[private] and its harder than you think

[Nashua]

(and it's harder than you think)
telling dreams from one another

Two brothers wander the Taigan woods and one decides that when the sun returns, someday both will see what their birthland looks like from above.

The thought makes Nashua smile. It's just one more thing that he can share with his brother and it gladdens his weighted heart - one carrying the worries of a father, duties as the Hersir of Leilan's Isle, hopes for a future that may or may not come.

And at this moment, Nashua hopes for so much.

"Can you imagine it?" he asks his twin wistfully. The East and the North had been at odds since before they had been born. Nash knew that politics in Beqanna could change quicker than a tide but the idea brewing inside his mind bright despite the dark times that they find themselves in. Yanhua was right in that they had friends in the West - (the Watcher was what their mother had called him, the Tephran leader) and Nash had been to both island territories of the volcano kingdom. There was no strife between the Northerners and their neighbors. Not any for Nashua (or his daughters) to find, anyway.

Peace with the East seems like a rather large dream. One that will take time and more than a single discussion between the two. It will take many and the Freyr will need to be included.

But it's something else to hope for.

Nash starts to think on plans for the future - ones that don't seem so shadowed or hazy now that Yanhua walks beside him - and the striped pegasus looks to the taller one. "A journey to Tephra seems practical," the Hersir muses to his brother. "A starting point," Nash explains rhetorically. He still wants the long run - peace with Hyaline and the East is his eventual goal when this eclipse finally ends. "And if you come along, well, -" he laughs softly, remembering the last trip they took to Tephra together. How cross the overo filly Laia had been with him, how unbothered Locheed had seemed with either of them. "The Tephrans seemed to take to you better than me."

Their conversation drifts towards the journey that Yan and Borderline will be taking come spring; one that will bring more variety to Taiga and make the mysterious wood even more fantastic. "You don't need luck, Yan." Nash tells his brother and his voice quiets again. The chestnut thinks his twin carries (and shares) it with each step he takes - a Guardian, a loving family that is safe and protected during these dark times, a light that he can share with others - but there is very little that Nash would deny his sibling.

"But good luck and swift winds, brother."

NASHUA