I'd let her in on a secret if she had asked, if our conversation had gone that direction: I think our world is a wonderful place.
It's not always so, I've been told. We are fortunate on Islandres in that we have enough grass to graze on, that we have months and months of warm sunshine to bask in, that we have salt-filled breezes that carry the wild scents from other places across Beqanna. The horses that call it home are (mostly) kind and drifting with the pace of island life, we don't seem to have many of the struggles that the other kingdoms have.
We have a way of life that I think is unique (if only because I still have much to learn).
When Aestas says she'd love to see Islandres, my tentative smile broadens. She brings it out of me like dawn brings the day; it's a gradual warmth that finally reaches from the edges of blue to my navy blue eyes. Do we go right now? Is that too forward? My ears flicker forward and to the side, wishing that I had paid closer attention to my Papa. He was always so good with others. It always seemed like he knew what to say. What if we meet in the middle, I wonder? "We could visit the Tephra beaches first?" I offer hesitantly because while she loves them, I'm sure she has seen them a hundred times and I know that my older brother Bran has complained before of wanting to see something different. Something new.
"You can only reach Islandres on a low tide unless your a Nereid," I try to joke but I glance sidelong at my new friend, wondering if she might be. You never knew in Beqanna what Magics were at play; not until you were the recipient of them (like Narc and his games). I decide to show her mine and I tug quietly at the shadows near the treeline, making them longer until they stop just before us. They make shadows that linger are not our own. Glancing down, I push away the desire to envelop us both in darkness, knowing that not everyone finds it as inviting as I do. They'll remain there until she asks and I'm mindful already that she might ask me to pull them away.
"Erne is a bird that lives on Islandres." The explanation doesn't feel quite right as many birds live everywhere. "Gale, our leader, is kind of like his... ?" My head rounds in a little circle, searching for the right word. "Companion?" It's what I think makes the Osprey unique. How many horses can say that they have a friend who is a bird?
As Aestas starts speaking, I fall quiet and listen to the details of her life. Her mother is the former Queen of Tephra and it takes everything in me to not widen my eyes. But I remind myself to remain polite because I've never heard of royalty retiring; once you were made noble, I assumed that it remained even if the titles did not. She has brothers and sisters, a father, and a garden that I imagine to be lovely. Tephra (from what little I saw when I passed through) was filled with lovely colors.
"I've always wished for more siblings," I say somewhat wistfully. If it were night, I might have shown her the games I played with my stars to compensate for the lack of them. "But it's not so bad just having a brother." Bran was one who had taught me how to find the sandbar, after all.
And if I hadn't found the sandbar, summoned the courage to wander today, I wouldn't have met @[aestas].
i am SO sorry that this took forever