that's all there is
By all means, she should be flying straight home, to check on her fields and flowers. Her return should be triumphant - she won, after all, despite her inexperience and her nature. But the little mare is battered and bruised and tired, and she can't bring herself to fly all the way home and decide whether Aodhan has to leave. Noah isn't sure she wants him to leave - she had intended the Pampas to be a place of refuge, a home, a family; but she isn't sure she trusts him or could ever trust him after this debacle. Her heart is almost as heavy as her injured body.
Right now, she can't fly another furlong. The little mare glides down where she is, over the familiar mountains of Loess. The summer grass is thick beneath her hooves, sweet in her nose. She doesn't grow anything, no flowers blooming at her feet - perhaps that is the true visible testament to how weary fighting has made her. But, that doesn't mean she can't take comfort in the few wildflowers that have grown naturally, and she takes a minute to do just that. They are like a balm to her soul, in this brief stop; they are like home. The Pampas is her home, the only home she's ever known, but Loess has been her Kingdom for the same amount of time. Wolfbane and Lepis, her first real friends. It had taken her a little bit longer to warm up to Castile, her natural shyness a barrier between them, but she eventually had to admit that she did see him as a friend. Whatever was between them, she was loyal to him as her King, and her Pampas fell beneath his rule. Perhaps she can shift this decision onto his wider shoulders...or at least get some advice.
She folds her dark wings against speckled sides, sighing as she looks up to the bright sky. Closing her eyes against the sun, she thinks she might rest another moment. Instead, she dozes. It's an accident, but she feels safer taking the nap here for now. When she blinks awake, lifting her head from its low position, Noah feels renewed. Not one hundred percent better, but enough. Slowly, she sets off to look for Castile; sure he know she's here, but if he does he chose to leave her to nap in peace, which she appreciates. When she does spot him, she approaches in silence. Most would have called out, but that volume isn't one she summons unless the circumstances are dire. "Hello," she murmurs when she's close enough, letting the tired smile flicker across her face. "I won," she says it like an admission, with no pride for the act. "But I don't know what to do now."
noah
@[Aeris] / @[Castile]