mesec</style>

My eyes had burned with an intensity I had never thought possible that morning the sun finally rose. From just beyond the horizon it came, peeking over the land almost timidly, afraid to show its face to those it had abandoned so many months ago. It wasn't only the pain that its brightness brought to me that caused me to glare at that fiery ball in the sky, nor the fact that it would soon chase Mother from the sky, but the sheer fact that it had left in the first place.

Of course, I recalled with clarity my Mother's warning the night the Gods had been taken away from Helovia, but I'd yet to be given an explanation for any of it. All four deities of these lands had up and left over the course of one night, leaving the rest of us to fend for ourselves. Hototo had left the Foothills in order to tend to the earth, nourishing it to provide foliage so that we might all live to see this day come. Roskuld had been tasked with keeping the flow of time going, something I couldn't even imagine doing, and somewhere, I'd been certain that Israfel was gifting warmth with her flames to those in need.

Yet, I had done... nothing. What good was the son of the Moon in a time of darkness? I'd tried to comfort those frightened by the black of night, but that was the extent of my capabilities.

As I stood at the peak of the Heavenly Fields, I found it increasingly difficult to rid my head of these whirlwind thoughts. I was daft to be dwelling on the things of the past, but I couldn't help but be deeply bothered by my lack of ability to help my homeland during its greatest time of need. Perhaps the darkness had finally started to entangle itself within me, ever so slowly melding my soul into something I'd never wished for it to be. My foalhood had been rather miserable, and while I tried to brush every obstacle I had ever been faced with off and keep my chin held up, I always seemed to be knocked back down, harder and harder every time. I was a disgrace to my father. Mother wanted me to be like this. Anyone I had ever considered friend or family had left or disowned me; Hotaru. Roskuld. Ophelia. Aviya.

Was I doomed to despondence? Was this my destiny?

With a sharp jerk of my head and a deep, steady exhale of my breath, I resisted to think any further of it. As if to distract myself, I unfolded my wings from my sides and stretched them towards the sky, but my hooves remained on the ground. Turning my head back forward, I gazed down from the fields at my home of the Foothills. Even if I had nearly given up hope on myself, I'd not yet abandoned hope for them. Our numbers were small and left us vulnerable to attack, and I was well aware of Apollo's efforts to change that. The overo was a proud fellow, one whom I respected greatly and wished to know on a deeper level some day, but I'd not bother him now with such things. The threat of war was forever looming over our heads, and until we had secured ourselves from that, I was content to remain a lookout for my family, a Sheppard overlooking his home.

"talk talk talk"