Stella trills happily, and my guess is proven correct. I move a little more quickly now to her side. She doesn't seem particularly happy to see me - but then, she is probably horrendously ashamed of her appearance. After all, her beauty is perhaps her most identifying factor, at least to her. I know her to be a good and true friend, loyal to those she cares about. She is beautiful, don't get me wrong, all golden locks and charm and sweet words. But I know her better than that. "Hello, Stella," I call, and my voice is calmer now, though her emaciated body sends pangs of nausea through me. It's not the appearance, though - it's worry.
"Am I really so hideous?" she asks, and with the worry, a blossom of guilt grows in my breast. "I... well, yes," I say bluntly. There's no nice way to put it, really - she doesn't even look like the same mare. "But that's not what concerns me. Are you sick? Are you..." I trail off, not sure what else it could be. "I've been cursed." Oh, well that just explains everything, now, doesn't it? I stare at her. "What in the world... no, I don't want to know. If it helps, Stella gave you away. I might not have..." Would it be better or worse for her to think I might not have recognized her?
"And, for the record, I'm glad she did!" I continue with a reproachful look. "If I'd known you were going to go off and get cursed, I never would have let you go alone!" I stretch my maw toward her belly, so distended, so grotesquely disproportionate. Does the curse affect her foal? Just how cruel is the Moon Goddess? A shudder passes over me, and I think of my own rounded belly. I am not yet as large as Phaedra, but there is a definitive bulge. What would I do if I were cursed like this? Does she eat? Can she eat? Is the foal going to be healthy? Or will it be cursed as well? How long with the effects last?
What in the world did she do?
"talk talk talk"
Live... I want to live on fire
Die... I want to burn out brighter
Brighter than the northern lights
Want to live to feel the daylight
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