For a long while after, hours, the only company Africa felt she was worthy of keeping was that of the mountain’s cold, dark shadow – and she cocooned herself in its blanketing embrace, sobbing silent tears for all of the blessings she had ever thrown away.

Silas watched on despondently, with a pained heart that felt every inch of her agony. He was perched low across crooked legs, with wings wilting heavily to either side, leaning down against the soft, supple wood of a juvenile spruce. Lithe avian neck was skewed to the side, bent beneath a flattened crest, and his skull lay buried below the cloak of intricately star-spangled feathers along his back. There was nothing he could do as his bonded wept into the evening, wanting only privacy to grieve; to mourn by herself the loss of her first love. He knew how frail it had been between his beloved and the stallion with the heathen, crimson tattoos. For the many months that Satanic Silk had pursued her vulnerable heart, the zephyr had made clear his discontent, but he had never truly realised just how touched she had been by him; how he had breathed life into a withering, hurting soul.

Nevertheless, and no matter how terribly she ached, Silas was confident that memories still greater than those she pined for now, were waiting just around the corner – had not she found already new peace, and a fresh beginning here? All she had to do was remember...

Raw, overwhelmed and completely exhausted, Africa emerged from the prison cell upon trembling legs that seemed barely even fit to bear the weight of a child. Her pale, mottled cheeks were stained, saline channels etched through a tortured expression; dark, devastated. She threw a forlorn glance to the glittering sky, and still further to the vast ocean of cold black emptiness beyond, wishing with all of the strength she had left to muster, that it would swallow her then and there – take her into oblivion where she might fall endlessly and feel nothing of life and love again; because surely that would be a kinder end than that of a breaking heart. She wanted to scream, to unleash the bitter desolation she felt into the timid wind - and perhaps dissolve with the last gasp of her choking lungs to become nothing but a vague memory, forever, again...

But there was no sound left to burst that night... and her skull plunged back to earth like a dead weight, flames whirling with violent delight as the fresh night air caressed their wild descent.

One eye peered out from beneath the ebony wing, and it traced her soft silhouette as it moved from the nest, their cave, and passed by beneath soundlessly. He had no reason to chase her; no harm would find her.

The Starry-Eyed knew not where she was going at first; it was impulse that pulled her free of the shackles of her pain, something unexplainable. Her chipped hooves dragged lethargically through the soft soil of the dell, but she barely noticed, even as the soft grasses that often cushioned her on bright sunlit days were grazed by her touch (uncaring, blinded) – she knew only a need to continue. Shoulders grazed carelessly between the bark of the old timber forest, and saplings stroked delicately her throbbing breast as it passed above, tickling the skin to flinch across her belly – but Africa could feel only emptiness, a strange desperate longing rising through it.

A clearing loomed ahead and she could see vaguely that the scrawny trees had thinned around her. She missed their touch, the sting of old broken, unyielding wood as it had traced callous bruises along still jutting ribs. Hooves paused tentatively by the tree line and her heart wavered a moment longer as gentle eyes began again to spew molten tears... but she could think of no place safer than his side, no place more tender or merciful - if only he would take her. “Midas...” she whispered faintly, unsteadily, in case the clumsy scuff of a broken stride failed to alert him prior. Her voice was still choked, ruined by emotion, rippling and wretched. She sank towards him almost desperately, despairingly, across buckling knees, and the cool earth caught her fall with compassion she could not have expected... did not deserve.