Her first thoughts before the sun rose had been of Aislynn.
It had been a particularly restless night and though Lilliana’s days of sleeping in are long behind her, when her heavy lids had finally lifted and she managed to blink the bleariness from her eyes, her thoughts had immediately gone to her younger sister. It had been common for the girl to be up before dawn and there had been many times that Lynn even woke before Valerio had, eager to greet a day that hadn’t started yet.
There had been one morning she remembers.. One morning that Lilliana had woken in their Meadow and found herself alone. Valerio had long gone on a scheduled patrol and where Aletta and her younger sister had disappeared to was only revealed by the sound of wild laughter coming from a nearby clearing. The champagne girl was giggling excitedly, high-pitched and full of enthusiasm. It hadn’t taken an almost two-year-old Lilliana long to figure out why; in the middle of it all was the silver Regent kicking up her heels, arching her neck and finally twisting and spiraling her body in any carefree direction possible.
Lilli had almost joined in their laughter then. Aletta had looked anything but regal. It had taken the copper girl a moment to reconcile Paraiso’s Queen (the one who had threatened stallions with her teeth, her hooves and their future virility, the one who had threatened to use Frostbane’s hide as a war banner by the time she was done with him) with the dappled mare who engaged her lastborn in dancing and cavorting in this small grazing area.
She had almost giggled but the quiet presence of the gilded Guardian nearby caught her eye instead.
Lilliana remembers the adoration on his face and the way her heart lifted to see it. She had wanted to say something (so many things) but she had been so timid and so unsure of him in those days. There had been so many stories about him but what of her? She had given her father one of those shy smiles as her mother and younger sister played and Valerio had looked at her and returned her smile with a slightly playful one of his own... and something else.
Something that tugged at her thick growing mane.
A warm breeze, tender and soft, wrapped in a summer gust of wind. A shared secret between father and daughter that broke the silence and made the crimson girl laugh.
It’s something that she feels this morning as she stands here - in this small clearing. Daylight came a few hours ago but morning dew still clings to the long strands of meadow grass. A flare of her dark nostrils can smell the dawn and the damp with a crispness that foretells of colder weather creeping in. These are the last days of summer and the first frost will be here before Beqanna knows it. Lilliana gives this small clearing another periphery glance to determine she is alone before the copper mare breaks from her own secluded spot (covered by brush and tree cover) at a gallop.
There are many places in Taiga that she adores but not many places that she can stretch her legs - not like this. Lilliana tosses her head, twists and spins her auburn body in ways that probably aren’t befitting an Ambassador but for a few stolen moments, she simply doesn’t care. The summer breezes are sweet and in her imagination, affectionate.
She allows herself a few moments to pretend that this Meadow is another one entirely with laughter from another lifetime echoing in her ears.
Lilliana is almost untamed looking when she is done. Her sides are heaving and her slender neck is lathered in sweat when feels her hooves sinking into the damp soil. Indentations are everywhere and clods of earth litter the ground when the chestnut finally lifts her head and gives it shake, trying to return her mane to its correct position (she fails, of course, Lilliana is all windswept now).
A sound (the breaking of a twig, the sound of leaves crunching under hoof) comes and she stills except for the pricking of her ears and her still flaring nostrils.
It’s there again, a warm summer breeze, soft and tender. It passes by her, running its fingers through her wavy mane and Lilli bated, waits.
LILLIANA
light me up, i will blaze
like a soul you have saved
@[Shezira] rambles as promised
and anybody else who wants to jump in!