[open] Shadows for Skin [ANY]

[Aela]

Aela has always been a mare of diminutive size. She was light-boned with delicate features, inherited from a mother she barely knew. It’s always been an asset to her - she has made sure of it - because her slight stature meant that it was easy for others to dismiss the palomino as weak or frail. She wasn’t wildly colored as some Beqanna-born were; she wasn’t jewel-touched as Cheri was or born with blazing red eyes as Obscene had been. Despite a few golden stripes on her forelegs and hindquarters, there was really nothing outwardly unusual about Aela.

Of the three horses gathered here (even despite Cheri’s fragile appearance), she was the smallest. And for a moment, Aela felt every day and week and month that had passed since she last saw the two. The lives lost, the terror, the fear of having a land sink beneath your hooves flickered behind her vibrant blue-eyed gaze as she looked between them. Cheri might be forgiven in Aela’s high-strung temper, because it wasn’t the appaloosa that had made her so angry.

It was Obscene.

He had vanished without a word. She hadn’t forgotten her conversation with Skandar where they had contemplated his murder. But Aela had said that he was more useful to them alive. She had allowed him to live and he had repaid her benevolence by disappearing. The least he owed her was an explanation of where he had gone, of what had made him leave behind the Pampas and the might of an illustrious Court that they had both been working towards.

Becoming exasperated with their questions and lack of answers, she wanted to tell them both to shove off (or take a dip in the Bastian-infested waters). Aela had come to the Ruins time and time again searching for any information; had remained in the Common Lands to listen for the accounts and retellings from survivors for any part of the story she might have missed when she might have sought out the immediate safety of a territory like Pangea or Nerine. They wanted answers to what she knew without offering anything themselves. The long stare that the former Prince gives the last Loessian Queen makes Aela wonder, but it isn’t enough to draw conclusions from. The only thing that it reveals to the Empath is that there might be some discourse between the pair (but what was a lover’s quarrel in the grand scheme of things?)

She turns away, moving ahead, and considers not saying anything.

But they were her best chance of finding Fry. They were her best chance of understanding what had happened, and if Aela were to ever try to put her sunken Court back together, they were her best chance of doing that. ”The Gray,” she said from over her slender shoulder. ”The gray pegasus from Loess. If there is anyone who has scoured this place more than I have, it would be him.” Cheri must know Tarian, she thought. The only time they had spoken, he had asked after her. ”He was searching for his children, Lady Oceane and her family, and you, Queen Cheri.” She continued to explain while stepping forward, and finally placing a hoof over the burning flower that had been roused by her anger.

"And no, there wasn't any warning." Aela added while her voice began to quiet. It had been one of the talents that her Pampas didn't have, there was no Seer in her Court who might have warned her of the Calamity. "There was only the shaking, and then the ocean came."

The ocean came, and that was she most remembered. Being overcome by nature herself, and then getting swept up in the emotional tide that came after. She remembered what it was to feel a hundred hearts stop beating, the fear that clenched their last thoughts and memories as the sea claimed them. Spurred by those emotions, Aela glared suspiciously again to Cheri and the now snacking Obscene. "You know nothing? Wherever you where, you felt none of it? The earth shakes? They said you could hear the Sea roar all the way from the Isle to Pangea."

@Cheri