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[L.V.L]

Fable name:
Asher

How do they find their color again?:

----------Darkness. Sorrow. Loneliness.
----------Those are the three things I felt when I looked into the river and saw my reflection - that my color was gone. And the only thing that was still me was my black eyes staring back.
----------"Why, why me!" I yelled up towards the night sky, the small sliver of stars peaking through the clouds. But no one answered .. of course no one answered. I sank to the earth - the cool grass surrounded my body as I just laid there. Days passed - or maybe just moments - I lost all meaning to time.
----------Then something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. A pale owl perched on a branch above me. It stared, its head tilt just a bit. Then suddenly it left with a screech. "At least they still know themselves." I lifted myself up with a deep, heavy sigh. I had to keep moving - not because I wanted to but because standing still hurt more.
----------I'm unsure how long I walked. My hooves started to ache. Then off in the distance I saw a shadow figure on the cliffs edge. I approached cautiously - it was a creature of glass and dark, reflected the galaxy above us.
----------"You've lost your color," the creature whispered softly to me.
----------"I gave it away. I thought love meant handing over everything."
----------It turned its head towards me. The air shifted - colder, thinner. "No one tells us that love given without return is like pouring light into a cracked vessel. Beautiful yet doomed to vanish."
----------I stood their frozen until it motioned for me to sit beside them. Wary, I slowly walked closer until we were side by side. I sat down and wrapped my tail closely to my body.
----------"Did they ask for it?" they asked.
----------"No," I admitted. "But they accepted it. All of it. Until I had nothing left."
----------"And what did they give you?"
----------I looked over at it and hesitated, "Warmth. For a while. Then distance. Then silence." I was ashamed and I knew the creature knew that.
----------The creature closed its eyes, "That's how it ends sometimes. Not with a final goodbye. Just ... the slow fading of light until you can't remember where the warmth used to be."
----------"I kept hoping," I whispered, "I thought maybe if I waited ... they'd come back."
----------"They didn't," it said, not to be cruel - but to be honest, "But you did."
----------I didn't respond. Just felt a weight settle deep in my chest - how long had I been carrying that hope like a chain. How long have I'd been hunting the memory of something that stopped loving me.
----------"I'm unsure of who I am without them." I stood and stepped closer to the edge, my hooves slightly hanging over the cliff. I looked up. The stars were dim, not gone - just softer. Like they were tired too.
----------"But you're still here," it murmured. "Isn't that something."
----------That was something. I didn't need to be full of color, or light, or anything that made someone else stay. I just needed to exist. For myself. The ache didn't leave, but shifted. It wasn't crying out anymore. It was humming - low and tired, yet alive. And somewhere inside that hum, something glowed.
----------Not gold nor violet like others color might have been. Threads of silver and dusty ash moved across my fur. Like a breath or a memory - like the part of me I never gave away.
----------I will still real. Still whole. And that - that was the beginning of my color returning to it's rightful place.

What did they look like before?:
Kina - Can We Kiss Forever? ft. Adriana Proenza


in love with this prompt - it's been forever since i've written anything. 598 words.
entry

[L.V.L]

Fountain of Truth.
----------My breath caught as my eyes landed on it. It shimmered under a veil of mist, its crystalline surface undisturbed by time. I knew the tales since I was young - ancient legends spoke of its power; when a Fable approached its sacred waters and peered in, their true self would be revealed - not just how others saw them, but the deepest truth of what they really were. Some saw greatness. Others saw despair. I hadn't come here seeking glory; I came for answers. My hooves made little to no sound as I stepped towards the edge of the water, leaning forward. I saw what everyone else sees, with my reflection staring back, waves of glimmering blue scales and elegant fins catching the light shown through the holes of the cavern. I looked strong and graceful.
----------But then the water rippled. My reflection shifted - my mane darkened like the deep, dark ocean blue. Eyes burned with hunger, not warmth. My mouth twisted into something sharp and wrong. A monster.
----------"No," I whispered staggering backwards, "That's not me."
----------But the creature in the water didn't vanish. It stayed, mimicking every breath I took. Eyes locked with mine. And then it spoke - in my voice but it was thick with venom.
----------"You knew I would be here."
----------My chest tightened - "You're not real." my voice echoed through the walls with doubt.
----------"I'm the storm you buried inside. The fury you choked down." its lips parted and smiled with teeth I didn't know I had.
----------This couldn't be true. It couldn't be me. I squeezed my eyes shut in hope it would disappear, "I'm not like you."
----------"Oh, but you are," it hissed, "You just don't want to admit it."
----------"I've hurt others." I whispered, dropping to my knees, claws diggings into the stone. The truth cracked inside me, "I've hidden. I've lashed out. I came here because ... because I don't know where I end and the anger begins. I just want to let go." The water shifted, but the creature of me remained.
----------"You wanted to forget me."
----------My voice broke, "Yes."
----------The word shattered something inside me. I wanted to take it back, but it hung in the air. Yes - I had wanted to forget the fury. Yes - I had wanted to be rid of the thing snarling beneath my skin. Yes - I had lied to myself.
----------"I tried," I whispered, trembling. "I tried to be gentle. I tried to be what they needed, what they asked of me. This beautiful, fragile vessel." I watched as the reflection's grin widened, something I hated how familiar it felt. "I let them carve me into something quiet. But the silence was never mine. It was a cage, a lie. And you..." I got up and stepped closer, my hooves steady now. "You are the only thing that ever told the truth."
----------The creature in the water stood taller, proud. I stared into its jagged smile and saw my own - reflecting perfectly. A strange peace settled over me, firm and sure.
----------"I'm done pretending I was ever just harmless. There is venom in my kindness. There is rot in my soul. There is you - and you are me." And it felt good, like a chain snapping into place. "I am not what they wanted. I am not pure, nor kind or good." The wind howled softly through the cavern for the first time and it did not protest. I leaned over the water, pressing my horns to its surface - the reflection did not shift away.
----------We merged. And when I stood again, I was no longer at war with myself or her. I didn't need to fight the monster - I had to become her. I now stared back at us - scales darker, the shimmer duller but real. My steps no longer hesitated. The world would whisper new stories - of a Fable who went to find the truth and never returned.
----------But I had found it. I was the storm. I was the lie. I was the truth they were to afraid to name. And I had never felt more whole.

song: "Experience" by Ludovico Einaudi

entry for this fable

[L.V.L]

Fable Master Name: Lovac na mjesečinu | Croatian Translation: Moonlight Hunter
Fable Normal Name: Mjesečina | Croatian Translation: Moonlight

My name is Lovac na mjesečinu - or at least, that is what others call me in hushed whispers behind my back - Moonlight Hunter. Above, in the world bathed in false light and judgment, I was never just Mjesečina. I was a shadow, a creature with bone for a face ... a warning passed between elders to children to scare them into obedience.
They believed the sun favored the good, and that anything born under the moon came with teeth. But what happened when you are born during an eclipse? When I walked through the village - the critters stopped scurrying, the birds stopped singing, the world was silent with shadows being some of the only figures I saw. The other Fables never looked me in the eye. I wasn't hated, not exactly. I was endured. An omen they didn't dare challenge. But I saw it in their eyes - the unspoken belief: If she's here, something worse must be coming. And maybe they were right.

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