SA | Flowers for the death

Amber closed her eyes shortly and sighed deeply, acting like she was annoyed. “Very well.” It lacked any form of enthusiasm, but Nathaniel seemed happy anyway, smiling broadly. “I’ll make you so pretty! My sister will be the prettiest of all the mares!” he declared, running off, presumably going to gather flowers that would aid in said task. Amber shook her head. “Little runt,” she mumbled, eyes following her brother. She heard a chuckle next to her. Looking aside, she saw her mother, the mare having wandered up to them. “Your siblings do like making their sister look pretty, don’t they? Lilliana also always liked doing your hair.” A sad look crossed Amber’s eyes before her face hardened, lips pressing into a thin line. Her mother smiled sadly at her, knowing her daughter all too well. “It’s okay to miss her, sweetheart. We all do, but…” she looked off into the distance. “The death will truly die if we don’t remember them.” Amber refused to react. Dead. Amber didn’t want to believe her sister was gone. Gone from the herd, yes, but not from life. Her mother gave her another smile, picking a flower from the ground and putting it on her daughter's head. “Now, try and enjoy the festival, okay? Your dad and I will be talking with some friends.” Amber nodded absently. The festival was nice, but also painful. Lilliana always put flowers on her, telling her how pretty she looked. She didn’t want to feel pretty now. No, that wasn’t true. She still liked it, but she didn’t want to indulge in her uncle's stupid ideas of girls wearing flowers. Flowers were nice, but fragile, flowers had been their family’s symbol for women for ages.

“Look what I got you!” Amber blinked. Nathaniel was in front of her again, awkwardly carrying every flowers he had managed to get his telekinesis on. He showed them to her proudly. “Now hold still while I make you pretty.” Amber closed her eyes, not able to stand the concentrated look on the colt’s face as he put the flowers on her. Even with her eyes closed, her lips were quirking upwards. Yes, he did make her feel pretty, just like Lilliana did, but she tried to hold her smile.