Buoyant are her golden wings

Zahra & Ilham

It was pride that turned angels into devils

Though she hoped her small reassurance would soothe at least some of the disharmony radiating glaringly through his exterior, Zahra knew all the same that Eleos’s transition into the Rift had been nothing less than traumatic. Drawing upon the pains of her own bitter experience (and the time too very recently, when she had lashed out consequently), the maturing pegasus found the weight of enormous empathy sinking her stomach. She wanted so desperately to apologise to him, for she felt somewhat responsible having lured him from everlasting slumber, but all the same, she craved still his company; loved the memories which having him so close, inspired.

As her honey-brown eyes delved into the smouldering pools of gold upon his face, she found before her the expression of a stranger, nay… a friend. Neither, however, seemed to share semblance with her Da.

Eleos stood unnervingly silent for a long while and Zahra’s long ears swivelled, testing the airwaves beyond the stroke of rainfall, near certain that something was moving around them. Restless, she adjusted the lean, strong arms by her side and though there was no sunlight to touch them, the glass-like feathers fringing each wing’s end shimmered with colour. Perhaps encouraged further by her warm kind of patience, the dishevelled stallion began at last to speak.

When all had been revealed, the painted mare sighed heavily.

In truth, she had no clue what a puffball was, or where they might find one, but surely she could assist with the crafting of beauty - though such was in the eye of the beholder, and a good many things less tangible, held loveliness. “Perhaps my weaving could help you create something?” she suggested hopefully. “…I believe also that the cat that you must find lies within these western mists, rather not south or east of the Portal.” Even as she spoke, a rustle of leaves and pale mutter of movement drew her notice hither, and Zahra’s eyes diverted along with his, to scan the near shrubbery.

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