She has always been one for stories of adventure. The pirate stallion that had gotten stuck at sea and found a tiny island to survive on. The dragon that chased her father around the world attempting to collect him and his gold coat as his own. The king who had been stolen away from his kingdom and had to make friends with enemy to return. The story of how all the stars feel from the sky and a little spends her entire life finding them and putting them back.
“I haven't seen very much either,” she confesses, no matter how much she wishes the statement were untrue, but Astana was no liar. The filly made of gold has no idea how lucky she was that Torryn was the one who found her jumping out of the river rather than one of the monsters that Beqanna harbors within its walls of ocean water. This day could have easily turned into something much sadder and much more deadly, and full of that danger Astana was so curious about. She ought to count her blessings. But, the diamond eyed girl is innocent with those long lashes blinking up at Torryn and she is not living in a world of possible outcomes, but just this current one instead. Where the little girl with dreams of stars and the ocean is very much safe within the company of the blue roan boy with eyes dark like the forest he comes from.
Astana has heard the stories of dragons, from this land and others, dragons that have tried to hunt down her father, but for all her wandering, Astana has yet to see one in her short life. She likes to pretend she would be brave enough, but in the shadows of night with just herself for company, the little girl isn't so sure. She looks to him not like he is just a plain boy, but with eyes lighting up like he is something special and she is so lucky to see it. “I bet you could, you look pretty brave to me,” she offers. Astana was so confident in her hopes and admiration for others that it is doubtful her mind will be changed.
“Sorry,” she says suddenly, ducking her head, embarrassed by her question. “I havent,” she admits, fidgeting beneath his dark eyes. “I was born in the desert and I lived there until I came here,” she says. “We had coyotes, snakes, and scorpions you had to watch out for, but no owls,” she says. She wants to ask more questions, but she is buried beneath a layer of uncertainty. “Wow, your home sounds amazing,” she says with an air of admiration to her soprano voice.
His question brings images back to her home, the desert she had been surrounded by with her sister as her main playmate in those days. “Well, there was tons of sand, it was like how I imagine the ocean looks, but tan and golden in the sun instead of blue,” she offers. “We lived in a tiny Oasis the had water,” she continues. “It was really hot, we didn't have a winter, especially not like this,” she says with a laugh, diamond eyes coming to rest upon his young, dark face.
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