The hopes that the pale palomino mare had of entering the Dale and leaving unnoticed by any that remembered her vanished as soon as she spied him. Those green eyes, the lush green of summer foliage, widen in surprise before she remembered herself. It was not so strange that he was here, though she had hoped otherwise to avoid this very moment and whatever unfortunate effect it had on the twist in her stomach. Not everyone was like her, not everyone turned and fled from all equine company when it became evident that she had been truly starting to care for the little family they created. The fear of failure had caused her to flee but her flee had caused her to fail. It was a treacherous cycle and one that Katniss wasn’t sure she had the strength to break free from.
Her name on his lips did not send chills down her spine or cause her knees to buckle as she had feared. Such reactions were not built into the quiet plant mare. She had not spent the years away pining for the molten eyes that watched her now, but the reaction she felt upon seeing Tiphon was not unpleasant. There was warmth there and a flush of embarrassment as she remembered what had passed between them. They had barely even been friends when they had conceived their twins and he had been kind to her at their birth, offering to help her when she was scared of what sort of mother she would be.
She knew now that she had been right to be afraid. Katniss had been a terrible mother and a worse friend and diplomat.
“Hello Tiphon.” Despite the tangled mess of thoughts and emotions inside of her mind she greeted him with a smile. There was a moment where she twitched her muzzle, thinking in one instant to move it to greet him as a friend but in the next deciding against it. They were back to being strangers, weren’t they? “I am well, and yourself?” She stayed careful to use the present tense - keep the conversation light and away from the darker thoughts. She should apologize, she had much to apologize for, but she did not let herself say the words just yet. “I hope all has been well in the Dale.” Oh wait, how many times was she going to say the word 'well'? She hoped not too many to be noticeable, it had been far too long since she had needed to be skilled in polite conversation.
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