In my dreaming, I felt comfortably lost drifting in the darkness of my fear before a persistent ache caught hold in my heart. It was small ache at first that pursued into an explosion of hurt that startled me from my sleep. Opening my eyes to the starry night above, I wondered what had spoken to me and caused such dread but before I could banish the sense of unease, I heard it. It was the distant pounding of hooves. It alarmed me and prickled the skin on my back. I wasn’t sure why this particular incident seemed to put me on edge, but I was reluctant to ignore it altogether. Around me the world was still asleep, no wandering eye remained open and I felt like this mysterious traveler and I were the only ones still awake. Shifting my sleepy bones, I began to pace toward the havoc that still seemed to alight my nerves with tremors of some emotion that I could not describe.

When wakefulness finally opened my eyes to the realization and importance of what was going on around me, my pace seemed to increase into a lofty run. It was something that I hadn’t done in a while, but as my legs sprung forward and opened above the ground, I almost felt like I was flying. Strings attached to my chest guided me as a shadow in her path, crying out in silence before my mind could register what I was chasing. Who was I following? The cool air of Birdsong opened my lungs and I sucked in the sweet aroma of spring as I raced along the cliff, never taking a chance to look below because I knew that death was the only thing lurking at the bottom. The mist hung heavy around me, but prior navigation was well served as my feet seemed to remember the fine line between staying abroad and falling to the depths below.

When her form finally crossed my line of vision, I flew into a flying stop. The soft ground gathered around my toes as the soft new grass was torn from its bed beneath me. I did not call out to her, not yet. I couldn’t tell if I were dreaming of if this was truly her- Tamira. My heart beat erratically beneath my breast and I was helpless to compose the whimper that passed my lips at the sight of her, so disheveled. Her eyes were wide in fear and anxiety and I wasn’t sure what had caused her to run to The Edge so late in the night. Though, I had an idea of what might bring her here to me. When I had come close enough to inhale her sweet scent, I spoke to her soothingly. “Tamira… What brings you out so late?” My words were heavy with pain because I could see it in her eyes. It was the shifting of her skin, of her attitude, of her mind and I knew that Myriad lay in wait.

Between us the air was thick with tension and I wasn’t sure if there was a way to break it. I wasn’t sure how she felt, why she was here; I didn’t know anything! Anxiety swelled in my stomach and I was broken at the sight of her. Part of me wanted to give her the space she needed for the change and the other part wanted to pull her to me, dash her figurative tears away. I knew that she was panicking because I could see it in her eyes and the way her back was strung so tight that if I were to touch her, she would crumble. I inched closer now, erasing the distance between us and igniting an electricity that emerged only in her presence. My lips parted with words that I could not speak for fear that she would flee. In such a state, I could see that she was sensitive and steady with a need… She needed my comfort and I was more than obliging, if I could only draw her closer, understand her desires.

“I’m glad you came.” On a breath, I sounded tired and weak and perhaps she made me feel this way. My heart became nimble in her grasp and my knees waverd when she was near. I was certain that she needed reassurance, though I wasn’t sure if she had only come because I had promised her help or if she had come because like I needed her, she needed me. The moon beamed down upon us and in her undying light Tamira looked as beautiful as the last time I had seen her. She had grown little by little, her eyes now filled with a new confidence, though it seemed to be shattering under the pressure of what was still unknown to her. Myriad was a force to be reckoned with, though I invited her presence with excitement and wonderment. She was no Tamira though. Both mares, though sharing a single body, were completely opposite and each seemed to draw on different sides of myself that I hadn’t known.

However, I feared them both because of what they held- my heart.

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Walk walk walk.
Talk talk talk.
Think think think.