Fading Waterfalls

He allows her to cry and Terra is eternally grateful to the icy-hued boy. This is a big step for the earthen girl who had never wandered more than a few yards from the place that her family had dumped her. The small girl had survived on her own for months but now that she has found Lotus… she never wants to be alone again. She speaks about the meat and finding the sharp object, working to make her brain understand that the icy boy with horns will be here when she returns. But doubt is an ugly creature, gnawing away at the back of the girl’s mind and she once again presses herself into his chest where she feels safe and warm. She even turns her head to listen to the beating of his heart.

Real. This is all real. Terra repeats her mantra and Lotus speaks which has a smile tugging her lips upward and her small form presses further into him for one more moment. But there is work to be done and she separates herself from him, confidently moving to gather the required object. The water has mostly disappeared, the rain having long since stopped. Although, the dark, ominous clouds hang heavy in the sky like a lingering bad smell, they do nothing to dampen the earthen girl’s spirits. Emerald eyes search the ground, finding that the flash flood had kicked up and thrown many different rocks and debris.

The whole time she searches, the girl’s black-masked face keeps turning back to the hill that Lotus waits on, tail wagging loosely at her hips as she thinks of the icy boy waiting for her. In the end, Terra finds a long, mostly flat rock that tapers on end and is bulbous on the other. Hoping that they can sharpen the one end, the earthen girl gathers the rock in her mouth and quickly lopes her back to where Lotus is. To her immense relief, the boy is still there, working on the deer as he had promised. Emerald eyes brighten as she approaches, mouth curling upward around the rock she had found to form a warm, relieved smile.

Swiftly, she moves up next him, depositing her offering and reaching up to give the boy a quick lick across his cheek. He had kept his word and Terra knows that he will never abandon her. Turning her attention to the rock, cheeks burning, she says, “I… uh, I found this. Maybe we can sharpen it somehow? I can look for something! I just…” The words fade away as she ponders what to say. I just didn’t trust that you wouldn’t leave? I was afraid you had lied to me like the rest of the wolves in my life? In the end, Terra doesn’t finish the sentence, her emerald gaze falling to look at the rock as she shuffles her paws uncertainly.


"Terra Qilaq"