10-03-2018, 06:22 AM
Tephra was never central in the lessons taught to me as a child. It was far to the west, a distant place of fiery mountains that I'd never thought I'd visit. I wouldn't have any need to, not when I'd have diplomats to make such journeys for me. Yet here I am, standing alone in a tropical forest very far from home, waiting for a Tephran to find me so that we might discuss politics.
This is just another unexpected turn of events, another experience that I hadn't thought I'd ever have.
It's clear from the way my blue-grey eyes flick across the landscape and the way I breathe deeply of the unfamiliar scents and listen to the foreign noises that I am experiencing these things for the first time. I do so unabashedly, though when I taste a fellow horse in the wind, I turn quickly toward them with a smile.
There is no one there.
A crack of hoof on stiff greenery sounds behind me, and I pivot on my hind legs to find a handsome buckskin stallion wearing a welcoming smile. The smile I'd worn had faltered at the unexpected emptiness of the woods, but it returns as Magnus introduces himself and asks how he might help. I do not have time to answer, because from the direction I had initially turned comes a second horse, this one a soft dove grey with lavender points.
While I am glad that I had not imagined her, I am curious why she'd not come out earlier. Perhaps she'd not meant to respond to my summons at all, and had simply been near to where I had landed. Had I disturbed her? She looks alright, I decide, and her smile is equally as kind as Magnus's. I do not recognize either name she gives me, but the hard consonant at the beginning of her name and the color of her coat are clear indications of her family.
"I'm Lepis," I tell them, "Queen of Sylva." The title no longer feels unfamiliar, but to say that it sits right would be untrue. There's no indication of that in my outward appearance though - I am open and light and smiling. The very opposite of the Sylvan reputation. "I came to let you know that Sylva has changed hands after the disappearance of Queen Astarael, and also to inquire after Tephra. I've heard you have made some changes of your own recently. "
This is just another unexpected turn of events, another experience that I hadn't thought I'd ever have.
It's clear from the way my blue-grey eyes flick across the landscape and the way I breathe deeply of the unfamiliar scents and listen to the foreign noises that I am experiencing these things for the first time. I do so unabashedly, though when I taste a fellow horse in the wind, I turn quickly toward them with a smile.
There is no one there.
A crack of hoof on stiff greenery sounds behind me, and I pivot on my hind legs to find a handsome buckskin stallion wearing a welcoming smile. The smile I'd worn had faltered at the unexpected emptiness of the woods, but it returns as Magnus introduces himself and asks how he might help. I do not have time to answer, because from the direction I had initially turned comes a second horse, this one a soft dove grey with lavender points.
While I am glad that I had not imagined her, I am curious why she'd not come out earlier. Perhaps she'd not meant to respond to my summons at all, and had simply been near to where I had landed. Had I disturbed her? She looks alright, I decide, and her smile is equally as kind as Magnus's. I do not recognize either name she gives me, but the hard consonant at the beginning of her name and the color of her coat are clear indications of her family.
"I'm Lepis," I tell them, "Queen of Sylva." The title no longer feels unfamiliar, but to say that it sits right would be untrue. There's no indication of that in my outward appearance though - I am open and light and smiling. The very opposite of the Sylvan reputation. "I came to let you know that Sylva has changed hands after the disappearance of Queen Astarael, and also to inquire after Tephra. I've heard you have made some changes of your own recently. "
