Cupid's Rising

Her Last Light

Easter Sunday had...a lot of hitches.

Mrs Barclay's lasted 'boyfriend' had left. That made the foster mother even more angry than usual. Though she still took it out on Lilac.

Lilac was drawing in a tiny corner of the room. She'd been drawing the same thing she had for two days- a black pegasus.

Seeing her drawing instead of actually listening, Mrs Barclay stormed up. Lilac flinched away, holding journal close to her chest.

"Now you listen here, you little rat!" Mrs Barclay snapped. Lilac was freaking out, but she refused to cower from this woman. "You stay under my house, you follow my rules! Bedtime was at eight o'clock! It's well past nine!"

"I don't care!" Lilac screamed at her. "You're not my mother!"

"Your mother lost her mind!" Mrs Barclay raged back. "Just like that lunatic sister of hers!"

Lilac growled. She ran out of the house before she could bite Mrs Barclay's ear off. With her dragon teeth, that was an actual worry.

==CR==

Lilac was hiding in the park, under the same tree she'd been at whenever I came to town.

Hamil flew up to me. He hugged my neck, chittering all about the past day. How he'd heard my call. He ignored it to watch Lilac. He admitted she'd had a nightmare, that it had turned into a black pegasus made out of sand. Lilac had been despondent all day, so much so that when no eggs could be found she wasn't affected.

She still believed though.

She was so miserable, she'd lost so much.

Yet she still believed.

In me.

"Thank you, Hamil." My feet touched the ground.

The Earth tried to fight against me, to fill me with the negative emotions as it had before. With a clench of my teeth, I held on.

Anderson's show no submission. With the earth or anyone.

"For watching my niece." My hand came up to the cherub, brushing his slackjaw. "You have no idea how much I'm grateful."

Not staying for his reply, I walked up behind the tree.

Lilac was sketching. She was more of a painter, so her sketching was an odd sight.

Until I saw what she was sketching.

Me.

Or rather, me as a Pegasus.

It was hard to tell, as she had done it black and white. You could see the dark of my fur, with the silver of my mane.

If I didn't know better, I'd say she was drawing the Nightmare she had created last night.

"You shouldn't be out this late." I chided. "Especially alone."

Lilac didn't flinch. She kept sketching, not even looking up at me. "Only my mom tells me what to do."

"Well, I consider myself your Guardian, so I have more authority than your mother. If she can't watch you, the closest relative should. That being me." I argued, trying to keep the air light. "Though I have to say that woman is gorgeous."

"She has your face, Auntie." Lilac remarked dryly.

"And whose decision was that? Her's. She copied her face onto mine. If I look cute, it's her fault." I joked, though the tone fell flat.