[private] I'm going to light it up

[Yanhua]

By the time Yanhua catches the clean scent of the unfamiliar mare, hours have passed. Afternoon dwindled into evening, the stars blinked out from the night sky as if awakening from slumber, and the moon - pregnant with light - ascended to her throne in the heavens in her most full and lovely form. It was a beautiful night for strolling. Yan enjoyed the walk alone through the foggy darkness, not feeling winter’s bite as sharply as he should underneath a thickly-growing overcoat. The season’s past had been good to the Taiga herdland; his clan and the ones remaining were well-fed and ready for the long snap of cold to come. Recently, the new Guardian of the redwoods had heard news of Reave’s ascension as well, given how quickly word could travel in the north these days, and a few weeks had passed since two of his elder offspring had moved out into the world on their own. Life was ... good.

As the chestnut stallion ducked underneath a towering red mushroom, he thought of how happy he was to see Reynard, his eldest son, staying put for the time-being. Nash and Noel’s daughters seemed to turn up now and then as well, though his twin brother had been making frequent trips to the Eastern Kingdom - for what, Yanhua could only guess. He slipped down an incline woven through with roots, picking his footing carefully, and made a mental note to speak with the Hersir of the Isle soon about the comings-and-goings.

Like a wayward lantern, he himself floated eerily along until Mazikeen’s particular smell came up in the wind’s shifting directions, and he altered course toward the riverbanks with a shake of his curving horns.

“Come in, come in!” He called out from far away behind the trees, that same old familiar way he’d done when Gale had come to visit. She looked like an ethereal phantom herself, hard to place as his half-sibling’s mate at first, but the closer Yanhua came the more prevalent Gale’s connection to her was. He remembered her clearly from the festival (even if she was missing a pair of horns he was sure he’d seen on her forehead before) and did nothing to hide the surprise and satisfaction of seeing her here. “Sorry to have kept you waiting lady Mazikeen,” Yan apologized, “I was on the far end of the territory. To what do I owe the occasion?”

YANHUA

Image by Ani2ad

@[Mazikeen]