Strolling for Stories

She gleed in the dancing water beneath her, all grace for once as she danced from stone to stone. How she had practiced this game when there were none to be found...

"The key is change," Sign called merrily, carefully grazing a hoof over a stone before hopping to the next one. "You cannot settle and be still, cannot try and grip things, but you must flow and change with the stones you dance upon!"

Nickering in sheer playfulness she jumped for another stone, but placed too much weight on her back left hoof. It slipped almost instantly, sending her sprawling in the stream, rolling onto her back to keep the flowing water from rushing up her nose.

It rather looked the nasty spill, the way her legs simply slid from under her, toppling her on her side. If she hadn't started to roll about to get up as soon as she hit, it would have looked nastier still.

She stood with a grunt, shaking off as much of the chill water as she could with a laugh. Prancing, she turned a circle and glared at the stream, trying her best not to laugh.

"Hey, you got me, you big meanie!"

With that, she pounced her front hooves into the water and jumped back onto the stones, grinning broadly as Songhue's laughter drifted over.

"It was she that taught me this game, a time I remember well for it has not long passed. It may do some good yet, to share this tale as well."

In a short pause, Flutter quickly checked on Songhue and stopped to watch the serian gliding across the stones like a ballerina. She nickered in appreciation and bobbed her head a bit, but listening to Sign cheerily calling out, Flutter started muttering under her breath. She was doing the best she could, and thought she was doing rather well considering. “One has to get the hang of it before flying about like a water-monkey, after all,” she grumbled as she redoubled her efforts to skim over the stones smoothly and quickly.

She was just beginning to bring her head up a bit and look at the stones a bit farther in front of her, seeing a path of sorts, when all at once, the other mare went down and Flutter gasped. Watching the scene play out as though in slow motion, she sucked in her breath, sure there would be major injuries from such a fall. But miraculously Sign stood and shook herself and – Flutter couldn’t believe it – began to laugh! Flutter stared in open amazement as the mare tried to glare at the water, a smile pulling at the sides of her mouth the whole time. Her heart began to slow its frenzied pace and she took a deep breath.

Before Sign could take off again over the stones, Flutter reached out her neck and whuffled a breath on the other’s cheek. Having said all she needed to on that matter, she perked her ears and said, “I would be very glad of the distraction a tale would provide just now.” She just couldn’t resist adding, “But I could’ve sworn you called it stone hopping, dear, and not stone tumbling!” Her laugh was a bit shallow and her voice a bit shaky, so she shook herself thoroughly and began hopping stones in circular patterns, looking ahead now and not down and taking care not to rush. She did let her feet flow, but she held on just the slightest bit as well.

She smiled as Flutter started to move easier, checking on this other from time to time as she struggled to flow with the way the rocks slid. It was good, seeing someone catch on to the trick it had taken her weeks to learn.

"Just like that, very nice! You'll be outsriping me soon, with those back paws of yours."

Laughing, she pulled a face as Flutter declaired the game had not been called stone tumbling, her eyes glowing merrily.

"I had been in a strange state of mind when I came to be with Songhue. It was not easy, having the bond between myself and Wolfy severed, even if I was placed in the care of the fae when it happened. I spent a lot of time alone."

Her ears flicked slightly at the memory, days of wandering her new home flashing through her mind in mere moments. A small smile lingered on her lips, yet her eyes grew heavy with the visions.

"She came to me one day, as she did from time to time, and asked if I knew what was wrong... Or if I lived in a blank state of confused pain. I didn't know how to answer her, in truth."

The small hand, the soft touch, a calming breeze... The sweet smell of the sea nearby. Even then, something about the fae's presence had helped her.

Songhue smiled as Sign's words carried her, standing with a flick of her wings and some obvious effort, a breeze springing up to brush Sign's forelock aside. The mare smiled, gliding easier over the stones, watching her bonded out of the corner of her eye as the tale was woven between the pair.

"Do you know why the streams do not sink into the earth in defeat, my tender droplet?"

"There is too much water, I had thought."

"It is so, in a way.. Yet I ask you, if these waters stilled, what would come of the stream?"

"It would lose it's source and become dry."

"So in order to live, these waters must move constantly, is it not so? They must ever churn and change"

"Yes, I suppose, M'Lady."

"I know this change is hard for you. I also know that you are no stream, fair one. Yet perhaps this stream will help you to see that while change may be difficult, it can also be good."

"These streams flow easily, though, strange one. How can they know what it is, to have such a thing happen?"

"They do not flow so easily, my dear. Look, and you will see."

"The stones?"

"Aye, the stones. They ever hinder the progress, the change, the flow of life. And yet, the aid it as well."

The little fae smiled here and hopped across the stream on the stones, just as she had so long ago. Sign snorted lightly, ears flicking in amusement as they relived this moment, together.

"That aids you, M'Lady, not the stream."

"Ah, yet where would my feet have gone if not for the stones? Within the water, to hinder the flow."

A pause, a moment where the Sign that skipped over the stones stared into the eyes of the fae that stood on the bank. A small breeze touched their faces, the moment building in intensity as Sign stilled, hooves splishing in the stream before quieting.

"Such things that hinder the flow of life and bring change can be used for aid, if one but knows how, dear Sign. Can you use these stones and unlock their secret? Or will you give up on such a thing the first time you fall into the water."

"Why would I bother, if I am ever to fall?"

"Because there will always be water there to catch you, Sign."

Flutter kept stopping herself from thinking about this stone hopping too much. She kept an echo of Sign’s cheery advice ringing distantly in her mind, for it was still not easy by any means. She practically glowed at the other’s praise, her spirits rising even more. Head tossed and neck arched, she continued her circles.

But as Sign’s new words penetrated the echo, Flutter’s eyes hardened and her hoof met the next stone roughly as her smooth stride was stiffened. Bonds were not a subject that she particularly wanted to discuss. The rock shifted a bit and made a small noise, but she was already moving on.

She followed this conversation with rapt attention at first, and then less so as the memories came rolling in. She had once shared such an intimate connection with her bonded, so long ago. She circled on, lost in thought and memory.

“What if it is not worth it?” she interrupted suddenly, with a chill in her voice. “This bond…. ‘tis a mighty risk. I should think losing is more to the bad than wining is to the good.”

Sign stepped forward with a small smile here, gently pressing her nose into Songhue's hand as the other cradled her face. Such memories.

"'Twas no lesson of bonding, fair Flutter, but one of life itself. Would that she healed and smiled instead of letting the stones stop her. That she would explore her own heart and mind to untangle the knot of pain."

She rubbed the mare's nose, absently almost, and nodded towards the stream with a small flick of her wings. Bonding was not a topic with her, for she was ever focused on naught but life.

"Put your mind at ease, my dear, and watch the waters. How they flow and shift and accept what is put in their path."

A slight shiver that had nothing to do with the cool stream water passed up the mare’s back and she shook herself, opening her wings and stretching them wide before changing her rhythm on the stones and opening her circle to weave a random pattern over the rocks.

“Yes Songhue. I understand. I do not speak solely of bonding. But were I this water I would change my course, that I needn’t encounter the stones. Sorrow and pain and loss are supposed to be a necessary part of life, and beautiful – useful, even - in their own right. But still I cannot accept such a path… cannot let myself go enough to try, even. I have watched a most precious exchange just now, and don’t think I don’t know the beauty of it. But the loss of such a wonder is shattering, and if one can heal… why by the moon would one wish to take on the chance of such a crippling again?”

Realizing that her wings were another advantage, she kept them spread for a little extra balance. Their vibrant colors glimmered in the moonlight, gold, orange, yellow, red, and even a little bit of blue. They gave her a little bit of reassurance, and she released the tension her muscles were trying to hold to.

She still plopped her feet into the water on many occasions, but she simply kept going as though she hadn't, trying to steady her rhythm and her mind. It seemed the conversations you didn’t want to have had themselves anyway. Just like some younglings; let them have an inch and they go a mile.