iBrevity wrote:Username: Freedom!
Tolter's Name: A Warm Red Autumn // Dahlia
Gender: Female
Halter: Surprise me; I can't decide on a color and I know you're good at that cx
| Based on | Click to view |
| Artist | Desmond [gallery] |
| Time spent | 17 minutes |
| Drawing sessions | 2 |
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iBrevity wrote:Username: Freedom!
Tolter's Name: A Warm Red Autumn // Dahlia
Gender: Female
Halter: Surprise me; I can't decide on a color and I know you're good at that cx




iBrevity wrote:Username: iBrevity
Tolter's Name: A Warm Red Autumn // Dahlia
Gender: Female
Halter: Surprise me; I can't decide on a color and I know you're good at that cx
First Autumn:
When Dahlia was a child her mother told her how she'd gotten her name. They walked among a maelstrom of leaves, all turned this way and that by the wind, flashing red then brown then orange then green. Some had collected in her mother's mane and lay tangled in her hair like ornaments.
"I named you Dahlia for my favorite flower," her mother said suddenly, looking askance at her foal. Dahlia pranced in the grass, her tiny hooves crushing the dead patches into a fine powder. The wind picked that up too, whisking it from the ground and along a complicated system of currents. "There's a bed of them down here."
"Really?" Dahlia asked, ears pricking forward. She half-ran while her mother walked, galloping circles around her, mimicking the wild movements of the wind and leaves. "How do you know?"
Her mother smiled. "It was my favorite place as a child," she said demurely, "And I would like it to be yours too."
The wind had a slight bite to it, a chill that wound fingers in Dahlia's thin coat and laid kisses of frostbite across her flanks. She shivered as if to clear them and canted her head at her dam. "What do dahlias look like?"
"They're red," her mother said, pressing her whiskery nose to Dahlia's neck, "Like you."
Dahlia's excitement grew. As they walked her mother explained to her that while there were many kinds of dahlias, her favorite were the red ones that grew during autumn and winter. "'It's nice to see color," her mother said, "When everything is turning brown." She told Dahlia that she'd first noticed the flowers when she was her age, and had loved them ever since. They grew wild, ignored by the ranch hands, and her mother admired them for that.
As they crested a stout hill and Dahlia kicked leaves that flew up between her spindly legs her mother said, "Ah, there they are. Just as I remember." Dahlia lifted her head and peered at the swatch of red that had caught her mother's eye, a great gash in the earth caused by erosion or lightning or something Dahlia was too young to fathom, and full to the brim with enormous red flowers. They crowned short stalks and leaned towards the soil as the wind tugged on their petals. Dahlia ran to better see them and marveled at how close their colors were, at how right her mother had been.
"I first saw them when you were still very small," her mother said, coming up behind Dahlia. "You were too young to know them and then the season was over and they were gone. I'm glad they're back this year."
Dahlia wandered among the flowers, the heavy blossoms tickling her sides. She was small enough that she did not disrupt the flower bed, only left tiny crescent moons in her wake. "When you leave here," her mother began slowly, wanting to impress upon her child the importance of this but not burden her with it; she took a deep breath and went on. "When you live somewhere else I want you to remember these flowers, Dahlia. They are important."
Dahlia stared at her mother and nodded. "Yes mommy."
Her mother touched their noses together and lipped at Dahlia's fine ears. "Remember that when things are hard and cold and seem hopeless, there is color somewhere. There is life growing even under the snow. Do you understand?"
Dahlia looked back down at the flowers, fallen leaves crowding their stems and soil. She squared her shoulders and nodded once more, firmer this time. "Yes, mother," she said. "I understand."


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