At first, Leliana didn’t give Adna the chance to wander freely. Instead, she remained fretful, worrying over their tiny, beautiful daughter, keeping her close. Too much had happened to Leliana as a child. Too much had scarred her heart and she grew anxious imagining the same happening to her daughter. Adna was too beautiful to ever be marred. Too spirited to ever be broken. She couldn’t bear the thought of it.
But, as the months passed, Leliana grew more lax.
She’s grown calmer, more stable, giving Adna the chance to wander their home. She allows her to explore the nooks and crannies of Loess, trusting in Vulgaris to keep an eye out and protect their child. Trusting in the residents and the kingdom’s security. And thus, she lets Adna free today, brushing her lips across her child’s beautiful scaled forehead, whispering, “Be safe, my heart, and have fun. Come back with stories.”
Adna always did.
Today, she is climbing the mountainous parts of Loess, her tiny lungs expanding with the joy of it, her green eyes glittering with excitement. This is what her dad did. He climbs to overlook the kingdom. He patrols and watches over her and mama and the rest of those who called it home. He is so strong, she thinks, and one day, she would be too. She’d be a fighter liker her dad. Not a healer like her mom.
The thought makes her puff her chest out a little and giggle with excitement as she imagines it. The battles. The wars. She skitters to the side and rears, punching out her delicate, scaled legs and whinnying. The sound nearly dies in her throat when she sees the stallion resting on the ground, bone exploding from his body, blood seeping down to the ground. “Woah,” she exhales, dropping back to the ground and moving closer to him. Curiosity is clear on her youthful, girlish face, the lines of it so similar despite the scales and eyes that are all her father. “What are you?” she asks, all bravery—brash and honest.