Once, she had longed to have her ability to color-change freely, but refused to give up the Falls to have it. Now, she would give up her colors in a heartbeat for the Falls, but she refuses to give up Mikhael. And they are better together, truly, and better on the roam. Even when she wishes with all of her heart to bask in the sound of falling water, she knows that she and Meeka have no place in the Falls. Of course, she knows nothing either of the changing magical landscape in Beqanna…but even if she did, she could not make the decision to stay without him.
Loving him had changed her. Probably for the better.
She is about to force a smile, to let her daughter go, but a voice calls her name and she turns, startled, but already placing that distinctive accent. And she is automatically happy, warm. She may not know Yael very well personally, but she is Mikhael’s mother, and so Nat loves her naturally, wholly, and with an affection born out of losing her own mother. Somewhere beyond missing Mikhael when they are apart, missing the Falls, Nat misses her mother. Nylee was a pure soul, a good soul, and the world is worse off without the golden twins sharing it. “Yael,” she responds to the greeting with a smile.
Nairne, already facing that direction, peers in confusion for just a second, the images of her childhood flashing behind her eyes, and then it is as if a sudden dawn has come upon her, a quick enlightenment, and a smile flashes across the younger mare’s face as well, lighting it from within. “Savta!” she does remember, and by that name more than Yael’s given one. And she does not suffer from Natilyn’s long-standing reserve, where the smile and greeting are as gregarious as it will get (she offers more to a select few only; Mikhael, Nylee, Nairne). But Nairne is different – she darts forward to press her soft nose to Yael’s neck, her smile broad and bright. “I’ve missed you! But we saw so many things.”
The outside world had been enough to amuse her daughter for a while, and Nat had been glad to have her family almost entire. But the siren call of the Falls had once again summoned a child of her own back to her, and so here they were.
