[open] living just to say goodbye; Casimira, any

[Tarian]

It’s his daughter who can’t seem to stop looking for survivors. Nearly two years have passed since the Sinking of the South, and while Tarian still takes the occasional flight over the sea that had once been his home, he has come to accept that there were some faces that didn’t escape the floodwaters in time. The earth shaking and then the waves that came after had been too quick; he had been fortunate enough to have been born with wings.

When the ground had gone and the ocean roared, it had been to the sky that Tarian swept into.

There were many missing that still bothered him. What had happened to the young Queen especially nagged at him, because hadn’t it been his duty to protect her? Cheri had supposedly disappeared some time before the South sank, but those rumors did nothing to ease his guilt. What of Lady Oceane and her family?

What of Ashhal, to whom he owed his life?

He’d never forgotten the other gray. Ashhal had saved his life during the Eclipse, taking a nasty bite intended for him. He’d somehow convinced him to return to Loess, and while Tarian had rarely associated with anyone besides the Queens he served or Altissima, he appreciated the brusque manner of the sterling pegasus. It was company he could actually tolerate; it reminded him of the days that he had served in the Guard, where most of the interactions had been short and blunt.

Tarian’s own daughter - a lively, bright creature in the mid-morning sun - teases him as she spreads her dark wings. She doesn’t hesitate (or even look back) as she takes off. He’d planned to accompany her but something stays him. A familiar shade of gray comes into view at the corner of his vision and the blue-eyed stallion turns sharply to face him, snorting in disbelief at the sight.

"Ashhal?”