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When December saw the sky, she moved forward wordlessly, striding across the clearing. The sudden movement didn’t surprise Sheba so much as the muzzle that reached out to guide her. Before she could fully process the gesture, however, along came the llama. Ears flattened, she quickly sidestepped out of his way and into December’s wake, swirling along like the snowflakes that drifted behind them. As the blizzard intensified, she fell back, letting the larger mare blaze the trail. It was easier to step where bigger hooves had stepped and to use her as shelter from the wind.
At the copse of trees, she said nothing, only brushed past December and into the clearing and shook the snow off of her back. Sheba was too cold to be argumentative for once; her patchy coat did little to keep out the chill in weather like this. Though she still did her best to keep her distance from the llama in the small space, glaring at him from under her matted forelock, she found herself envying his thick fur. As if the giantess had read her thoughts, she glanced sideways, rumbling that she would help to keep her warm. The old mare’s dark lips pressed together and her brow furrowed slightly, but she did not move as December shuffled closer. If it was between frostbite and close quarters, she’d take the emotional discomfort over the physical. Sighing heavily, her lashes fluttered closed as she hunkered down to weather the storm alongside the draft and the llama.
Still, it caught her off guard when she felt warm breath, then the great gentle lips whuffling along her withers. Rheumy eyes flew open, and she shifted instinctively, but something gave her pause. How long had it been, since someone had groomed her like this? Since she had allowed someone this close, since the gesture had been so simple and the intention so pure? And the loneliness that had welled inside her heart swelled against its stone dam, and the tiniest of cracks appeared under the strain. She relented.
The pale lashes drooped again and Sheba exhaled, bones creaking as she settled into herself. “I wasn’t always like this, you know,” she murmured, letting the giantess work at the knots in her mane. “I was something once. Someone.” Look at her now. She laughed drily, a vocal chords cracklng like burning paper, breath a cloud in the air between the trees.
"speech"
OOC: -cries a million tears-
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