amaris

dragonborn

Silver and caramel and gold glimmered beneath her, as gently beating wings held her aloft. Ripples rode ever-increasing rings of waves outwards from her, carrying the silver, the caramel, and golden hues with them, behaving much like an optical illusionist's spiral card. Amaris sees the stallion staring at her, considering her - many have done so already in her life, they have looked, stared, and then chosen only one of two options - to close the distance or to increase it.

For a moment, he appeared to be the one who would flee, for he froze, with his twitching ears and tremoring form, spoke of tension, of nerves and fear and uncertainty - but he proved her wrong, he shattered her own prejudice, and he took that single step.

As it shattered the surface of the mirror they stood upon, so too did a smile crack the lips of the dragonmare.

It was a gentle smile, and it transformed her face from its peaceful, happy reverie to something wondrous, something else altogether - even though he hesitated after that first step, he had still taken that step - it was more than many others ever bothered to take.

He questions her motives, her actions, and she only smiles deeper at it. Why was she dancing? It had merely been an expression of thought, an emotive and deeply powerful motion, a gesture of the newly recognised, freshly painted self-respect and acceptance. How many could claim that of themselves? How many could look at all their own flaws, and still face the world with a smile, a dance, a laugh? Certainly, a great many could, but how many truly loved the skin they were in, loved it enough to cease wishing for change, for something "better", or always for something "different"?

Amaris once knew what it was to wish these things. It was a habit still, one that she was breaking, and her dancing, her motions of emotion and passion helped her to do that.

For one could not dance the raw, pure steps she carved without shedding the self-hatred, the loathing, the desire for something else to stare back at her when she peered into the flawless surface that surrounded them.

"I dance," she began, urging her body into motion again, carving a semi-circular path around the unicorn - she would reach a point where he might have needed to turn to keep her within his sights and turned instead, the motion deliberate and yet smooth, flowing, graceful and light. With each turn she took, she might have inched closer to him - or perhaps it was merely the ripples of her motion creeping closer and closer. "-to live."

sky above me — earth below me

and fire within me