She is immeasurably glad that he stays silent during her long tale. He has every reason to question her, to ask her to elaborate or explain further, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t bemoan her brush with the Grim Reaper’s blade or pursue any line of questioning on her feelings and emotions at the time or now, years later. Titanya would have little to say, even if he had. She sees her actions for what they had been: necessary and inescapable. There was no time for anything other than her own survival. No future to look towards past the next footstep.
It had kept her alive.
Still, the dark mare doesn’t like to be reminded of her blasé attitude. She knows Talulah had meant for her to be softer (after all, the twins were made of crossed constellations, of a late love that burned white-hot but was violently extinguished). But for all her trying, the metal lady couldn’t climb out of the deep well of grief that had swallowed her. She couldn’t be the mother that she desired to be, the mother that would have loved both of them equally, freely. Deep down, Titanya knows it isn’t her fault. But the walls she’s built for herself are thick and steadying. She can’t afford for them to crack.
When the sapling cracks instead, she lets out a hoot of excitement. Terran’s wing works like a scythe as it topples the young tree over. She grins when the stallion turns back to her, caught up in the rush of destruction. He laughs, and she thinks the sound of it would be enough to sustain her for a long while. Oh, she’s missed him! “Don’t thank me, or I’ll have to swat you with my tail. And believe me, it will feel nothing like a tail at all.” She releases her focus so that her brother is restored to his normal density. Her sides flutter with spent energy. “For now, it is enough to keep the boys away. World domination comes next.”
The forest is too quiet around them. At first, she wonders if they’ve scared off the critters by destroying a part of their home. The noise hadn’t been that loud, though - surely not enough to warrant the silence that creeps like vines through the trees. Perhaps this land is so new that the animals hadn’t filled it, yet. Not for the first time, Titanya is desperately curious to know more of her new home. Everywhere she looks, there are more questions than answers. The silence suits, however, as Terran begins his own story. And she is uncharacteristically eager to settle down in order to listen.
His tale is not extensive, but even in its brevity, it is full of things that shock her. From the Tundra to an island? From one extreme to the other? These are surprising choices for their temperate favoring family, but the next part is far more interesting. Titanya leans back on her heels when he mentions the relationship between Ander and Jinju, and Terran and Jinju. But she is a child? Her face screws up with something like misunderstanding. She’s almost the doubter herself until he fills in the details further. Ah, there it is. Still, it has her grasping. “So that little girl is Ander’s mother, even though he’s older than her? Okay, makes perfect sense.” What a strange world they live in. But it does explain the newness of the land. Fire, had to be. A thought hits her then and her amber eyes widen. “Shit, don’t tell her we’ve been knocking down her trees then!”
The tide of conversation changes then, she sees when it happens in his gaze. What else could they turn their attention to besides the one topic she meant to avoid? “Mother would be happy we are together again, as we should be. And Father – “, she sighs, because there is no escaping it. She’s spent years wondering when she’d have to dissect this last truth that she carried alongside the seal in her breast. A truth that she hadn’t wanted to hide, but that she’d been ordered to regardless. “I’ve kept something from you, brother.” The fading sabino loses all traces of careless humor that had lightened her features before. “Tiphon was not our father. His son, Tiberios, was our sire. He died just before we were born – murdered - as I’m sure you know.” She swishes her tail like chastising whip on her haunch. She should have told him. To hell with what Mother wanted. She should have told him.
Titanya
I've got no roots,
but my home was never on the ground
@[Terran]