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There was a chill in the air. A bite not deep enough to cut to the bone, but enough to give an ache. With the cool air came a creeping silence—the wind was still and the forest was breathless. The crunch of leaves beneath hooves carved through the silence, its cadence slow and methodical and the pale mare wove her way between the foliage. Kaelyn walked at a thoughtful pace. With a quiet reverence that came with age. Those steps came to a halt when she turned a corner and laid eyes on the familiar mare.
It nearly felt as though her heart stopped for a moment, as well.
Kaelyn’s granddaughter stood taller than she, though despite the contribution from her sire and grandsire the two shared a slighter of frames. That was the extent of their similarities. Takhi’s dark coloring, now more marred with scars that evidence of battle than the last time Kaelyn had seen her, set them boldly apart.
“Grandmother.” Kaelyn remembered the timbre of Takhi’s voice always being moderate. Reserved, as though there was something that the mare was intentionally holding back.
“Takhi,” Kaelyn returned, taking a step forward to close the distance. After Kanti had been cursed, the children had been raised by their father. Kaelyn hadn’t been a part of her only grandchildren’s lives, partially out of the distance that had already been established between herself and her daughter, but also from the debilitating grief that had etched its way into Kaelyn’s heart, having lost her daughter a second time.
Regardless of the reason, the guilt had become a heavy weight that had nested into her chest.
The silence that followed was heavy and it seemed to last an eternity. It only broke when Kaelyn spoke again. “I… I’ve heard that it was you that brought your mother back.”
Takhi maintained eye contact for another moment before breaking it and looking to the space beyond her grandmother thoughtfully. “I wouldn’t go as far as to say that she is ‘back.’ She is not…. mindless as she was, but neither is she the same as she was before.” Another pause. “…But yes. It was I.” Her bright pink eyes once again made contact with Kaelyn’s and it struck the older mare how their eyes were a different version of the same hue. Takhi’s were a bold brilliance while hers were soft and withdrawn.
There was a pang in Kaelyn’s chest once more. Kanti had always been a wild and rebellious soul. At the time, Kaelyn was adamant that her stringency over her daughter came from a place of love and care. Of keeping her safe. Looking back, she saw her behavior for what it was. Desperate clutching that only drove Kanti away. First, to the Kalona sire of her children. Next, to the path to becoming cursed. It had been ages, lifetimes even, since her daughter had been cursed. The open wound that was her guilt had only just started to fade.
“There…” Kaelyn’s voice was soft. Had there been a breeze it would have been enough to blow it away. “There is a tale of a maiden with a beautiful golden mane that was locked away from the world by a wicked witch. The witch viewed the maiden as her most precious possession and would visit her in her prison every day. The maiden knew nothing of the world but this prison and would dream of a life of freedom, though she still lived beholden to her witch, for life with the witch was the only life she knew.”
“Once day a prince came across the prison and from him the maiden learned of the world. He would visit her often, sneaking in when the witch was away. The maiden’s need for freedom grew. She fell in love with this prince. When her love was discovered, the witch could had let the maiden free. Or even cast her out from rage. But instead, the witch held her even tighter. Chokingly tight.” Kaelyn’s mouth pressed into a tight line. She moved her eyes from the dim forest floor up to her granddaughter. “They say that the maiden was held so tightly that she died. Do you think that was an actual death? Or do you think that maybe they just meant that the maiden as she was known died and became… something else.”
Takhi held on to that silence for a long moment before releasing a sigh. She turned her head upwards. These years had been long and full of change. There was this feeling of normalcy, now. Her obsession with finding her mother had been sated. Takhi had a steady life with her mate. It didn’t feel like she was constantly looking at the horizon for her next need.
“It’s easy to make the witch out to be the villain,” the dark mare started. Her weight shifted on her hooves. “When you look at her actions from an outside point of view. When you take the actions away from the reasons.” She sighed, shaking her head. “A mistake, undoubtedly. Maybe even one that can’t be recovered from. But to dwell on such mistakes brings closure to no one.”
Takhi’s head dropped. “The maiden is gone. Cast away. Dead. The definition matters not. But that isn’t to say that there is no path forward. The future is not lost.” The dark mare held Kaelyn’s eyes, then. She was in no position to give her grandmother forgiveness. Their history was one that was deeply rooted before her birth. But she knew obsession when she saw it, and her grandmother’s fixation on her guilt, while not unfounded, was unnecessary.
“Goodbye, Grandmother.”
(WC: 945)
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