To her surprise it was her green parrot companion that revealed the mystery to her. Cactus piss, which triggered Ampere into proposing new names for the vague and suspicious-sounding substance. “If that’s what it tastes like, I don’t think it needs a better name.” Maren scraped her throat, although Fire water does have more of a poetic ring to it. She didn’t understand why it wasn’t strong enough, since it certainly looked like it was. However, the silly babblings of a drunk pegasus and her parrot-companion were quickly followed by something else.
There was a questioning sound on the tip of Ampere’s drunk tongue; a sound of which its absence had been an endless, cruel taunt to her existence: Why. Around Maren’s enlarged eyes rippled a frown one would say was too deep and dark for the young mare that she in reality was. Finally!, something in her wanted to say, perhaps shout, just for good measure. Why did they die? Where did they go? She wanted to discuss it, seek proof or deny worthless ideas about it. She wanted to cry and laugh because of all the stupid and brilliant ideas that a discussion on this matter would bear… — A lump seemed to have gotten stuck in her throat and she felt the need to swallow it, felt the echoing finally! being dragged down along with it when she realized what and who her thick and forsaken whispers were about.
She was the herds Water Patrol, the Temple Janitor, the Diviner of the Throat, the strange tigerlady with the wings behind her ears... that had been wanting and waiting to give counsel to those that would ask her ever since she had come here. The truth was, only Ampere had ever really invested faith into her wisdom, or had attempted to, at least. That time the Diviner she had called herself to be, had not been able to help Ampere find the answers to the questions she had sought. So what good would Maren be able to do now? What answers could she give to questions filled with grief and mourning? There was no enlightenment there, nothing she could do and so she would fail again. There were no answers now and perhaps, that time, although Maren hadn’t known what the blue girl had been thinking about, there had been none then, either. Did Ampere think that, with the time that had passed, Maren should have become a better Diviner? Maybe. She had often questioned how those three years had moved at all. Sometimes she had imagined herself grown with the dunes, the sands, the winds and the sun that warmed it all, ready to turn into a prehistoric rock; a fossil of a mare once wise and then forgotten. But at least in the form of a fossil she would be able to give wisdom of times long gone away to those that would find her. She had imagined every one of her brain cells becoming a stamp of information. Imagined how, in the end, even without filling the words with her soul, the careful caress of her lips as she could’ve spoken the words herself, her wisdom would finally fulfill a purpose that could not go wrong.
Time was a cruel thing. Knowledge and the search for wisdom could be even more cruel. She hadn't turned to stone, instead she still wore her flesh and blood, wrapped tightly around a foundation of bones and a fragile, pumping heart. Beating, feeling — Cruel, was not the overrated feelings of love or adoration, but were the quivering questioning words, from one beating heart to the next, about its death.
As much as Maren held down the blue masculine body of the pegasus, it was Ampere’s electric gaze, filled with the hopeful search for logic and explanations, that was truly captivating. “Why,” she heard herself tell the drunken girl, for once hating how absurdly rational she sounded. “You should ask the God of Time that, since it was Time that took his flame away. The God of the Sun would have merely guided him.” Maren looked at the girl, a puddle of blue sadness and who knew what else. Of course Maren had never known of the special bond between the two. “He was sick. I am no doctor, but I trust Sikeax medical knowledge. He could not have gone on any longer — He couldn't fight anymore; not for us and not for himself. I don’t know what Gaucho would’ve wanted from you, but I know he would not have wanted you to defile the Temple's entrance over him... — Or at least not when you could’ve been doing other more important things for the herd, anyway, like… Sparring… or or,” she huffed in frustration, what else did guardians do, beside measuring their dicks, insulting religion and ignoring wisdom? “Patrol the borders, you know, warrior stuff.” Who was she kidding, she knew very little about her duties. They were so different, of all the things she knew, she didn’t know what could possibly make a grieving mare, as strong as Ampere, find the power to stand up and live her life.
She only felt something beside silence press on her as she looked at the girl that she was still keeping underneath her, perhaps scared of letting her go now that she did not know what Ampere would do once she did. Perhaps something to hurt herself, perhaps she would find more ways to drown her heart in its sorrow. The safest, most secure thing would be to just not let her go. Maren swallowed a new lump in her throat. But she couldn’t do that, right? That would be idiotic, that would be extreme — even though it doesn’t per se feel that way. Surprised by her own train of thoughts, she finally moved away from Ampere’s warmth, off of her body, erasing her hold that she had held what felt like so long, that she could feel her muscles protest against her moving away, like extinguishing a flame. “Listen,” she started, mostly to distract herself, “I’ll let you rest in the Temple tonight. It’s warmer there and you’ll be protected from the wind and, who knows, maybe the Sun God will know your discomfort and will enlighten you of some of your grief tonight,” :| Maren took a few steps backwards, as if partly wanting to compensate for their earlier closeness. However, she couldn't feign ignorance for the fact that she hadn't minded the control, now that it was gone. “You’ll feel better tomorrow.”
|
.svg/2000px-Google_Chrome_icon_(2011).svg.png){kind=icon}
