that's all there is
There is very little out there to link the little roan mare to her past. It had almost always been just Rhonen and Noah – he’d kept it that way, and she had never really known any differently. There were the vaguest memories of her mother: green eyes that she knows she inherited, a voice that occasionally haunts her dreams, an impression of someone vivacious and a little bit crazy. Other than that and a steady stream of strangers, her father’s quiet insistence that she needed to be able to talk to strangers, there had been only one person to whom he’d intentionally introduced her, with whom their interaction had been more than the passing of ships.
Most of the strangers they interacted with, however briefly, were quickly repulsed by her father’s careful eyes and sharp words. Even when the daggers he threw missed their marks intentionally, nobody stuck around long enough to figure it out. Nobody except her. The brown and red mare sticks out in Noah’s mind because Rhonen had known her name, but more because she had not shrunk away from father’s demeanor, but instead leaned into their isolation; leaned in and even softened some of those rough edges. Like a stone tossed in the ocean until it is round and smooth, a few stolen moments in the meadow had softened some part of Rhonen that even Noah had trouble seeing.
That sort of thing stuck with you – enough that she’d known Leliana on sight on that terrible day. Noah remembers every face, every moment of the day Rhonen died. She relives it in her nightmares, and some part of her subconscious searches every new face she meets for the signs that it is someone who played a part in the worst few moments of her life. The faces of those who had been trying to help are mostly blurrier – but Noah had seen Leliana. Been aware of her.
Just like today – she’s aware of her almost as soon as she enters the Pampas. Of course, part of that is because the little herdland Noah has carved out for herself is very quiet. There are few residents; not because she wouldn’t welcome them, but because she’s quiet and shy and not great at recruiting. But perhaps part of it is because they are aware of each other. She likes to believe that some people are connected in the universe, more than others. So she wanders that way, quiet, but a peaceful quiet rather than a fearful one. Leliana isn’t a particularly tall mare but Noah is quite short, pony short, and her quiet nature only enforces the impression of her small size. Still, she offers the not-stranger a smile that doesn’t quite reach into her nightmare-haunted eyes (yet it’s still a true smile) and a whispered greeting. “Hello.”
noah
@[leliana]