VALE

The dark waters of the mind slowly fill, blocking out the light. His eyes may blaze forth with the glory of a golden sun but beneath the silent surface darkness consumes the light. A face as black as death holds no conviction towards others, his broken crown and honeyed words the only weapons he needs. He can feel it slowly, fingers colder than ice burning their way through his tainted soul.

Would you still recognise me mother? Still love me?

Snowflakes drift down from the heavens, their silent path falling with graceful simplicity. Picked up from the soft breath of wind to flutter in a new direction as they dance and fall, dance and fall. The hunters’ eyes watch as they fall around him, pinpricks of white against the black landscape. He stands in the darkness before dawn, a moment when the earth holds its breath waiting for the light of day to chase away the monsters. Could light really ever chase away such clinging grasping voices? His halo slips slowly down his face and Vale wonders as he stands beneath the canopy of fading stars if he should just let it clatter to the ground; let him be taken over by this darkness he could feel staining his soul. It would be so easy, so easy to just let it all go and rip off the mask of deception to reveal what an ugly tainted mess he was beneath.

Soft lilting notes of a song fill his mind, quietly at first but growing in memory until it’s all he can think about. He remembers it, remembers being a young, eager colt watching on as his mother twirled and spun, dipped and danced her way around.

See darling? It’s not hard, you try

His present self, lifts a hoof, placing it carefully back to the snow. He pivots suddenly, muscles contracting. At first the dark boy staggers out a few steps but he quickly gains momentum and grace, letting memory be his guide. And then he’s dancing, beautiful steps full of reminiscence and loss and anger. A dance to burn out the darkness, to bring back the light. But just as suddenly he stops a boned hoof paused in time and he sighs, dancing wouldn’t bring his mother back and the oncoming dawn would not burn his insides, just his skin, warmth only reached so far down.

The intuitive sense of another being occupied his thoughts, some else shared the silence with him. He cast his golden gaze to the churned snow beneath his weight, denying his previous movements would only be more effort than it was worth; instead he called into the night, his gaze burning ahead.

“Why don’t you come on out little one? The night is such a cold dark place, no point in hiding your face”

@[Naira]



"Talking"