It had been the blaze glowing over the mountains of Hyaline - far brighter than either she or Skandar could - that stopped their game. The pair had stood as the galaxy-marked colt donned his natural skin and Aela had suddenly turned towards Pangea, swifter than any river in Beqanna could flow and faster than any breeze or gale could gust across the realms. Aela raced and she never looked back to see if her new companion could keep pace with her.
Had Straia and the other Pangeans decided to raze another kingdom? Was there another territory that needed to blaze with Pangea's greatness? No, she thinks and resolved with her self-importance concludes, Straia would have told me.
She runs and runs and until -
The landscape was different. Aela found herself lost in a fog, not unlike Taiga's, and she wandered the eerie landscape. Instead of the canyons and ravines that Pangea was known for, instead of all the places that the wind had loved to howl and Aela learned what actual freedom was, she found herself lost in a forest of pines. She navigated through the faux fog - smoke from the fires - and looked around with disbelieving, blue eyes. What had happened? More importantly, how had this happened?
And Aela - who has never been afraid - is now.
Straia? her thoughts ring out, spanning the bond she shares with the magical mare. She repeats the name, becoming frantic. Had something happened to them? No, she calmed herself with the memories from the Nerinian attack. There was no kingdom as powerful as Pangea. There was no realm that held as many Magicians. And then, then there was Straia. Aela believed the two-toned mare could defeat legions and whole armies without ever exhausting more than a thread of her Magic. The others she knew here - Beyza, Kensley - had to be fine.
They just had to be.
Aela keeps searching until the answer (finally) touches her mind and Aela welcomes it as openly as an embrace. Turning away from the trail of pines that she had been following, Aela ran again with relief in her stride. It doesn't take her long to find the others, massed around a knoll with Straia at the heart of them. She slows to a trot and then finally a brisk walk, eager to reach the horses that have started to group around the Magician. Her gold-tipped ears flick to the side and ahead, backward and then forward again in an attempt to catch the words that pass between them all. Some are angry (she can feel the anger radiating off @[Beyza]) and so that is where Aela draws herself first, wanting to know what has her friend so upset and to help her, if she could.
There are other faces here - many that Aela has never seen before - and she feels a sense of pride that this fire has sparked a reaction in so many. Even if the canyons had been traded for something else - even if Straia had wanted this... misty forest - why did it matter? (But then Aela has never felt love or loyalty for a place; that rare emotion has always been for Kota and Heartfire.) Her slender head moves from speaker to the next, listening, and observing their reactions. Something catches her attention and when Aela sees Skandar coming, the gilded girl smiles in approval.
She gives the boy a quick nod and then moves through the crowd again, trying to get a better vantage point of the Dominus (and where the newly-risen Chamber leader can see her) but abruptly stops when a familiar voice rises over the crowd. A Taigan? Here? Why would a Northerner come to the Eastlands (the logical ones wouldn't and that was one of the many reasons Aela had been thrilled with her new home)? She glances over her shoulder to see if Skandar still follows and she's prepared to ask the boy to take the shape of something ferocious (can he borrow bits and pieces from her memories? Because she is crafting something together made of demons and dragons and aliens, many terrifying - wonderful - things that her young imagination can conjure).
But then the Northerner surprises her. Aela lifts her head and listens as the ram-horned stallion says that he'd like to see these changes brought to Taiga. Surprised, she smiles towards the tall Taigan but waits for @[Straia] to approach before revealing a secret (though the memories of Taiga burning she directs towards @[Yanhua] do not wait for the Dominus). "Truly?" she calls out with a voice that she is still getting acclimated with. But the thought of Taiga on fire - again - is exciting and she lights up with an idea.
This would be a great time for him to try out a different shape, she muses. Pangea just traded its skin for the Chamber and it makes Aela think that Skandar will fit in perfectly.
In the end, the change of scenery bothers the girl little (and that little is for Beyza). Life has always been what Aela has made it, and as always, she intends to make the most of it.
@[Skandar] a gift for you. let me know if i need to change anything