Out of the corner of her eyes she saw him freeze, watched the panic she felt flicker over him. She longed to rush to me, wanted to rub her muzzle along his side. It was all over, he would stop her heart, would break every last feeling she had left. What was she going to do now? Would she ever be strong enough to look at him again? Maybe, but she had her doubts, very strong ones. The stood for a few moments in silence as he took in her words.

When he spoke she could almost hear her heart snap in two. Parelia the heart broken, that should be her title. Honey gaze turned to stare at him her mouth hanging open. her blood pounded the emotional pain pounding through the bond. Penna screeched his own mental agony while Parelia held her own inside. Her mask smashed once more as his harsh words and broken gaze settled in. His eyes dropped then away from her pain pounding through her heart. The dove took a step then halted as he spoke again, trying to grind her heart to dust. Penna screeched again at the renewed waves of heart break.

he words seemed to draw a resolve she had never felt before. Her lithe body drew up wings slowly unfurling from her side. Penna did the same following her lead grasping at the straws she was offering him. Liquid honey eyes softened, not to love, not to anger, and not pain. She allowed her eyes to show him how she felt, brave. "Kaj.""Kaj look at me." She stepped closer mere inches from him her body held proudly. "Kaj, I did not stop saying it because I do not feel that way. I stopped only because I was scared I thought you would laugh at me. That my feelings would chase you away, or make you laugh." She watched him calmly for a moment. "If you need me to say it again, I will, with pleasure. I love you Kaj."

She stood above his lowered head waiting for him to speak, move, anything. "I believe Ciceron would not blame you. I will talk to him, explain how it's been since I left with Ilios two years ago." Silently she thought of exactly how it was she had felt, betrayed. He had let them leave without so much as a second thought. he had picked a herd over his own flesh and blood. "Kaj, after Ilios was born and the crazy ones lived within this herd I feared for my son. I told Ciceron I was scared to have him grow up around them. I told him I wanted to leave, take him somewhere safe. He let us go. He let his own SON go!" She spat the last words anger flicking through her for a moment before she composed herself once more. "When he let me leave, I left my feelings with him. I was young and foolish then. I had never been shown the love he had given me." She allowed him a moment to think as she pulled her strong cream and teal wings in.

"Kaj, I love you. I know what love is now, and I feel it for you. Ciceron will have to understand that. I can't tell you how he will feel about you, I wish I could, but that is beyond my powers." Honey eyes softened again as she watched him a flickering flame of hope swelled in her breast. There wasn't anything else she could say to explain to him, or was there? "I swear Kaj, I know what I feel. I had such trouble with it before because..." She took a deep quavering breath, "I have not always been treated right. My parents died when I was very young, and I was taken in by a very horrible stallion. You see my scars, I speak the truth." She turned so he could see her scar covered sides. "He did unimaginable things to me when I was only months old. It broke everything I had. Every loving embrace my parents had ever given me was wiped from my memory. I didn't have the understanding of love until you. You have restored my memories, brought back the love I had hidden so deep in my brain." She allowed herself to fall silent as she watched him. This was the first time she had ever given someone so much of herself. Nobody knew her past, she had never deemed anyone strong enough, or close enough to tell. He was special to her, he meant more the her than Ciceron ever had. The dove tried to convey that to him with her emotional gaze.
Speaking  Penna