YOU'RE ONLY AS SICK AS YOUR SECRETS
Having left Reave behind in Nerine, Aela openly traveled through Taiga again.
A few months before, Nashua had nearly threatened to banish her if she ever came to the Taiga again (though, really, Aela hadn’t meant to project a memory of Lilliana. But they had been by the sea - by a beach that their dam had favored - and it hadn’t been hard for Aela to reach into the past to find a horrible memory to fling at her estranged brother while he seethed at her). But now, the forest is quiet.
There are a few echoes left behind; Aela can hear the laughter of foals as they race between the Redwoods. Lover’s quarrels pierce through the fog with their sharp words. But most of the memories she finds are like the Northern Forest itself, dim and distant and to Aela, best forgotten.
She had gravitated back towards her old trail after a time. The thrill of cutting through Taiga was long gone like its Guardian. There was always the chance that the Freyr might find her, but according to Reave, the copper pegasus was too busy worrying over his stolen son and missing brother to notice much else. So she left the Redwoods to their ghosts and turned towards the River, intending on following it down towards the Forest before she would eventually have to pass through Loess to reach the idyllic Pampas and its multitudes of flowers.
Eventually, but not at this exact moment.
Aela had caught the landing of the slender pegasus, her dark coat standing out against the greenery of summer. Her crystals gleamed in the sunlight and the palomino didn’t need to guess as to who the stunning stranger was. She had seen her enough, lingering in the back of Obscene’s mind. ”Cheri,” she calls out, making her own way towards the river bank. A wry smile crosses Aela’s pale lips, thinking of the last time they had met in Loess.
A gathering that had been rather entertaining for the Empath.
Taiga lingers at their backs and Aela tilts her pretty head curiously, unable to refrain from asking with it looming so close, "not pining after your lost relations, are you?”
@Cheri look i made a tree pun