100%
Her chest heaved, desperate to restore the breath which had been purged to accommodate her harried plea to the zephyr who was by then too high above them to be seen any longer. Now they had been left alone, at the base of Helovia, waves still cashing metrically across the muddy beach, and Africa felt the bitter sting of rising uncertainty through her core. It had been so long since that fateful day in The Sanctuary; the crushing moment that he was expelled from the midst of the living and well. In many ways Africa had fallen with him, into the pits of her own despair and grief- though she had not wallowed so terribly like she had in the past. The memory was quite vivid; the fraught sound of his voice sinking down upon the watching, bewildered crowd; his declaration to her alone made public. But the dappled mare had been terrorized by the prospect of his illness, doubting his love, figuring it only to be the hungering lure of a wraith. She had quashed then her own feelings and pushed his memory as far from her mind as she was able. It had been all she could do to keep from falling into the grim grip of depression again.

Africa craned her neck right, stretching impulsively to let her lips fumble through the bed of small, fluffy feathers across the arm of her wing. With not a second's thought she plucked one, letting it roll briefly between the delicate clasp of her teeth before it fell away and spiralled down to the mud.

That moment was brief, perhaps a second only, and the pink-snipped nose plunged back towards his warmth. Right now he did not seem to be stricken down by any such ailment, nor was his flesh rotten and peeling away from his bones. Terrified of losing him like she had earlier, Africa pressed closer, shifting across stiff knees before he could abandon this new perfect reality. Fuelling the fantasy (though she wondered still more if that was actually what it was), the crimson tattoos scoring the face of her crush drew near, and his burly neck curled tenderly around the elegant curve of her own. Wild flames engulfed him there, licking through his silvery mane, inspired by the whirl of her emotion. "I thought..." She hummed tenderly as she nuzzled close into the flesh of his breath. She felt safe- the Starry-Eyed felt complete. "...I thought you were gone." Never had Africa felt before like she did then. It was confusing indeed, but with adrenaline tangling through the surge of her blood, she had not the ability to question it. Like the first moment they had met upon the sandy shore of the Throat, she longed for the taste of his thick sweat to linger in her nostrils for eternity; to feel forever the throb of his heart against her.

"Are you well? Have you been hurt?" She blurted suddenly, softly voice quivering nervously. She pulled clear of his embrace, worried creamy eyes hunting the black sheen of his form through the darkness (not that she could see terribly well), for any sign of harm. Steadily they rose to find then his eye where it lay hidden beneath the blood crescent-moon. "Come, I can take you to the Sun Physician. She will cleanse you." Troubled words spewed from her trembling lips, and should she not have wanted so desperately to keep him in her sight, Africa would have turned again to pull another feather, and then another.

Africa