I have always been a loner by nature. I partially blame my family for their role in my withdrawal from the world, for the way that they cast me aside, filled with fear and hatred and disgust. Their feelings for me had been feelings that I projected onto myself, and so when Thor had exhibited such a keen interest in me, I will admit that it took me by surprise. And yet I had been drawn to him as well, intrigued, intoxicated almost. What I felt for him was strong, far stronger than anything that I had experienced before, but I did not know that I could call it love. What was love, really? I had seen so little of it in my admittedly short life - how was I to know if it was what I was feeling, or simply what I wished for? Should I just know? Or was it okay to question it?

Perhaps these feelings were why I fled the Edge when I began to feel the first pangs of labor. I had been grazing shortly after rising that morning, my belly more swollen than I could ever have imagined. A wave of pain had washed over me, a cleansing fire as I realized that the baby was coming. The baby was coming! I had no love for the thing that leeched the life from me, for my pregnancy had not been pleasant, and so I admit that I was eager to have it out of me. I knew that I would not be able to simply return to my old ways, and truth be told I was scared half to death. What would happen when I blacked out? Would I harm the foal? How could I be a good mother when I couldn't even take care of myself?

And so as glad as I was to be rid of the cursed thing, some motherly instinct told me to be protective, to be worried. And as wave after wave of pain washed over me, I became more and more worried. Finally, reaching the dark embrace of the Deep Forest, I collapsed to the ground, grinding my teeth together to keep the pain from escaping my throat and failing. A shriek of pain echoed through the emerald canopy, and for a moment my thoughts became unaligned and I almost though that I was someone else. A shudder wracked my body, and suddenly the pain abated. For a brief moment, I gulped the cool air of the forest; then I rose, turned, and surveyed my daughter. She looked like her father in coloring, a deep bay. Her face was ringed with white, one of the oddest markings I had seen, but endearing. I set to washing her off, and I felt a sudden protective love steal over me.

Oh. So that was what love felt like.

I wanted to keep her safe.

I wondered how I would save her from myself.


"talk"

If love is surrender, then whose war is it anyway?