"You can't promise that." The words fall flat in the spring air around them and Lilliana hates herself for ruining such a lovely afternoon. This is a bright, vibrant day and even Taiga's fog doesn't linger close today. The fog has been reduced to an apparition - a memory of silver and shadows as waves crash against a rugged shoreline.
There is an electric current of energy as the anger charges underneath her copper skin. There are so many places in this world - in this universe - that are exposed to hardship and trial and cruelty. When she looks up through the branches of the redwoods, on those quiet nights and she manages to spy a single star, those are not the things she hopes for this forest.
Like Ischia, she wants it to be a haven for those who are tired. She wants it to be a place for those who are lost to find. She wants it to be a place where families can raise their foals without having to worry that the place they consider home could vanish. (All it takes is a fog to change everything but perhaps Taiga's fog is a barrier; perhaps it is the very thing that keeps them all safe.) Tyr moves slowly towards her and Lilliana stands guarded with her anger. She knows that danger comes in all shapes and forms outside their borders but the helplessness she feels that danger could be inside their home is enough to rile her to this point.
She had offered protection to Tyr - had given her word that he would be safe beneath these branches - and instead, he found trouble.
Winds help her, what is she doing? Doubt trickles down through the anger and tempers it. It turns a different shade as she wonders why she thought she had any notion of politics or diplomacy or even trying to be a fragment of what her parents had been, what they had stood for - she has neither the iron-will of her mother or the golden steadfastness of her father (she measures herself through their eyes and will always come up wanting by doing that, though she hasn't yet realized it).
The stallion moves slowly and Lilliana stands quietly, watching him from beneath her wavy forelock. She doesn't make any movement or indication that she will move away from him. When he does reach her and his mouth lightly grazes her neck, the copper mare turns her head to his direction and finds herself calming beneath the kindness of his touch.
His murmured words make her apologetically shake her head as a half-smile emerges against her dark maw. "Don't thank me yet," she teases. "I could just as easily get us lost." With that, Lilli turns and starts down a trail she knows. She only ventures a few steps before she calls over her shoulder, "I think this direction is East." Laughter warms her voice. While her sense of direction might be lacking outside of Taiga, she has learned this forest and its intricate trails. She knows these paths - she has spent countless hours getting lost and winding her way around the Taiga to know the way they weave through the redwoods.
She starts down the trail and considers what he had said earlier. An ear remains flicked back towards him as Lilliana continues to walk - remembering another day where she led another horse through this same forest and how a shadow came alive. ('Lilliana I think I know the perfect place for you and Neverwhere, if you know it.') She blinks back the memory and forces her attention back to Tyr, "You really want to know?" She counters. Silence before she moves over to another part of their path and adds, "Watch out. Move more to the left. There is a large boulder ahead blocking part of the trail."
Another exhalation as she considers her words. "Taiga has been part of Nerine since..." and she stops, realizing she doesn't know. Lilliana realizes she should mend that. Another history lesson with Aten might be in order. "Well, the Reckoning I guess. I don't know." The chestnut uses her voice as a guide, letting it float back to the celestial stallion as a way to follow her. "But now Loess is involved and both kingdoms think they have a claim to it." She ducks beneath a fern as she lowers her head and it brushes lightly against her topline, "Leaves ahead."
Lilli tries to keep the steeliness from hardening her voice. But she can't help it. Old wounds not fully healed open up. "We moved around a lot when I was young," she admits. "Taiga is the first home I've known since I was born." Part of her knows that it isn't the place that makes home.. well, home. (She can hear Malachi in her head, echoing from past conversations: 'Home is wherever we are together.') It does nothing to ease her worry and she finds herself biting her lip as she walks before she says, "It just worries me. I'm not used to things being so complicated."
Complicated, she thinks, is a rather appropriate term for her these days.
And then like before (she doesn't want to burden Tyr too much with these problems), she changes the subject."Were you born in Ischia?" Remembering her own visit to the tropical island, she curiously asks: "Has it always been a sanctuary?"
@[Tyr]
but it's all in the past, love
it's all gone with the wind