ocean eyes; diamond mind ⟡ solo

---

The hours after his vigil.
The hours for the mindful.

Vulnerability lurked as an unremitting image forged.

Smokespirit strolled in solitude,
seclusion severing his senses.

Soul stilled by the absence of sound,
Sobriety sobered his awareness.

With alertness came the observations.
With observations came the evocations.
With evocations came the memories.

And with each memory,
came the tingles that kindled her presence.

One's mind was a potent thing.



I've been watching you
for some time.

Can't stop staring at those ocean eyes.



Smokespirit ambled without destination in mind...
impuissant against his subconscious.

His stride faltered. Shutters clicked from the moss-laden soil. Rippling flutters beat beneath the pine needles, like waves ruffling by his feet. He flinched as saxe blue spurted out from a spray of moss. A beetle took flight into the coruscating night sky, showering scintillating rays with each batting flap. Iridescent sparkles twinkled as it ascended. It was a sapphire mirror, metallic glow under the moon rays. Ruby glared at him under certain angles, a spectrum of hues dancing upon its wings. Violet. Vermillion.

Vivid vibrancy.



Burning galaxies
and napalm skies,

Fifteen flares inside those ocean eyes.



Flares.
Flames.
Infernos.

Was it strange,
that those words,
brought only his youth
to mind?

It was bittersweet. Youth had provoked the good in him, the bad in him, transformed his values, revealed his virtues. The era of apprenticeship had converged with the borders of his identity. Fate had been cursed. The Righteous Few had dictated that. Veiling the blood in his veins would have been in vain. And despite all those misfortunes that had plagued him, the hardships that had refused to yield... the trauma and agony, and the restless entity of death lingering on his shoulders... he had made it. He was a warrior now. There was remorse in letting go, was there not? But this was growth. This was no time to brood. This was a time to obtain control of that inferno, to learn how to tame it, to let fire once-repressed show. This was a time for old embers to relinquish, for new flares to kindle, to flash, to grow. This was a time for his spirit to simmer, to shine, to gleam, to glow. Life held more meaning, more purpose; more motive. There was so much more to come… so much more to endure, to ravish, to learn.

But...

What was that motive?
What was there still to endure? Ravish? Learn?



What was that fire
still burning
for?



It had burned.



He had burned himself.



He had let it burn.



He had burned his fears,
his pains,
his sins.



He had let it burn.



He had burned
for his Clan,
for his family.



He had let it burn.



But,
now?



Was it burning
for
himself?



Or...



Was it burning
for

someone
else?



A glister seized his attention once more. His thumping paws scuffed past a glossy rock, its sheen reminiscent to that of the Moonstone. Admiral blue; admirable blue.

Why was it all...
blue?



A likeness so hauntingly eerie.
Like spectres, phantoms;
an ever-present companion,
inducing disquietude.

And yet,
despite the creeping dubiety,
it was such a clarity.

It bore such lucidity.
The fluorescence illuminated his sight.
The luminescence irradiated his life.



I've been walking through
a world gone blind.

Can't stop thinking of your diamond mind.



He groaned in frustration. It was so confusing. Surely, these feelings were nothing but an enigma. There was no sense to be made from them. His attempts to uncover its meaning, would continue to be unavailing. And yet... all this while, all this time, all his life... seeking a conclusive interpretation, of the throbbing fondness, so foreign... yet so familiar...

The evocations were irrefutable.
The solicitude was indisputable.
The intimacy...

was undeniable.


Icy lights.


This was no fiction.
This was no dream.

This was avid friction,
from depths to seam.

This was intuition...
this was conviction...

This was the meaning behind the gleam.


Veracity.
Verity.
Truth.



"Oh, stars...



He forgot how to breathe.

His vessels constricted,
his lungs wheezed,
his breath strangled,
his chest squeezed.

But mysteriously...
his mind's unease
was released.

...

And so were his feelings.



"I'm in love."



A muffled cry expelled from his mouth. It hit like a shell. It hit like a bomb. Had he been that dumb, to be this dumbfounded? How long had it been, that he had felt like this? How had he been so unknowing? He hissed to himself in incredulity, staggering sideways to lean against a pine tree. Balance seemed so absent. Gravity augmented, weighing his mind to earthly presence. His insides shrivelled... yet they unfurled, too. His heart seized, burned. Abrupt reality that pummeled at his chest. Paralysis. Desensitised, or sensitised? In this moment of violent realisation, he couldn't differentiate between them. Feelings... were so mystifying. He was mystified. And was he afflicted by it, or euphoric? Emotions cluttered into tumultuous disarray, spiralling dangerously into safe haven. Was this passion? Or merely a nebulous oxymoron? Absently thwacking his head against the bark was probably amplifying his befuddlement... but he wouldn't have been able to make sense out of it either way.



Maybe...
that had been the issue,
all along.

He couldn't find the logic,
because this wasn't some sort of...
definitive elucidation...

that could be acquired
from the mind.

There was ambiguous purpose behind this.
That made it more special.

It was from the heart.



By the name of all the crazy things he'd done with his heart in his entire lifetime,
he'd never thought that a realisation could have hit so hard.



You're doing things to me.



Electric blue
electrocuted him.

There was always more blue to see.
But with each new shade he discovered,

he felt less blue about it.



Blue was beautiful.



Life was about fragility, too.

Water hyacinths.
In the softly lapping pools,
shivering delicately...

Its beauty was as alluring as her.

Perhaps, not as ethereal,
but the illusions they induced
were enough to elicit the moonlight of her soul.

And as those feelings arose in his conscious mind once more,
he no longer bore any restraint against them.



These sentiments entwined with his heartstrings;
delicate laces into their rightful reservations in the depths of his emotions.



Indigo integrated into whorls of azure, a glossy atmosphere blanketing the scintillating stars. They framed the grace of the moon and its radiant brilliance. Atlantic beauty. The lustre of the sky morphed into her eyes, so fathomless, so raw, so authentic. She bore unfeigned finesse, unparalleled elegance – like the twilight, so heavenly, as it cast its galactic blush into the expanse above. His eyes flickered closed, riveted by the rapture of being spellbound. Smokespirit treasured what he felt when these thoughts, emotions, surfaced above his barriers. This was real. And it was time to accept it.



It was you.
It was you, Ebonysong.



It was always you.



A twinkle caressed his maw.



And those ocean eyes.