Keav, the startalker, had brought her down from the Mountains.
Not that Aletta had known that, not at first. And if she had known Magic had been at play, well, the silver-white mare might have left the roan with her pelt of constellations to stand alone underneath the cosmos. It might have been a kinder fate than the one that the two of them found that night.
Keav, who mourned Arawn and burned with Bastille, had lost her children to self-indulgence. And Aletta - stoic, distant Aletta - who had told herself that she was content to keep company with the Winds, had lost hers to... what? The silver mare had no interest in losing herself into the embrace of another; Valerio had been her sun and she his moon. There was no bond, save perhaps their children, that could ever rival it.
It already felt like tempting Fate by coming down from the top of the world.
But down she came and the stars turned her eyes past those proud Mountains. Beyond, Keav had murmured one winter night, you have to look Beyond. An message straight from the heavens - cryptic and elusive. Perhaps as much of a voice as the stars - silent, shining things as they are - are able to muster through Magic.
What Beyond meant was still beyond her but the dappled mare had left the only true place she had ever called home - parted with her memories and murmured stalwart goodbyes to the mares who had stayed with her. If the stars told her Beyond, then Beyond she would go.
Horizons and borders blurred together. Lands melded and raged, climbed and fell - canyons cracked the earth, rivers wound through it, mountains rose and valleys dove. The wanderer in her might have once delighted in those sights, reveled in all those unknown places. Travel had been, afterall, Aletta’s first love. There was a once sweetness in seeing something for the first time (before she ever beheld her children). There was a high that came from finding all those secret places their world might otherwise keep hidden. Before Aletta had ever been a lover or a mother or a Regent, she had been a wanderer.
Where Beyond takes her is here - a place she never thought (or wanted) to see again.
There is disdain darkening her almost black eyes as she keeps to herself. The mare is a striking figure - commanding, proud and a bearing that speaks of expectancy. (But what is she waiting for?)
When she looks at Scorch, she isn’t sure if the hairless mare is it. The gray mare has had enough years to remind her to not stare overlong at the lack of a pelt on her but the expression on her face is clear enough - how does a horse lose their hide? The mare trots alongside her and there is something familiar in her noble outline. Baroque, imperial, distinguished. It softens her features - breaks the clouds of disapproval that had been building there - and Aletta gives a firm nod to Scorch’s approach.
Her own voice is low, hoarse from lack of use. "Pah,” the gray mare says. "The only home that could keep me is long gone. I have no use for another.”
Aletta glances out again, watching the few horses gathered and waiting. For a moment, she almost asks why they wait. Redundant. Why not just simply go into the kingdoms? (A reminder of the man in the water gives her pause. Nerine, wasn’t it?) "Aletta,” the former Regent offers by way of greeting. Tilting her head to eye the bald mare (what was the story behind her eyes… were they changing?) "What has you seeking ‘companionship’, Scorch?”
@[Scorch] she's cranky but means well lol
also - so sorry for the wait! <3
Not that Aletta had known that, not at first. And if she had known Magic had been at play, well, the silver-white mare might have left the roan with her pelt of constellations to stand alone underneath the cosmos. It might have been a kinder fate than the one that the two of them found that night.
Keav, who mourned Arawn and burned with Bastille, had lost her children to self-indulgence. And Aletta - stoic, distant Aletta - who had told herself that she was content to keep company with the Winds, had lost hers to... what? The silver mare had no interest in losing herself into the embrace of another; Valerio had been her sun and she his moon. There was no bond, save perhaps their children, that could ever rival it.
It already felt like tempting Fate by coming down from the top of the world.
But down she came and the stars turned her eyes past those proud Mountains. Beyond, Keav had murmured one winter night, you have to look Beyond. An message straight from the heavens - cryptic and elusive. Perhaps as much of a voice as the stars - silent, shining things as they are - are able to muster through Magic.
What Beyond meant was still beyond her but the dappled mare had left the only true place she had ever called home - parted with her memories and murmured stalwart goodbyes to the mares who had stayed with her. If the stars told her Beyond, then Beyond she would go.
Horizons and borders blurred together. Lands melded and raged, climbed and fell - canyons cracked the earth, rivers wound through it, mountains rose and valleys dove. The wanderer in her might have once delighted in those sights, reveled in all those unknown places. Travel had been, afterall, Aletta’s first love. There was a once sweetness in seeing something for the first time (before she ever beheld her children). There was a high that came from finding all those secret places their world might otherwise keep hidden. Before Aletta had ever been a lover or a mother or a Regent, she had been a wanderer.
Where Beyond takes her is here - a place she never thought (or wanted) to see again.
There is disdain darkening her almost black eyes as she keeps to herself. The mare is a striking figure - commanding, proud and a bearing that speaks of expectancy. (But what is she waiting for?)
When she looks at Scorch, she isn’t sure if the hairless mare is it. The gray mare has had enough years to remind her to not stare overlong at the lack of a pelt on her but the expression on her face is clear enough - how does a horse lose their hide? The mare trots alongside her and there is something familiar in her noble outline. Baroque, imperial, distinguished. It softens her features - breaks the clouds of disapproval that had been building there - and Aletta gives a firm nod to Scorch’s approach.
Her own voice is low, hoarse from lack of use. "Pah,” the gray mare says. "The only home that could keep me is long gone. I have no use for another.”
Aletta glances out again, watching the few horses gathered and waiting. For a moment, she almost asks why they wait. Redundant. Why not just simply go into the kingdoms? (A reminder of the man in the water gives her pause. Nerine, wasn’t it?) "Aletta,” the former Regent offers by way of greeting. Tilting her head to eye the bald mare (what was the story behind her eyes… were they changing?) "What has you seeking ‘companionship’, Scorch?”
@[Scorch] she's cranky but means well lol
also - so sorry for the wait! <3