He was not a vindictive creature when it came to pranks, nor had he meant to hit her, but there he was, pulling spikes from the ground and there she was, jumping into it for some unfathomable reason. Or was his aim so badly off, that the distance from her had been too short? That he'd accidentally set it off just against her flank? That could've gone badly — very badly. Exhaling through wide nostrils he pushed his dark muzzle against the cool pillar, feeling the sharp texture of frost upon his sensitive skin. They were the weapons of his legacy, of his bloodlines and of his soul, and at the same time, they were his toys. But they had no blunt edges. Sharp swords make bad playthings, and even if the tip itself had been far from her, the crisp body of the spike had smacked against her. Well, in one way they were well and truly even now. The left side of his body throbbed dully from the encounter with the wall, and a few streaks of red upon his withers shimmered in the starlight. Fear and pain had been given and taken in more or less equal amounts, and as she gave a short laugh, he couldn't help but do the same. Something about her seemed a bit annoyed at having the same kind of thing sprung back at her, the shadows biting back. "Now more than ever," he replied airily, a familiar smile tugging at his lips and turning the corners of his mouth up.

A heartbeat or so passed in which his attention remained upon his creation; it thrummed with the dying embers of power, a celestial echo linked to the rush of chill in his blood. He could feel it waning as the powers holding it together faded, and despite the edge of cold in the night the power of the Sun was coming, slowly creeping up on them. Tallsun's budding warmth demanded that his ice not linger, and with a small, resigned sigh Mauja released his grip on the ice. With a shudder it splintered even as it fell, the earth sighing as it swallowed it up again. Nothing remained to mark the spot where it had stood, save for a few droplets of water, but even as he watched them they sunk into the earth. Were all of their existences like that? Powerful in their prime, but ultimately brief, traceless? The world had spun for ages without them; and it would spin for ages more, without them. A burned forest could regrow, and a regrown forest be burned, but what impact upon the earth did mortal lives have? They were like the rain, coming, falling, disappearing.

She was watching him. Slowly his ears rotated back, until he brought his pale head around to look upon her eyes. Blue met black. He had sometimes mused on how black eyes looked soulless, as they were nothing but pits of shadows and dark voids, but somehow, hers did not seem so; here and there the stars shimmered or struck upon silver pieces. They gleamed, but they were not the naive eyes of a summer child — there was something darker to them, concentration, something like a thoughtful question not voiced aloud. Blinking slowly every once in a while Mauja kept looking at her, at her eyes, wondering what she wanted, what she wanted to know. Or was she merely thinking on her own? Slowly his own gaze lost its dark edge, growing softer, gentler, and his head tilted slightly to the side. Breaths pooled around their muzzles in the moist air, and he flicked his tail. "You're wondering something," he said quietly, stating it as a truth even though he was not sure. It was either that, or she was sunk deep in thoughts regarding him, which would explain the focused intensity of her gaze. "But I don't know what to answer." Even if he knew the question, would he be able to? His thoughts seemed to slide and collide, crash and roil, to break apart at the merest touch and drown in the roaring sea; even if he followed a train of it, it could shatter in an instant, and he would no longer remember what he had been thinking. What he had been intending, doing, and just as his focus could never keep straight, so couldn't his emotions. Always shifting, never staying the same, as he tried to remember who he had been, and find out who he was now.

Mauja Frosthjärta