Ciri
She had peered into the flickering flames of the burning tree but had been unable to make any sense of what lay beyond the fire. Pine needles crackled and smoke rose from the branches that refused to turn to cinders but nothing spoke to her from the haze of the smolder and she was left with only the scent of a bonfire that lingered on her skin for several days afterwards. Gale, however, had seemed to have seen something. Or claimed to at least. She couldn’t tell if he had just been teasing her when he spoke of a heavy full moon on a long summer night in the meadow, claimed to see them standing beneath a clear starry sky with the rhythmic symphony of cicadas and crickets playing around them. She had merely laughed and figured she would see him long before that.
Life had other ideas though. Things had changed since that day in Hyaline, she now had her own place to call home and a title to match. Thane of the North, it was more than she deserved but she was fiercely proud of the faith Leilan had seen in her and had tried her best to rise to the Northerners expectations. She watched Mourna grow, as wild and spirited as the tundra lands themselves, and found herself growing more protective of her and her mother. Padme had grown from a travel companion to a true friend and she spent much time in the others company when she wasn’t patrolling or doing tasks for the kingdom. Lior too had become a significant companion and without realizing it she was slowly building back her own semi-sense of family.
For the first time in a long time, she wasn’t so focused on the past. The painful memories of Amet and their son, of the Hyaline of old, were starting to fade. Not forgotten, never forgotten. Just put aside in a small keepsake box in a part of her heart so they no longer dominated the entire thing. Spring faded into summer and so consumed by this new direction in life she allowed herself to get swept away…. But Gale was never far from her mind.
She had not forgotten his vision in the fire. She had not forgotten her first friend back in this new Beqanna. Her thoughts often strayed to Lightning Boy and she hoped he was doing ok. Hopefully he had been able to work things out with Mazikeen, remembering his mention of a disagreement. Love, it seemed, was a hard and rare thing. Even if it escaped her for the rest of her life, she hoped better for her friends.
It was what brings her to the meadow on that star filled night, the strawberry moon a perfect glowing circle high in the sky, washing the lush grass at her hooves in a bright bath of warm moonlight. She missed Gale’s easy going nature and his matter of fact way he went about things. She missed her friend. It’s an easy grin that finds her lips when he finally comes, her stars a brilliant golden sheen around her. The dark scarred mare seems to wear her battered skin a little differently these days, a slight raise of her skull and a warmth to ease the coolness of her mercury eyes. “I was worried you might have forgotten.” She admits, remembering when she had first met him in this place and how she had thought him a storm made flesh. Now there seemed to be more lightning than thunderclouds that settled over his skin. There is something about him that suddenly makes her uneasy, a sudden tangle of nerves that she shrugs off as excitement from not seeing him in awhile. Still, she reaches for the stars above in her reflexive nervous reaction, just in case.
all of time and space, everywhere and anywhere, every star that ever was
@[Gale] Where's that devil emoji when you need it lol