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08-28-2015, 10:15 PM
A spell of enchantment was cast. As if in a trance, my eyesight was consumed by the ripples of his body. With each move the water shifted. I glanced at the salted aqua that surrounded the flats. Could he be born from the ocean: a mixture of waves and swirling water? His arrival I had not witnessed, but the way the liquid caressed his torn and tattered body. Whether or not he was a son of the sea he had surely washed ashore.
It explained his condition well. As peaceful as water could be it was also a force of nature to be reckoned with: some currents seeking to tear the skin away from your body. It would push and shove mercilessly or even grab you by its jaws and drag you under. I could only imagine the pain. No.. Actually.. I couldn't. I had a fair amount of hardships under my belt - perhaps too many than I would like to recall. But none of them had ever consisted of near drowning (if a Son of the Water Gods could do such a thing).
At first I thought I misheard him. His voice was hoarse and quiet so it was very easy I was mistaken. However the more I watched him the more uncertainty watched over me. “Surely you cannot mean that, stallion blessed by water's touch.” But who was I to talk? How many times did I wish for it all to end? I recall pleading, begging, for my wish to be granted. My wish to simply.. cease to exist.
Harsh light attempted to burn my retinas but I continued to stare, this time struck by a different sight. My own face looked back at me. Hollow, sunken, solemn. This, this was me? When was the last time I had gazed at myself? I couldn't remember. The familiar rise of shame threatened to flood my chest as my small, deformed wings twitched. I wanted to look away yet I couldn't.
The mare who stared at me looked so lifeless and empty. Any spark of hope that once danced in her eyes had been brutally burned out. Staring at her - me - I felt disgust. A lost caused is what looked back at me. A burden, an existence that didn't matter. A pathetic and miserable being whose eyes haunted my soul.
Pathetic, pitiful, hopeless - yes, I was all of those and more. I knew exactly how the stallion felt. Part of me longed to be capable of granting his wish, to give him the freedom that he pleaded for. But I am a coward. Or perhaps merely selfish. The idea of having someones blood on my hooves made me feel sick. My own selfish thoughts refused to follow what the stallion's heart ached for as my own did.
“Please, I cannot kill you.” There wasn't much I could do. I was very aware of how useless I was in this situation. “Please.. don't ask for such a thing.” A lump in my throat caused my voice to crack as I bowed my head down.
“We need to get you to dry land.. and possibly somewhere the light is not so blinding. I cannot see your conditions when you're basked in such an ethereal aura.” Through the pain I looked around for something, anything. How did I expect to budge him a single inch let alone to safety? I cursed at my weak body. Even as I dragged a large piece of driftwood to the child of water I couldn't stop the voices that were chewing me apart, chiding my pitiful existence. It didn't help that I stumbled with the wood in my mouth, the piece large and heavy. It had to be to carry a stallion of his size.
With slow, cautious movements I pushed the large board closer to him as to not appear as a threat. “I have a piece of driftwood.. If you would let me, I will slide it underneath you. I don't know how much good it will do, but..” I have no other ideas, she silently interjected, “I may be able to pull you.”
@Euphrates
