CASIMIRA
dragon-shifting daughter of ashhal and ryatah
Even though Casimira does not consider herself old by any means, the other girl is clearly younger. She recognizes the spark that seemed to live only in youth; a spark not yet tainted by the realization that the world can be an unjust place. She had been similar as a child, when her days were spent seeking adventure with her twin brother, Cassian. If there was a darkness crawling along the edges of that bright spot in her life, she had been blind to it—or her mother had just been very good at shielding them from it all.
She had learned eventually that no one could escape the darkness that thread itself through life, and that darkness didn’t always come to you in the form of gruesome monsters with sharp teeth—sometimes darkness came to you as a star-studded mare hurtling herself at you with the intent of reducing your entire being to dust.
The darkness had given her an edge, but she had not allowed it to make her hard. When she looks at the younger mare—who introduces herself as Reyla—she does not feel bitter that the other girl seems to have held onto her light, and she does not find herself cynically hoping that it might someday be dimmed.
She ignores that ill feeling of foreboding that prickles at the back of her mind, saying that this land will do it for her, somehow.
“There were others with you?” she asks with another note of concern, casting her glance around the young mare to see if she had perhaps missed the presence of others, or if they were too injured to stand. There is a moment where her icy blue eyes narrow and sharpen, becoming noticeably draconic as she scans the area with dragon vision to ensure that there really was no one else here. “Perhaps they washed up elsewhere,” she suggests gently. Beqanna was almost entirely shoreline, with several islands. It wasn’t entirely out of the realm of possibility.
The way the words tumble from Reyla’s mouth causes her own lips to quirk in amusement, waiting for her to stop before trying to answer all of the questions. “This place is called Beqanna, but more specifically, this area is the field. It’s usually where newcomers come seeking a home, but it's not as popular as it used to be.” She asks if Beqanna is large, which causes her to give pause with a thoughtful frown. “I have never been anywhere else, so I’m not really sure if Beqanna is considered large by comparison. There are four kingdoms, with other lands beneath them, and a few general areas.” She isn’t sure if that’s an adequate description of how large Beqanna is, but it's the best she can do. “I live in Tephra, the western kingdom.”
She does not say yet that she is queen of the west; the title still feels clumsy on her tongue. Instead, she continues by offering, “It has a healing waterfall that could heal your leg, if you want to try it.”
@Reyla