Яikyn

I’m in the middle of deciding whether to test my jumping abilities by seeing how far across the pool I can get in a single leap or not when the sound of someone else coming causes my pacing along the shoreline to stop and lift my eyes to the face that breaks through the bent trees. I take him in without a flicker of a smile or friendliness at first, mostly because he exudes neither of these things but also because I am wary of those I do not know and have no reason to trust; not everything my dam has to say to me goes in one ear and out the other, to be sure, further proof found in how I search his brow and find him a validate playmate and immediately sweep my eyes down towards his spine.

Barren, making him whole and acceptable by all of mother’s rules, and less likely a threat to me than the other species who would perhaps seek to destroy me for the land of my birth and the spiraled weapon growing from my brow. But this one is like me, a unicorn, and while he is much older than me (exciting, considering the older kids back home ignore me and the other youth of this season with a sincerity of drive that could perhaps be labeled devotion to exclude) he seems safe enough. Even the air of darkness that evolves around him can’t really shake me too much – Erebos is not really a bundle of light either, and his dad most certainly is not. Neither of them have killed or maimed anyone without purpose, and so why should this guy?

”Can you run?”

I’m not old enough to think to use my nose to seek out where this kid is from like he is me, but it doesn’t really matter because in truth he is from no where; we are both children of the Storm and so I don’t question his existence too heavily, merely take in his words with raised ears and golden eyes gleaming with piqued interest as it seems he eludes to a game. "Yes…" I reply, the ends of the word trailing into nothingness to hopefully get across the point that I would not be running for my life on this afternoon. He’d simply get to kill me – but not without a good fight on my behalf and the high likelihood of an enraged mother monster coming down on him.

Little time passes and he is speaking and moving again. Shock strikes me at first as it seems he’s going to charge me, a bleating sound of disgruntled air escaping my lungs as I dodge hard to the side to avoid his much larger body colliding with my own.

But he’s still smiling as he darts away, replacing the suddenly born scowl on my face with a split and gleaming smile as my cloven hooves leap into action and dart after him. He wants me to catch him – but his legs are much longer than mine and the sheer difference in our ages sends him ahead like a loosed arrow and I am only a leaf caught in wind. Still, it’s a fun game, and one that, if I am smart, I can still win.

I’m tired from my run down here, but that thought is cast away as I press my legs to swing faster, my tail sweeping behind me in large, graceful arcs to balance my weight as I dodge between trees and feel the limbs of the willows buffet my face.

in every heart a hole