& if you never bleed you're never gonna grow
Flora spots the flutter of Sohalia’s sundress before anything else—a splash of blue against the green, sunlight kissing the hem as it dances in the breeze. She slows her pace as she approaches the Oasis, her sandals kicking up tiny sprays of dust and grass, one hand already lifting to shade her eyes from the glittering afternoon light. It’s beautiful here—obnoxiously so—and for once, she isn’t in the mood to appreciate it.
Not when Soh had written that she needed to talk. It had helped that her friend had said she wasn't pregnant, because honestly with everything happening, that was precisely Sohalia's kind of luck, but still Flora had born her concern like a chill she couldn't quite shake off.
She rounds a bend in the path, curls wind-tossed and loose around her face, a tied sarong in around her hips and a cropped blouse cinched tight against her ribs. "Hey babe," she calls lightly, though her voice carries the sort of casual tension that suggests she’s very much not as breezy as she’s pretending to be. Instantly she can tell thanks to her own recently cured infection that at least the Family hasn't gotten their claws in her friend, which does help settle her nerves considerably.
But then she slows again, catching sight of the way Soh paces the water’s edge, and something in Flora’s posture shifts. "Has something happened?"
Not when Soh had written that she needed to talk. It had helped that her friend had said she wasn't pregnant, because honestly with everything happening, that was precisely Sohalia's kind of luck, but still Flora had born her concern like a chill she couldn't quite shake off.
She rounds a bend in the path, curls wind-tossed and loose around her face, a tied sarong in around her hips and a cropped blouse cinched tight against her ribs. "Hey babe," she calls lightly, though her voice carries the sort of casual tension that suggests she’s very much not as breezy as she’s pretending to be. Instantly she can tell thanks to her own recently cured infection that at least the Family hasn't gotten their claws in her friend, which does help settle her nerves considerably.
But then she slows again, catching sight of the way Soh paces the water’s edge, and something in Flora’s posture shifts. "Has something happened?"
