A Mind in Motion

     She found it haunting her first in the rhythmic footfalls of the old mare beneath her as they trekked under the fluttering eyes of the stars.       Tha-thump, tha-thump, tha-thump..      It was like an echo with a string tethered to a hook in her chest, tugging and pulling at her, twisting her around in her saddle looking for that familiar sound.      But it escaped her sight, ghostly in the silence, trailing them, whispering like a gentle breeze each time she turned her back on it to continue forward.      Tha-thump, tha-thump, tha-thump...      Then, like shadow spirits, it crept upon her in the night when the need to rest weighed her down until she could not longer resist. It churned the colors of her dreams--shifting muted skies to brilliant shades of blue and sands to honey and wheat--like eyes and hair she could never forget.      Tha-thump, tha-thump, tha-thump...

*****Previously***** It was warm, light feeling, and so much more than she had ever expected. ***** Yes, the humans had indeed survived and they had thrived, with passion and intelligence that far outweighed the sterile narrow mindedness of the Amaras. “What do we do now,” asked Nysa as she fidgeted with nervous excitement between her mothers. “We find placement and passage to our new home,” replied Sitara with a broad smile as she nodded towards a booth along the far wall that read ‘ECIS--Earth Citizenship and Immigration Services’ above it. “This is not at all what I expected,” murmured Tasya to her wife as they made their way across the station. “What did you expect? That we would just find empty space and descend down to Earth’s surface like some Galactic Deities?” “Not deities, no but...something along those lines at least.” Laughing, Sitara shook her head and squeezed her wife’s hand. “You and your over romanticized imaginatio...