YOU'RE ONLY AS SICK AS YOUR SECRETS
The light had returned.
And with it, so had the stirrings of life.
Even in Pangea - in the place that so many considered a barren wasteland - even the country that the Dark God had crafted, had come alive again. The acacia trees had sprouted leaves again. Small patches of earth had yielded green grazing grounds. The sun shone and for once in her short life, Aela didn't mind allowing something to glow brighter than her.
For a time, this was enough for the striped girl.
But Aela is no more able to stay still than the sun is. Just like its rise and fall, the palomino had begun to look at the horizon and wonder how the rest of Beqanna fared. (Not for their benefit but hers; to remain unaware was a disadvantage that her grandmother had always cautioned her against.) So the days dawned and the world warmed. What might have been spring turned into a sweltering summer in Pangea and Aela slipped quietly from the borders of her canyon home on a rather bright morning that told her that there was too much promise to wait for.
So she goes searching for it.
That's when the first whispers had reached her golden ears. With the return of the light had been the return of others; horses that had ventured to the Mountain and found a way to bring the sun back. It was interesting but what held her interest more were the rumors of what the North was doing. It would seem that their leader was throwing open the borders and letting the rest of the world in.
Aela shouldn't.
Oh, she shouldn't but there is a flicker of defiance in her breast. Another voice tells her she should and this is the one that the young mare follows. It takes her towards the North, past the Taigan Redwoods, and towards the jagged Nerinian coastline of the kingdom that Heartfire once ruled. There are no wings against Aela's side so as she gazes across the gray ocean, she frowns. The Isle hosts a festival with no way to get visitors across?
How very like the Northerner's, she thinks with an aggravated flare of her nostrils.
If there are any festivities to be had, they will find a way to keep it all to themselves.
Her invitation comes in the shape of a young filly, silver-black and blue-eyed and smiling openly at Aela. The palomino has been a great mimic from the beginning so she beams back at the girl. Lilliana's lost daughter asks the other, "Forgive me, but I'm trying to get to the Isle for the festival." And because the other is entirely her mother's daughter, Roselin smiles at the sibling she doesn't know is hers. "Come," says the younger girl and leads her towards the Taigan border where a portal had been crafted for the forest-dwelling residents. The magic that surrounds them is overwhelming and wonderful and intoxicating; the lovely smile that Aela gives the stranger is genuine when they are whisked to the frozen shore of the Isle.
"Thank you," she says to the filly before departing and leaving her behind.
Her blue eyes glance across the frozen landscape (and Aela isn't aware of how much she looks like Lilliana, the mother she has never known), lingering on the horizon. She is golden and blue-eyed and smiling when she turns her blazed head to look behind her, playing the part of merry-making instead of the mischief that she envisions. "I don't know where to start," she tells the approaching stranger with a breathless laugh. "Any suggestions?"
