She, too, has found a deep comfort in this dark place.
It is similar enough to the land of her birth – the Forbidden Dale – that she feels a warm nostalgia soaking her lungs when she breathes in the crisp air. The splendor of the many shades of green reminds her of the saturated forests that once ringed the great mountains, the way they then diluted down under the cover of night. It is not nearly as open here, though. Often, Titanya feels squeezed by the way the trees gather around her. She misses the reaching sky of the prairie when she had been wild and free. But, she remembers that freedom had felt more like running, escaping. Freedom had meant the world was safe from the seal lodged within her breast, but she herself was alone – would always be alone. Every time she remembers her life outside of Beqanna, she shudders. She feels no remorse for coming back.
She is only glad to be home.
Even if home looks quite different than it used to. The dark mare noses the earth at her feet. It still has that acrid scent of burnt foliage, but it is becoming less so. More and more, there is the smell of healing rising into her nostrils alongside it; of heady, rich dirt that will one day sustain their environment. After all, such devastation and rebirth is necessary for a healthy forest. It is only the cause that had been unnatural, or rather supernatural (if the stories are to be believed). Titanya huffs and dislodges a small cloud of dust before lifting her head to peer into the shadows ahead.
It is eerily quiet.
Terran hadn’t prepared her for this fact. She is used to chaos and motion. Here, she is forced into silent reflection and meditation that unnerves her to her core. Her mother would say it is probably for the best. Rounding one’s talents and interests is the epitome of an ideal individual. “Blah, blah, blah,” the sabino says out loud, to no one in particular, hearing Talulah’s chiding voice in her head. The nearest tree suddenly becomes as dense as a cloud. With sudden violence, Titanya leaps and kicks out with her hindlegs, landing a fatal blow on the rising oak. It crashes down, hitting one, two, three other trees on its haphazard path to Taiga’s floor.
She is smiling even before she turns around, a devilish grin softening her angular face. When she does spin her body to face the destruction, she startles to see another mare laying down nearby. “Shit!” Her smile disappears as she rushes over. “Shitshitshit!” When she is close enough to realize the tree is blessedly far enough away not to bludgeon the stranger to death, she sighs loudly. The red and black mare seems unhurt, but who knows if an errant branch smacked her on the way to its earthy grave. “Are you okay? Man! I didn’t see anyone around!” “I’m sorry” doesn’t even cross her mind, not at first. She’s too high on the adrenaline that pumps through her veins. It’s been so long since her heartbeat raced so fast. And while she’s glad the other seems all right (she would have felt like a real asshole if the lady’s head now resembled a smashed and rotting apple), she did have to say she enjoyed it. Every bit of it.
War purrs in her chest.
Titanya
I've got no roots,
but my home was never on the ground
