everything we are, it just went away
with a slide of the tongue and a sour taste
She should have known better than to go to Tephra.
But diplomacy and all that, right? She had wanted to learn how to better serve her kingdom, and going on kingdom trips has to be one of the ways. She knows she isn’t always going to like kingdom life, and she can tell that this is one of those times. If she had used her brain, she would have traveled anywhere but Tephra, but quite clearly her brain isn’t working at full capacity right now.
One thing that she knows for sure, though, is that she has to apologize to Solace for her behavior in the neighboring kingdom. She had been a broody, awful mess and it would have been clear to her and Yidhra and Magnus that something had happened between the two former best friends and the way they had acted towards each other had certainly reflected that. She owes the woman an apology, or at least an explanation for why Dawn had behaved the way she had. She is sad—miserable, even—but it was no excuse for the entire lack of diplomacy or openness for the entire first half of their visit.
She is sad, but she is not her sadness. It is a piece of her—an unchanging, steadily thundering piece—but that is all that it is. She cannot and will not let it control her life, and that’s exactly what she had done in Tephra. She had let her sadness take the wheel while she had flopped in the backseat, cold and unfeeling.
I have to force myself to do better.
The bear urges her to find her own way back to the Cove after the meeting, and with a curt nod and promise to see Solace later, she had broken away from the group. She is learning the terrain quickly as she travels, and each tree she passes is starting to become familiar to her. As the light starts to fade, she finds herself on the beach—always on the beach—of her home. The sands have not yet begun to glow as they do, but her heart is torn as she takes a step back, flashing back to the night a few weeks ago. Stop it. Tears fill her eyes as she turns away from the ocean, but she cannot bring herself to leave.
It is there where Solace finds her, after the sun has properly set. Dawn watches the woman as she approaches, glad that the tears have finally stopped. She is sure her face is still wet, but what’s the use in hiding it? Solace knows that something is up, and she doesn’t want to hide anything from either of Sunny’s mothers. “I’m sorry,” she tells the queen, the words barely a whisper. “I... wasn’t at my best today.”
Dawn
oh, it's gonna be a long night
@Solace