So Cold...

Cold permeated the air around Sidhe.
She felt it within her skin, a blanket of chill. Though the landscape around her reflected morning sunshine, happily alive with creatures and bugs, all Sidhe felt was the ice. The ice of death.

This was no ordinary shivery air. Sidhe could tell from the moment it fell upon her. Ears back, Sidhe lowered her head, petite nostrils scenting the air. All around her smells of life permeated this gentle land.

Then the quiet, slow thump thump of a fading heartbeat caught her attention. What she was looking for. Swiveling her head down, Sidhe pinpointed the noise. Below her hooves, underneath the surface, the thump gradually got slower. She could tell from the sound what it was. She was well acquainted with the different sounds of dying creatures' hearts by now.

Sidhe closed her eyes, her lashes lightly touching the planes of her face. It is better this time she thought. Not even one day before, it was a small foal. A gopher is much better.

Try telling her heart that.

Yet even though the creature was small, Sidhe knew what would happen the moment the gophers heart stopped. Running away wouldn't help her. She knew that already. As a filly, she had tried. No, Sidhe knew she was cursed with this. Cursed. Not gifted like most thought.

For Sidhe, as the gophers heart below slowed, air around her grew colder. Suffocating. She felt her wail build in the back of her throat, a live being.

The world faded out as she threw her head back, her mouth opening and closing silently as pain ripped through her body.

Her scream shattered the world.

White shreds of fog curled around her as she touched another reality. In this one, she saw everything in it's purest form; light. Grainy light, molecules reflecting the suns rays.

In this new plane, Sidhe could see a white fog lift above the ground just in front of her. A spirit. Sidhe's eyes, glazed white, were able to perceive the loose form of a gopher. it's incandescent gaze settled on her. Giving her an evaluating look, it flicked a paw at her.

With a leap into the air, the gopher dissipated.

The world burst back into color, momentarily blinding Sidhe. Shaking her head, Sidhe closed her mouth, her screams coming to an abrupt stop. Her hair hung in a ragged curtain around her.

Lowering her head, Sidhe slowly rocked back and forth. Her throat burned. Burned with a deep fire. She knew it would fade in time, yet the pain...the pain....

Around her, the world had gone silent at her first cry. Birds stilled, wrapping their young in their wingspans. Bugs shied away from the faintly glowing equine.

Who was clearly, not just a horse.

A noise.

Cracking the silence.

Sidhe swiveled, her ears dropping back. A lone feather fell from her hair, fluttering to the ground.

She stumbled over her hooves as she scrambled away from the approaching creature.

Sidhe laid her ears flat, her hair fanning around her as the wind shifted.

When he called out, Sidhe shrunk back even more. So few creatures talked to her. Her strange appearance threw so many off. Snow flakes peppered the ground around him, and her head tilted just so. How... different, she thought.

Perhaps they were both a little bit strange.

Somewhere within, she found the strength to answer his question. She kept eyes pinned to the beautiful white stallion as she spoke. She waited for his move. the first sign of aggression...she would be gone.

"Sidhe..." Her ears flicked; hooves shuffling. "My name is...Sidhe." She eyed the beautiful-yet-strange blue tinge to the stallions coat. He was, she decided, a very handsome stallion.

Her ears went back, and Sidhe felt a thrill of fear.

His mate must be somewhere around here! she realized. Unsure of what to do, what to say, Sidhe shuffled back another step.

"I...where is your mate?" she said, her eyes rolling.

She knew where this meant. Whether a joke or true interest, whenever males spoke to this strange female, she always, always got burned.

Sidhe narrowed her gaze at him. Of course she could see him, couldn't everyone? Shaking it off, Sidhe listened at she spoke.

No mate? Instantly, Sidhe's ears flipped up. Fear slipped it's way out of her body, and instead she felt...relieved.

No one believed he existed? Sidhe shivered. Perhaps this stallion was delusional. Yet...he sounded so...sad. Sidhe felt torn. On one hand, she sensed a kindred spirit within Jack, yet on the other, she felt...something was off.

Sidhe found herself not caring for her worry anymore as he spoke so softly to her, his sheepish expressions tearing through her defenses. Then she reminded herself of what happened last time.

She resolved not to do anything rash.

Jack then switched gears on her, bringing the questions around to her. When he asked why she was screaming, Sidhe shivered a moment, her eyes unfocssing as she remembered the cryptic signal of the gophers spirit.

She snapped back to reality, and blinked. "Uh..." Sidhe looked at Jack from underneath her eyelashes. "You'll be scared of me if i admit what i am." She said.

He tapped his hoof against the ground, and the strangest thingy happened. The light snowfall stopped.

Sidhe cocked her head to the left at his words.

"Cold?" She murmured. "I never felt it."

Sidhe tilted her head to the left. What a strange one. She though. Still, she found herself enjoying his antics. She shook her mane.

He seemed almost as weird as her. As he made it snow even harder with one tap of his foot, it occurred to Sidhe that perhaps he may be more strange than her.

She loved it.

"Hardly ever have I felt cold, because of my nature. I am always cold, and always have been, so therefore I had grown accustomed to it." She said, as he stepped up close to her. Her forelock fell across her forehead, nearly dusting the ground. "And..." She shivered. "I am a Banshee." She met his gaze squarely. "I can tell when you are going to die."

She found herself wondering if this winter spirit, Jack, was immortal. She snorted. Not possible, she thought.

Sidhe twitched her ears. Immortal? Surely it couldn't be true! She stomped, shaking her head. No, it couldn't. But why would he lie? What reasoning would he have?

Sidhe could think of none.

When he asked about her being a banshee, Sidhe lowered her head, blowing gently on the ground. She gazed up at him through her lashes. "It is no fun, being able to sense the dead and dying. None at all. And, as far as I know, I am the only one."

She felt amusement rise at his silly antics. He was, she mused, very different from her in terms of personality. She rather liked it, honestly. He treated her like she was normal. No body else ever did that. They only ever ridiculed or ran in fear.

She leaned forward, and gently nuzzled his cheek.

"Thank you. For being so nice to me. she murmurered. "Few have ever done me such a favor."