plummeting down without feathered wings to save her -- but choosing to face the danger. For some reason it made her feel...alive. Her head was clear, and her stammering, nervous nature forgotten. She toyed with the muscles along her hind, knowing that one solid movement of them would send her flying out into the open, dark space. She could see it clearly in her mind’s eye, before reality snapped into place and she watched as she fell into the unforgiving waves, her body crushed against the cliffside.
The image forced her to step back, her ears pinned flat against her head as shook it; snorting loudly. Why would she imagine a horrible fate like that, when her life was finally beginning? Her soft green gaze wandered back to the sky, to the stars.
