bølgenes sang || seongsang

「chapter 10」: matriarktreet

A wide grin on their face, Seonghwa pushed the wooden sliding door opened. One of their hands sought to calm their disheveled hair as they turned around, walking backwards into the flickering light of the torches. They laughed as their boyfriend cursed somewhere out of their sight, skipping down the stable alley while humming a lively melody. Once they had reached a specific stall, they spun around on their heels once.

Their slender fingers wandered over the gold adorned harness sitting on a wooden stand, gleaming in the light of the fire, joined by the matte shine of black leather. They ducked below the rope separating them from their horse, letting their hand run through her pitch black fur as they made their way to her shoulder. Warmth seeped into their cold skin.

"Hey Lilith," they greeted, inspecting her thick mane as she shifted her weight from one hind leg to the other. They had cleaned her fur about half an hour prior, hence they did not need to repeat this. After they had gotten the saddle, they stood just behind her front legs and heaved it onto her back; her withers surmounted them by several centimeters, making the act of getting the heavy saddle onto her back quite the exhausting task. She raised her head, ears pointed towards the sliding door they had opened earlier as someone closed it.

"You asshole!" their boyfriend called, "You can't just leave me like that!"

They laughed again as they closed the buckles of the cinch, listening to his angered steps on hardened soil. Grinning widely, they continued to bridle their horse, moving leather over fur and through brazen buckles as Hongjoong approached. By the time he reached them, they took Lilith by the reins and led her out of the stall.

"Seriously, you can't do that to me," he complained as they reached for a black cloak, though a light smile graced his face. His hair was equally disheveled as Seonghwa's, the plait they had carefully braided into his hair earlier destroyed to unrecognizability. Rounding the horse to be able to see his partner, Hongjoong continued to voice his grievances about the other's actions.

They silenced him with a kiss. Now that they had effectively shut him up, they pushed him away and donned the hood of their cloak; within seconds, they mounted their tall horse. "I will see you at the matriarch tree, honey," they assured their sulking boyfriend, then blew him a kiss. Lilith's heavy hooves met the dry ground with dull thuds as they impelled her, creating a steady rhythm with her trot.

The moment they passed the gate of the stable, they thundered past the guards assigned to them, out into the night. Another laugh left them when they heard the suppressed curses of the women and lighter hooves clicking on the cobblestone as they began to follow them. Their cloak streamed behind them as they hurried Lilith down the street, her mighty leaps making the houses speed past them in a blur. Someone shouted their name, yet they barely heard it above the wind crashing against them and the heavy thumps of the horse's hooves.

Soon, they dashed into the in silver light bathed forest. Yellow leaves whirled up with every of her leaps, the balding trees letting moonlight kiss the soil. The wide grin persisted as they turned to see how close the guards were, once again laughing when they spotted the flickering light of the torches far behind. They urged Lilith to go faster.

The wind blew the hood off their head, now ruffling through their blonde hair. A new joy spread in their chest; the rare joy of freedom. As the horse careered through the autumn forest, they let go of the reins and opened their arms. A specific taste lingering on their lips and tongue brought their mind back to ten minutes prior, the memory eliciting another wide grin. Their busy schedule might not allow them to spend a lot of time with their boyfriend, but when they did have the opportunity to meet, their encounters left both of them breathless.