#beornia

Branches scrapped against his skin as the small boy bounced against his horse's back.  As his mother led him, she sped up to a gallop.  Lucio pressed upon his horse to do the same.  His vision became skewed as his horse followed the roan mare.  Gripping tight to his mount, his heart pounded against chest.  The dark shadows of the forest flew past him.

Beornia slowed as she turned up a hill, but her horse still trotted up the steep incline.  Tightening her back, she leaned forward.  Her mouth brushed against the red main of her horse as the mare fought her way up the embankment. 

Mossy rocks, sticks and needles projected down toward Lucio and his horse.  The gelding snorted and sniffed as he worked to find his footing in the loose dirt, upturned from the last horse.  Small hands sweating, Lucio leaned forward, head close to his horse's dark mane.  As he pressed his body over the gelding's chestnut neck, his heels rose, and his toes pointed to the forest floor.  At the coming of the top of the hill, the strong gelding jumped to complete the trek.  His motion unbalanced Lucio, and the boy lost his place on his mount. 

Though the dirt was soft, his small body crumpled against the ground.  Gravity pulled him, and he followed, tumbling and spinning.  Dirt fell into his mouth as a rock cut his lip.  His hand jammed into a crevice of a rock, but his descent stretched his body.  A scream scraped against Lucio's throat when he felt a pop in his shoulder.  His hand, cut and bleeding, fell from the rock to his side, shoulder jutting out at an awkward angle.  He slid down the rest of the incline, golden hair dragged though the dirt. 

The tops of trees spun around him, wind rustling their leaves.  A nausea turned through the boy's body as he shook against the ground.  His narrow grey eyes darted around his surroundings.  His chest started to rise and fall in a fast motion, until he let out a scream.

Lucio thrashed his legs, wailing.  His cries disturbed the stillness of the forest.  A figure on horseback rode down the hill toward the boy.  In her hand, she held the reigns of Lucio's gelding.  As her mount stopped near him, the breath of the roan mare's snort rushed against the boy's tears.  Staring down at her son, Beornia dismounted.  When her boots hurt the soft earth, she stomped over to him and reached her hand down.

"Get up."  She said, jutting her jaw out. 

"I can't."  Lucio cried.  "I can't move my arm."

Squatting down, she pressed her hand against the earth.  Her narrow grey eyes watched her son.  "Come on now, child.  At least, sit up."

Sniffing and crying, Lucio pushed himself up with his right arm, his strong arm.  His left dangled from his shoulder. 

When her son rose, Beornia leaned toward him and gathered him in her arms.  "Lucio, dear Lucio, my only child."  Dirt flecks fell upon his boney shoulders as her hands moved through his blonde hair.  "Be brave.  Be strong.  Flaunt your power and your strength."  The boy's cries quieted into whimpers as he breathed in his mother's familiar earthy scent.  "Look at me." 

With a hiccup, he raised his head to meet his mother's gray stare.  In eyes like his, he saw his tear-stained reflection.  He stilled his sniffles and tried to hardened his expression.  Leaning closer, he studied his features.

"Mirror me in all that I do."  Beornia continued, a discrete hand reaching toward Lucio's broken shoulder.  "When I am strong, you are strong.  When I am brave, you are brave.  You are reflection of me, so always flaunt your strength.  Pride in yourself is pride of your tribe, pride of me."  The wind floated brown strands of her hair; her locks caressed his tear stain cheeks.  The boy closed his eyes with a shaky sigh.

As her son leaned against her fur tunic, Beornia gripped his left shoulder and arm and set it back into place.  An intense pain lit Lucio's small body as he screamed out.  Feeling a rush of dizziness, he leaned past his mother and threw up on the ground.  His arms shaky, the tree trunks spinning, the boy's strength gave out and he collapsed against the ground.

Beornia smiled down at her soon as she wiped his stomach contents from his cheeks.  Cradling him in her arms, the warrior picked him up and carried him to his horse.  She laid him across the gelding.  Kissing his forehead, she said.  "Sleep well, my son, we will train more tomorrow." 

The wind rushed through the leaves when she mounted her roan mare.  With the squeeze of her legs, she guided her mount to a careful walk.  Lucio laid on his horse, unconscious, as his mother lead him back to the village she ruled.