It's a mystery how Aela lost her voice. Nobody seems to know where it had gone. Her biological mother had spent days trying to gently coax it from her and then she ran out of time to worry about anything else. Maybe it got lost along the Beqanna coastline when Aela (who doesn't remember this; she had been far too young) tried to outrun a Demon, her voice lost somewhere between the wild wind and untamed surf. Perhaps it got lost in the shadows when the Magic strayed and Aela resurfaced along the River instead of Nerine.
But none of these things concern Aela because she has never had a voice.
Not in the traditional sense, anyway. And the golden girl will never be one to leave herself at a disadvantage. Her Echoes worked well enough to convey any message she wanted to share, if she wanted to share one at all. But now, she wants to share this word over and over again with her new friend. Aela smiles - a dazzling thing that could eclipse the sun - and says it again. "@[Beyza]." Her (great) grandmother had taught Aela from a young age to be careful with her emotions and the yearling has often tried to emulate Heartfire, right down to the imposing stare. But Aela's youthful gaze is full of exuberance; she is unbridled energy and it's easy to receive the feeling that Beyza projects.
The happiness that Aela feels makes her eager - perhaps too eager - to show her companion where she had come from. It comes as a flash of memory first (second nature for Aela; tall Sequoias and large ferns cloaked in damp mist) before she remembers that she can say instead of show, "Taiga." She peers up at the pale girl and wonders if she was familiar with the territory. "There's a lot of fog so it's easy to miss. I don't even know how Mama found it in the first place." Aela gives her head a pretty shake, dismissing the phantom fog she can feel clinging to her golden coat.
She's much more interested in her new friend. Glancing up again, she curiously asks the lovely mare: "where did you come from?"
i am so so sorry that this took forever