we.meet.again[kya]

[fearless.]

The cold winter air nipped unforgivinly on the gray and black stallion as he trotted friskily into the Finding You. His daggers kicked up snow as he moved, trying to get his tense muscles warmed up. His ears twitched rapidly as he jogged around in tight circles. He loved the cold weather, but it gave him more energy than he could take. The stallion let out a couple of bucks and whinnied loudly. His ears rang as he came to a stop in to snow.

He lowered his massive body to the ground and rolled like a newborn colt. Snow covered his entire body as he got back on his feet. He shook thoroughly and snow cascaded from his frame in waves. The gray and black stag looked around curiously, waiting to see if anyone would be out on this cold winter's night.

The moon's rays fell softly over him as he stood alone. His mind began to wander as his body stood rigid. It went back to a place where he first met a mare...kya. The frozen stag smiled softly to himself and flicked his banner in rememberance of the Light beauty. His one true love...who didn't even know. She probably didn't even remember who he was. To her he was just a cold hearted Dark who couldn't love...Just thinking about her sent butterflies fluttering in his stomach. What he would give to see her again...

But what about Rainbow? They kind of had a thing for a while...they even had a son, Inferno. Did he really love her as much as Kya? Blink's heart ached just thinking about his loyalties. It probably didn't matter, because he would never see his true love again...

[Forte!]

Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
That I must love a loathed enemy!

The moon cut paths from the stars to the ground, things that only dust and dirt traversed at this late hour. Then nightingale whistled a lowly tune, accompanied by the beating pulse of an owl's mournful cries, no doubt the baleful sonata that accompanied the coming cold. Winter's beauty had already taken hold in the long nights and starkly defined Pleiades, the latticework shadows of bare branches casting through the silver moonbeams that cut through the deep blue sky. The wind told of snows to come, the rains were boiling that would perhaps bring the first glittering of icicles to the picturesque landscape. Life had become scarce, more dense, some mammals already had taken respite for the long cold ahead.

A single form, glittering like flame, crossed the land with the reverence of one who did not wish to be found. Kya had finally found a home, finally found someone who, with time, she might come to love. A real light stag, this time, not the dark beasts that had so haunted her dreams... one in particular. She tried to push it away - he had been the first horse she had met in these lands, so surely that must have had an effect on her. After all... he was only a vicious, stupid, dark stag, after all, not a gentleman, not one who she could ever love, ever live with. No, surely not, for he was her polar opposite, a horse so full of malice and venom and bullheadedness that Kya had believed him to be a creature from the myths that her father had told her... But, there had been something else there, a lightness, a nagging worry that maybe he had attracted the darkness in her that should not have existed.

Suddenly, the mare froze, her eyes widening with disbelief as she was snapped out of her reverie. Her breathing stopped, her tail ceased its perfunctory movements. Was she going insane? This was the stag who she had only just been thinking of! He was downwind, and surely did not know of her approach as of yet... she hoped. An encounter with her dark past was one thing that she didn't need. He ears snapped back, her haunches trembling as if she might run. However, she was rooted to the spot, astounded by the sudden beauty of this creature, this stallion who might at any moment disappear like an apparition. Kya's lips parted, and her breathing started back up with a gasp, too loud, too sudden. That was bad...

[fearless.]

Don't Blink stood absolutely still as his head swam with memories of the night. The night when his whole world was turned upside down. The night when he actually questioned his definition of a Dark. The night when she walked into his pathetic life. She gave him a purpose. She gave him a burning desire to turn his life around...but she would never even know...

His iced orbs closed regretfully as a heavy sigh escaped from his black kissers. Why did he ever leave her? Could he not see that everything he wanted was right in front of his face? Could one stag really be that stupid?

Blink's heart ached as he remember her sweet, yet stubborn, personality. She was trying to act tough around him...because he was trying to act tough around her. It broke what little heart he had to think that she had been afraid of him. Did he really come off as that scary?

The stallion's mind was jolted harshly back to reality by the gasp of another. His cranium snapped to face the noise as he struggled to see the form in the night. A femme's body danced before his hazy eyes. Could it be? Wha....his heart leaped into his throat as he saw his beloved! There she was! Right before him..but...she looked...scared?

His knees became wobbly as he looked into Kya's fearful eyes. He frowned to himself and shook his dial sadly. He backed up slightly on weak legs and turned on his haunches. She didn't want to see him...he didn't deserve her.

Blink's head hung low as he walked away from the mare slowly. His heart could only take so much...

[Forte!]

It is my lady; O, it is my love!
O, that she knew she were! --
She speaks, yet she says nothing: what of that?

Kya's ears shifted a bit, coming off of her head as he turned. The fear of being trapped by some ghost had passed as the moonlight and the branches cast their shadows across his patchwork back. She stood, staring, for longer than she should have, longer than her eyes should allow. She hated him! She tried to remember that, but it would not come. Oh, for a moment her heart accelerated, jumping into her throat as she stared at his back. What was that she had seen on his face? Grief? Regret? She stared now at his shaking knees, her own already shuddering in time to his. Why had they been drawn here, as if inevitably, by some cruel fate? Her love - or her lust, perhaps - for him could never be one that was granted. For he was a dark, and she was a light, and they were destined only to hate one another, to tear at one another's throats, to fight, to die...

For a moment, she did nothing, speech prickling across her skull. But... what would she say? He expected her to turn him away... to fight him and rage against him as she had. But she had no heart for that. Perhaps it was only the sleepless night, haunted by bitter memories. But all of her hate for him had been drained away now, replaced only by awe and... well... she didn't know what this other feeling was. Finally, she let out a sigh, and a single word escaped her lips... "B-...Blink?" she stammered, although she knew it was him. Every curve in that face was etched in her memory, every tendency of movement. Her ears laid back again, eyes wide like those of a deer, glittering amber in the stark moonlight as she took a step back. She would not run... not now, not now that she had spoken.

"Blink..." She said again, almost as if to assure herself. "Why...?" Her ears laid back against her neck, her forelock falling over one eye, her lips slightly parted as she stared at his beautiful form. The question faded on the chill Autumn wind, and she shivered in her pelt, before finally taking her foot back up and stepping forward again, towards him, away from where she should be going. Somehow, strangely, she was glad to see him... Someone who she should never be glad to see, never be glad to meet.

[fearless.]

A soft sigh escaped through Blink's weary kissers as he walked away from the best thing that had ever happened to him. Why now? After he already had a herd and a son...why? His lips trembled slightly at this thought and he shook his coal mane.

His ears swiveled instinctively as he heard Kya's honey coated voice. It echoed in his mind like a yell off canyon walls. His head swam with memories of her. Her face, her voice, her very being. Blink's mind reeled uncertainly as he stopped dead in his tracks. Her words glued him to the ground. His legs failed him as he tried to move away from the impossible. They could never work...he was down to the bone dark and she was...well, she was the definition of light. How could something like this happen? How could they have let it get this far? Nothing good could come from this.

Blink closed his sky blue orbs and took a deep breath. He lowered his head and just listened to her voice. After all this time it still was a beautiful song to him. The way she pronounced her words made his heart flutter inside his colossal body. She affected him in so many ways that nobody else could.

Blink swallowed hard and flicked his tail. A moment of silence drifted in the air before he spoke, "Kya....." His throat closed unvoluntarily and Blink struggled to speak. "I-I...umm....I don't know...." Blink pursed his satin lips and inwardly scolded himself. He had waited so long for her and that was all he could say?

[Forte!]

My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words
Of that tongue's utterance, but I know the sound...

Oh, how she wished that he would turn, that she could see that face again, outlined in reflection of her own in the stark moonlight. The nightingale sang a high tremelo from its safe hovel in the branches of the bone-bare trees. Kya looked up sadly. All of its friends had retreated to warmer grounds, and now the songbird was left to face the cold alone. Yet the bird's fate seemed better than her own - to live and love what she could never love, to never utter of her devotion to this one that stood before her in the moonlight. Ah, she had named the feeling, and as she did it came over her like a wave. But it only crushed her spirit, for before her stood one who she could never tell of her love, one who certainly would never return her pleas. She tried to remind herself of Batty, of that stallion so akin to her own heart, with whom she would surely be happy. For she could never be happy with this beast, could she? But the thought only broke her heart more, for she knew that her feelings for Batty would never be this... this close to her, yet so distant. This love was like a feather brushed across her for an instant, fleeting, asking for chase that she would not allow herself to give.

She indulged in his voice, in that slightly hissing sound of the darkness therein. But he sounded... confused, ashamed. Of her? Of turning his back on one who had once turned her back on him? She could not understand what he said. But... her name. He remembered her name - no matter how fleeting their acquaintance. What did that say? Was there hope after all? She could barely speak for all of these words that twined around her head. Oh, but her heart kept wanting to jump out of her throat, to sing of this love that now filled her entire brain and form to burst. Tears came to her eyes, sparkling in the cold and in the moonlight, and as hard as she tried to blink them away they would not go. When she spoke, her voice caught in her throat, stumbling over the turmoil of emotions that raged in her very soul. She trembled violently, her pelt seeming too thin as the chill winter wind whipped across her pelt. "It is cold..." She whispered, for lack of a better thing to say, but the words came unbidden, like song, "and it is dark. Do not things hide in the dark that we do not wish to see?"

[fearless.]

Blink could feel Kya's gaze on his back. Did she want him to just leave? She would never know of his true feelings...it was impossible, and besides, she would never love him in return. It wasn't logical. They would never work together. They were polar opposites...destined to be apart. The thought ached Blink's heart, but he knew it was true.

The wind whipped against his frame like knives, penetrating to his very soul. His body shivered in the moonlight. He wasn't sure if it was from the cold or from his sadness. Blink sighed and took a small step backwards, towards his love. "Kya...I...It is rather cold." He shook his head and continued as he turned to face the gorgeous mare. "Yes...darkness does have a tendency to that very crime." His mind spun out of control. Should he just confess his feelings and hope for the best? Would she reject him? Most likely...

Blink sucked in a shuddering breath as he caught full sight of Kya for the first time in a long while. Her beauty astounded him, leaving him utterly speachless. A gasp escaped from his lips as he took a step backwards. Emotions flooded his body and mind completely as he stared at his true love. Right then, nothing else mattered. Nothing except for her and him. They were meant to be...nobody could tell them otherwise. His eyes brimmed with a liquid that was new to the stallion. He had never actually cried before, but now tears glistened on his coal cheeks.

"Kya...its been so long...." He stood, glued to the ground, waiting to see if she would be angry at his actions.

[Forte!]

I have night's cloak to hide me from their sight;
And but thou love me, let them find me here:
My life were better ended by their hate,
Then death prorogued, wanting of thy love.

Her jaw parted as his face came into view, her eyes glistening at her words. True, night did show things she did not wish to see. Her love, at last, before her... But the sight was a terrible one, a sinful one, perhaps. Should she not gaze upon this face that she held as dearly as her own? Her heart was beating faster now, pounding a staccato rhythm against her chest, anxiety swelling. Oh, his words filled her with such sweet sorrow, such great desire! Did he not know of these things? For surely they were forged upon her features, now, cast in stone and iron and plain before his sight. But as she met his eyes a shudder wracked her body, a premonition. No, this would never work. But for her happiness, for her life to be joyous and lovely, it must... But it could not.

"I think... that tonight brings things that I shall never cast my eye on again," she murmured, adding to herself: my truelove's face that never shall I see again... Can it be that I must leave him now? But she would not, could not, leave. Her eye took hold of his, and then she saw the glimmering of tears in his own eyes, and her heart uttered a cry that almost escaped her lips. Oh, grief! She could see now the understanding between them, the thread drawn tight by their very presence together. Did he not love her as she loved him? His eyes said that he did... And that he had known it, and thought of her. Perhaps their dreams had been of one, together at last, now... But, it was cold... And it felt... no, not wrong. It felt right, but with the hint of forbiddenness that was almost alluring.

"Too long," she murmured, her voice rising now in excitement as she came toward him, so close that she could see the steam rising from his every breath. She was afraid to touch him, for fear that he might pass like that mist, that he might disappear as suddenly as he had come. Her ears flickered, willing him to lift his head, to see his tears reflected in her own eyes. For sorrow came over her like a boulder, crushing the hope that she had only just felt the fluttering of. No! What would the others think? A dark and a light could not be one in twain! But, she could not stop herself from speaking: "Or, perhaps... Perhaps too short. Should we not have forgotten one another?"

[fearless.]

A half smile enveloped his onyx kissers as he took in his love's beauty. Her entire being was etched in his mind permanently. It couldn't be erased even if he wanted it to be. His mind was on nothing else but her.

Blink saw her body shudder and frowned part way. Was she really that afraid to see him? He could sense a new feeling from her...what was it? Did she, maybe, not hate his guts? His hopes soared as he stared into the eyes of Kya. Did she feel the same? Her eyes almost pleaded with him to feel that fire, that burning passion. But they also knew it was wrong...right in so many ways, but wrong in the same.

The gray and black stopped breathing momentarily as she approached him. He could feel the heat radiating off her body and didn't dare move, for fear of disrupting this perfect moment. How desperately he wanted to reach out and touch her, but he dare not.

"Yes, too long indeed..." He grew dizzy by her presence and closed his eyes to reassure himself. What would be his next move? Risk everything or go back to the normal? He knew what his choice would be, but what about Kya? Did she want to go out on a limb and lose everything she has?

"Maybe...but I'm glad I didn't forget..." Blink raised his head to be level with Kya's and sighed deeply. He closed his eyes and kept his stone head close to her elegant one. He was pretty sure his breath would cascade over her gorgeous face and he didn't dare move. His body was close to hers, but not even the slightest of pelt was touching. They couldn't risk it.

[Forte!]

How silver-sweet sound lovers' tongues by night,
Like softest music to attending ears!

He was so close now... It was almost magnetic. She wanted nothing more than to reach out, to touch him, to feel his fur beneath hers, to wash away his tears that mirrored her own. She sighed quietly, trembling as she stood before him, vulnerable, silent. What was there to say? Th air already seemed as if it were full of things so long unspoken that they began to speak for themselves. She met his gaze as evenly impossible, teetering dangerously on the edge of touching him, coming closer to him.

Their faces were so close now that even a needle could not have been threaded between them. Mist from their breath rose into one ball, one rising beast, entangled, fighting with itself as Kya's heart did now. It skipped a beat in it's staccato rhythm across her chest, and she felt as if Blink would be able to hear it now, so loud was it thumping in her breast. It threatened to leap out of her, to embrace this love that belonged to her, belonged to them both now.

"Oh, Blink," she said, her voice breaking as a single tear ran down her face. "Oh, Blink! Oh... We can't, Blink... We can't..." she whispered, her voice urgent, keeping time with her hear. sorrow filled her now. She could not bear to leave him... No... She was willing to risk everything for him. But she was so afraid to. So afraid to fall under his spell now, when finally it seemed that she might be happy at last. She felt like pouring forth with tears, or else coming to him and caressing him like she wanted so badly. "But... we will... won't we?"

Those last words came to her lips quietly, so quietly she could barely hear them herself. If they had not been so close, like poles of a magnet held together unwillingly, he would not have even heard her speak. But as it was, he undoubtedly would.

"So am I... more glad than you know," she said. Desire almost overcame her, and another tear followed the path of the first. Suddenly, she burst, like a dam flowing forth. She went to him suddenly, burying her head in his shoulder, smelling his sweet flesh just below her nostril. His warmth overcame him, a sense of relief and also of danger overpowering her. It was so right... it was so wrong. Ir was so much, so great, so terrible. But, it was meant to be.

[fearless.]

Blink's eyes welled as the distance between them grew smaller with every second. She wanted him, too...that thought kept him from turning on his haunches and getting away from the great unknown. This was wrong! But, it felt so right.

His body radiated warmth, and he could feel Kya's breath on his face. It smelled sweet, of flowers and everything wonderful in this world. Emotions took his mind and heart somewhere he knew he could not go, but so desperately wanted to. He cleared his throat before speaking, "Kya...." She knew that this wouldn't work...

His heart fell to the pit of his stomach as she spoke of the impossible, only to raised back up by her muttered words. His ears pricked noticably, barely hearing the whisper. Had he heard right? Did she just ask if they will? Blink's heart leaped into his throat and his eyes opened rapidly, only to be filled with more liquid. "Oh, Kya....yes." His body longed to touch hers, and before he knew it, it was. The two were finally together.

Blink caressed Kya softly, nuzzling her with a sincerity he'd never known possible. His forlock and mane were flung across her body, but he didn't even notice. He could smell her all around him, sending a warmth radiating through his body. This was difinitely right. "Kya...I love you...." His words chocked out of his throat unexpectedly before he could pull them back in.

[Forte!]

My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand,
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

Oh how she wished that she could flee now... and leave him, leave these thoughts of him to fall unbidden. But, her love was now whole, and she would not leave him. Not ever, not even at the risk of her own life. Her love for him was far too much for these silly follies, far too overpowering for her ever to want to leave his presence. The feel of him, the smell of him, the very radiance of his perfect face held her, never, perhaps, to let go of her until the day of her death.

She could still feel his darkness in every part of her body, something that she had once detested so was now the very essence of her love. He smelled of wild, of blood, of now those salty tears that caressed his fine features. She listened to him whispering her name, causing her heart to flutter. Oh, this love was too much for her. It might cause her to keel over, dead, but even that would be such a happy end for her to meet. "Blink..." she whispered back, her lips nearly touching his ear as she lifted her head from his shoulder.

She pressed herself to him, her bodice memorizing his every perfect contour, his fine pelt rubbing against her. She lowered her head to his chest, listening to his steady heartbeat there. Her own was racing still, humming almost it went so fast. Danger coursed through her, the fear that this would end badly. But she would rather die than lose this love. She knew then that she could never love another as she loved Blink. Even if she had to carry on without him, or he without her, neither could have satisfaction now that they were in true love's caress.

She felt the rough hair of his mane fall across her neck, draping her, hiding her features in brilliant white and gray. She huddled close to him, trembling with emotion, overflowing from the deepest reaches of her heart and soul. His words coursed through her, she drank in them. He had spoken it, now, and she knew that this wouldn't end well for them either. That spoken word, that silent promise, only put a seal on how they felt, how they loved one another so completely.

"Oh, Blink..." she whispered, nuzzling him tenderly, burying her face in the nook behind his shoulder, "I love you, too. More than I have ever loved anything." The words, so simply spoken, sounded eerie as the moon overhead cut across the clearing, reflecting on their joined pelts. Her's, as bright as fire, contrasted so with his that they shone off one another, so similar, yet so unalike...

[fearless.]

Blink's lyrics fell earily over her body as the two stood together in perfect harmony. "Kya...oh, Kya. Kya.....I..." His words caught in his throat as he choked on new tears. This new emotion was too much for him. He wasn't supposed to love! Especially not a light! It was wrong...forbidden. Nobody would understand their love. Nobody would even try to understand it. It was commonly accepted in all alliances...You loved within your own kind. Anything else was suicide.

Blink shook his head slightly, every movement moving him and Kya. Their pelts were entertwined as one, much like their hearts. His emotions clouded his mind...but not enough to know what was right. He couldn't do this...not because it would affect him...but it would affect her. If they weren't killed they would be banished. He coudn't stand to see his love in pain. No matter how much it hurt...he had to let her go...

Blink pulled away gently, his face only inches from her own. His warm breath radiated onto her heavenly features as the words fell painfully from his mouth. "Kya...we can't..." His voice was lost as he took a few steps away from her. "You have no idea how bad I want to...but...it just isn't possible." Tears formed in the corners of his eyes and he blinked them away feverishly. His heart was slowly breaking. Falling into pieces with every word that came from his cursed lips. They trembled like prey as his mouth formed the words. Blink's orbs closed angrily as he stepped further away. Anger to himself for allowing this to happen. Allowing it to get this far.

The gray and black beast's head hung low as his eyes begged for forgiveness from his only love. "I take full responsibility for this...and I will take the punishment. You continue your life and I will tell them that it is I who loves you...but..." His throat clogged with tears that were already pouring down his face. It was like a dam had broke and the tears of his life were breaking through. He managed to choke out his last words. "Please don't forget me...."

[Forte!]

Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied,
And vice sometime's by action dignified.

His scent mingled with hers, and for a moment Kya wished that she could simply melt away into him, become a part of him. Her breath joined his on the frosty air, her heart held in her mouth. Tears streamed down her cheeks, onto his warm flesh, as sorrow seized her. For she knew, as he knew, that this bliss could not last for long. That they could never, never, never, be happy this way. That this would end in death or banishment, or, even worse, separation. For the briefest moment she knew that, if it came to that, she would gladly die for him. As long as he would be happy, she would do anything for him. But neither could be happy if either was without the other, and her heart lay heavy in her breast as she stepped away, tears glinting in the silver moonlight, dappling the snow at her feet with holes.

His words wrenched her heat, rent her heart into a strange form, and as she stared at him wordlessly the flow of tears ceased, becoming a silent, steady mourning for her love. She missed his shape beside her already, shivering in the cold air as she stared at him like a lost foal. A mournful cry rose in her throat, and it almost past her lips... But she had to be strong for him. "Blink... no..." she whispered, but she knew that there was no end but pain for this love. "Just as we have found it, it has been torn away... Oh, my love!" The last word was a sob, trembling past her tired lips as she stared at her heart's other half, that dark-spotted stallion.

At his next words, she shied away, "No! Blink!" she cried, the tears streaming again from her dark, mournful eyes, "you mustn't leave... stay in these lands, at least... for I cannot bear to be so far from you and never ever rest my eyes upon yours again..." Oh, the thought of even leaving him tonight would be torture! She could not endure a lifetime without him, much less forever. She knew that it would be even harder for them if they both stayed - forced to live apart but always feeling the presence of one another, always longing to simply run to one another. Possibly even having to fight each other in some war, if it came to that. "Blink... oh, Blink... run away with me." But even as she said it, Kya knew that Blink could not, would not leave his herd, his mares. She knew that he cared for them, as well.

Was there no solution to this sorrow? Kya's heart felt like it had been ripped into a thousand pieces, each heartstring broken in time and now shattered. She could not cry now, the air had frozen in her tear glands, and frost formed on the lines where the moisture had fallen across her pelt. She knew that this love could never be, but she wanted with all of her heart to stay with Blink, to bear him foals and live happily with him forever. "Blink..." she whispered his name again, steeping back, not daring to run to him and comfort him. Should she just leave? Tear his heart up, too? She knew that, if it meant that he could love again, she could pretend to hate him. But, how could she do such a thing to such a beautiful angel?

[fearless.]

Fate brought them together..would fate, too, tear them apart? Could he really leave, even if he wanted to? Would his lovesick heart allow such a thing? Blink couldn't stand the thought of being away from his love for more than a second. How would they live away from eachother, with just their eyes to show the love? He wouldn't be able to embrace his angel or to caress her bodice.

Blink's hot tears cascaded down his cheeks as she cried out. "Kya! I can't!" His words were tinted with fear at their situation. "You know as well as I do that this won't work. How can I show you my love when you will be with Batty? How can I prove myself to you when I'm supposed to hate you? I won't be able to look at you or touch you like I want to!" His body shook with frustration as he spoke. He knew his words would hurt, but that was the only way. He had to make her hate him for her own benefit.

No matter how much it hurt...he had to protect her. Blink's eyes opened at her preposterous statement. "Run away with you? You know I can't...I have duties to my herd...I wish....Oh! I wish I could my love! Why do you make my heart ache so?!?" His head low to the ground, a wail of agony broke through his parted kissers. This wasn't fair! His heart was broken in front of him..one half gone. He had already given his heart to the beauty.

"I don't know what to do, Kya. I can't be away from you!" HIs mind reeled as he ran to her side and their bodies became one again. "I can't stand it! You have my heart!" Tears streamed down his face as he embraced her lovingly. "Please forgive me...."