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08-30-2016, 10:52 AM
If there was anything she’d never be sick of, whether she was here or there, it was the taste of a balmy summer evening. Air cooling, birds rising to roost for the coming night, little ruffles on the lake – it was wildly cathartic wandering between the trees, humming softly to herself, watching the shadows pull further away from the trunks and the out-hanging roots. She could always taste the faintest bit of orange on her tongue, carried on a southern breeze or the wings of dragonflies as they zipped by in colorful arcs. Hardly an hour ago the heat had been as good as a yoke around her neck, but now? She had garden soil in her hooves, a little crown of rosemary wound in her hair, and the first stars were winking through the pastel-streaked sky. It was times like this she could just close her eyes and forget what she wanted, what she had lost.
“Oh—” Of course, reality was fond of its little checks and balances.
Ultima was hardier now, her muscles catching up with her long, limber frame – she felt gravity take hold of her front end and instinctively flared her wings, beating them once, hard, and using the updraft to right herself. It was still an effort; her flapping ability was deplorable, said half the ladies at flight lessons; but if it kept her from crashing face-first then for now, that was enough. Not a knee touched the ground. Not another scrape to her name, proud to say. Kicking her long, coltish legs and shaking her neck to displace the shock, though, she had to admit that she could really do without all these roots. Sniffing to herself, the girl trained her eye on the ground a moment, mapping out any possible obstacles on the road back to her nest.
Another root there. A stone here, and something that looked like an old beehive. ‘We’ll take the long way around that,’ she thought. And—
She stuttered back with a squawk, wings flung out, witherfeathers very much on end. “Wh—” The thing – she thought it’d been a stone, too, until it jiggled – gave another shudder and fell over. Ultima doused around vainly for another person, her head flicking left and then right, but there was no one – just her and this “Egg?” and the sun hanging low in the sky.
“Oh—” Of course, reality was fond of its little checks and balances.
Ultima was hardier now, her muscles catching up with her long, limber frame – she felt gravity take hold of her front end and instinctively flared her wings, beating them once, hard, and using the updraft to right herself. It was still an effort; her flapping ability was deplorable, said half the ladies at flight lessons; but if it kept her from crashing face-first then for now, that was enough. Not a knee touched the ground. Not another scrape to her name, proud to say. Kicking her long, coltish legs and shaking her neck to displace the shock, though, she had to admit that she could really do without all these roots. Sniffing to herself, the girl trained her eye on the ground a moment, mapping out any possible obstacles on the road back to her nest.
Another root there. A stone here, and something that looked like an old beehive. ‘We’ll take the long way around that,’ she thought. And—
She stuttered back with a squawk, wings flung out, witherfeathers very much on end. “Wh—” The thing – she thought it’d been a stone, too, until it jiggled – gave another shudder and fell over. Ultima doused around vainly for another person, her head flicking left and then right, but there was no one – just her and this “Egg?” and the sun hanging low in the sky.
♦ ♦ ♦
whoo!! anyone and everyone welcome! xo
 | please tag ultima in all posts! force/magic a-ok, shy of killing/maiming her! |
