If I’d come to hear correctly, congratulations were in order for our newly appointed King. It had been news sorely received, but good news all the same. I was a mere shadow behind the mountain that was Archibald the Dauntless and I could honestly say that I respected him as a formidable leader, but the memory of my loss yet remained… it scorched my soul and left only smoldering ashes in its wake. I was just another simple man, better suited to follow in the path of greatness. Whatever success I’d managed to forge of my own volition had been engraved in the past, covered in flags of pale, white surrender.

The Edge was alive beneath me, her waves tumbling and crashing into the cliff, tugging at the recesses of my mind until finally engulfing me in her sweet, oceanic songs. The saltwater breeze carried up from the crags to cool the fire ignited within my heart and I closed my eyes against the gentle caress of home, the only place to ever have nurtured my weakness and strength all at once. The Edge had learned to love me when no one else could, but even the earth stood incapable of hiding the truth, harboring as many secrets as it did. After all, it had concealed the malevolence of our patron Lady, the Moon Goddess. Her magic had once been so pure, so… whimsical. But even Gods knew of evil and as we now knew, were compelled by mortal sin just as much as their disciples. We were a broken People still recovering from loss and heartache, and now we were again forced to face our fears and hide form the tears that threatened to overwhelm us all.

What kind of life had I returned to?

---------------------------

Despite the many times I’d seen tragedy, nothing seemed to compare to the ultimate betrayal served to us by the Goddess of the Moon. She had truly branded the Edge a most accursed land. She had doomed us, failed us, and now only emptiness remained where our hope once thrived.

From my thoughts I’d been moved to listen to a gentle tune upon the salty gale, a summons of our Queen. I’d known this day was coming in the wake of so much disaster, but I still wasn’t as prepared as I’d convinced myself I’d been. After all, the murderer that had been ravaging Helovia was presumably still at large and I now had to face my demons in the form of celebration, a celebration for the Dauntless.

As I turned away from the sea, I allowed her one last glance, one final farewell before the darkness of hearsay became reality... She spun and twirled back into the cliff behind me and at one point I thought I could hear the words good luck uttered from her murky depths. However, I knew that the sea was only a woman personified by my imagination… but it didn’t stop me from wishing otherwise.

Before finding my way to the meeting, I set off toward the forest in hopes of cutting through the shade and escaping the heat of the summer sun. However, a feminine scent drifted through the branches from the right, one I’d come to know all too well since returning home. It was a mixture of earth and wildflowers that clung to a heady intermingling of… Eva.

My approach was slow upon finding the Chestnut relaxing in the shade and I rumbled softly to her before smiling up at Tallis perched in a tree overhead. If I’d known the severity of the meeting, I would have rushed her to accompany me, but I didn’t and I had every intention of making our arrival a late one. Looking at Evangeline felt something akin to finding myself… she was my other half, even if she refused to admit it or acknowledge it. The curve of her neck reminded me of warmth and the green of her eyes, intelligence. The color of her mane made me picture the tall, meadow grasses in the fall and the soft slope of her lips caused my mind to pause and waver uncertainly as I looked at her. “There’s a herd meeting,” I stated gruffly, my voice hedged in desire. The sight of her did so many things to me, too many things that I wanted nothing more than to deny, forget.

Perhaps that was why I’d been forced to turn away and resume my own ascent toward the meeting. The longer I stood there, the longer I’d have to step closer, to run my muzzle over the heat of her skin… I couldn’t let my masculinity get the best of me now. I had to find a way to put her out of my head until I could think straight… if that were even something I could ever do again. Even after I’d reached the tree line and broken through the thicket and into the large meadow in which the herd stood waiting, talking, and debating in heated whispers, I couldn’t help but turn to make sure she’d followed- a ghostly vision of beauty that would haunt me in nights to come.

However, Evangeline would not be the only one to plague my dreams with distraction. The Moon Goddess had made sure of that much… Yet that only begged the question: What would we do from here?

Many faces that I’d come to know over the past few months were in attendance, as well as those I did not yet know. Kaj appeared to be quite out of sorts and Kahlua appeared to be fatigued with worry… The whole herd looked grim in the wake of truth and only more treachery and I could hardly find the strength to look them in the eyes. But that was not my job anymore… that was not my responsibility and instead of suffering beneath the weight of my own guilt, I turned to find the one source of fire left in my life. Draping my neck over Eva’s back felt natural and before I knew it, the worry and the shame and the anger all faded away into the sweet scent of her…Image Credits