[PRP] maybe the real treasure... [Foxy / Shush]

[Maxx D]

The gentle part of the land that bled white into the mud looked just as she remembered. The scatter of shrubs, rocks, seemed to be where they were meant to be. The marks of hooves, clattering, were weathered away by the years, and the only breaths she heard now were her own, heaving from her heavy chest.

A dream, it was a dream.

Her head swivelled to look back, seeing the silhouette of a kiokote, standing at a distance, like the moon.

A most beautiful dream.

Teeth nipped at her, once, twice and by the third time, she interrupted her own dream with an undignified "ow. Teeth."

It was not a dream.

She stood in the place where she had been younger, thinner, weaker. She stood here, where she was supposed to be, where she had meant to be, and felt like a stranger.

"Come, come," she sang to Shush, trying to fill the void. "Come here, Shush."  

[Jun D]

The air was crisp, and chilled, more chilled here than elsewhere, that they had run, and walked, and trampled, and eaten their way through. The water had become colder and colder as they'd moved – the past few days they'd had to break the ice to take a sip. The berries had come frosted, the flowers, the grass.

She had led her to the mountains, after all.

Come, come, the kind doe called, and she went.  

[Maxx D]

"I had never been this far down the peak," she said, almost leaning into her. "Oh, how I wish I could show you better! There is this rock, here," and she walked her over, tapping the rock, "that I had stumbled down against, and laid my head upon its coolness. It is still here. And I slowly crept over, to the brush," another round, as she gently pushed her over, "and still it grows, steady and thorny."

She stood still, and put her face gently into her soft hair.

"I wondered," Foxy whispered, the emotion in her voice unclear, "if this was truly where I was to be, for much of the way had started to look the same. And I knew, because the Ache had subsided.

How I wish you could know that feeling," she lifted her head, "and I too, now. I don't know what I am to do."

She took a while to compose herself, shaking the thoughts away. The slush crunched under her hooves as she stepped back.

"Thank you darling," wholehearted, warm, "thank you so much. I couldn't have made it here without you."  

[Jun D]

Soft, hard, soft. Her touch was soft, hard, soft. Her voice was a velvet murmur, and the scent of soft petals waxed and waned with her distance. She nosed where directed, laid her cheek where gently pushed, but it was her touch, the soft, hard, soft, that she noticed the more.

The kind doe had known the Ache, and knew her place when it ceased. Be that he had had the fortune – he had known, from the start; he merely defied it. But the Ache could not be defied. She had never known it, but that, she knew. Ah – ah, ah, that he had known. What a price he'd paid, and she, as well.

She had led her to the mountains, and now no one knew what to do with themselves.

"You could have…" she said, "…perhaps…"  

[Maxx D]

"No, no," and this time, the tone was sure. "Even if I had actually managed to find my way, I don't think I would had gone far enough to actually arrive. I was - am - so grateful you were with me, Shush, and to have travelled with you was a joy. That you'd come all this way with me, and even told me your name - thank you. Even if I'm still a little lost, I am sure of that."

She smiled, genuine, but the doe could not see. So she nosed her hair back, so she could feel her warmth.  

[Jun D]

The air was crisp, and chilled, so chilled here. Such was the mountains, even at the foot, into the Swamp. And now no one knew what to do with themselves.

"No…" she sighed.

Her touch was warm, her soft, hard, soft, as warm as the mountains were cold.

"Thank you," she sighed.

END