She doesn’t know which would be worse – to have a family and fear for their lives due to one of your own, or to simply not have a family at all. Rae is too used to the latter to really consider any of the other options, and for her, it’s been fine. She has nothing to compare it too, and so she cannot mourn for something she’s never really known. The sky calls to her. It is friend and family and lover, and it is enough, has always been enough. There is Kry, of course, and though he is her other half, her counter, he does not complete her in the way some twins do.

She would be torn to pieces without the sky, but there is always a sky, will always be a sky. There is no fear that she will lose the thing she most loves. The sky is ever changing, but she loves it as much in a storm as she does on a clear blue day. Each of its moods is perfect, and she has never needed more, never sought more. Rarely does she even find someone that can keep up with her, not up here, but today there’s another presence trailing her and…gaining.

It is not easy flying weather, unless you are Rae, of course. The day is dense with clouds and winter breezes and she finds it highly surprising there is anyone else here with her other than the winter birds. She slows, allowing him to catch up, curious to meet this other equine brave enough to fly in the winter weather. There are some, of course, everywhere she goes, but they are few and far between.

It’s not long before he’s behind her, calling out over the wind. You come here often? he asks, and she laughs in reply as if it’s the most obvious answer. Of course. “This is my home,” she says vaguely, though if he’s keen he’ll understand she means the sky and not Beqanna or the land they are currently flying over. She’s been exploring from the safety of the sky, avoiding potential recruiters or what have you until she better understands the changes that had been wrought upon Beqanna in her absence. Not that she was entirely against choosing a place to call home, but she simply didn’t know if that was something she could truly do. Rae didn’t understand how to be still, not like that, not yet.

She turns in midair, flying backward, a thing that perhaps ought to be impossible but if he’s watching, it’s clear enough that she’s not using her wings to fly right now, though they beat lazily, bright against the gray. Now, her blues eyes on him, she can see he is striking, colored gold and white and blue like her though in a different way. His white wings blend into the lighter clouds around them, but the deep blue that masks his face is impossible to miss. Her own blue is bright like a sunny day, but his, his is deep like the night.

“You are brave, to be up here in winter,” she offers, appraising and assessing him, pleased with what she has seen so far. Someone that perhaps might begin to understand her love, even if only a bit. There was not a day that she couldn’t be found flying, but of course, the wind answered to her. Even now, she pulled warmer currents to her, and though it was far from hot in her vicinity, the breeze wasn’t nearly as biting. In front of them, the clouds part easily, giving them a clear path if he’s in the mood. She turns back around, letting the wind currents return to usual around her, her wings now keeping her aloft, an even playing field.

And then she takes off.

How was a sky home, indeed? She did land, of course. Like all horses, Rae still fed on grass, spent some small amount of time each day asleep on the ground (though, occasionally, she did sleep on clouds but they tended to take her to all sorts of places). But she spent as much time as she possibly could in the sky, and when she wasn’t in it, she could always feel it. Birds simply came to her at her asking, and she could always hear the whispering of the wind in her ears, could feel it as it played with her hair. They were one, her and the sky, as much as any horse could be one with something as vast and powerful and awesome as the sky.

She was a wild as the sky though, untried and untested in civilization. Coming home then was strange for her, and it was hard to say if she could manage to actually stay, to live somewhere. The lands though tempted her, the herds intrigued her, and she found herself wondering what it was like even if she wasn’t so curious as to try it. Not yet, anyway.

He doesn’t seem tame, per say, but certainly moreso than she is. He smells of land as she assumes she must smell of wind, whatever exactly that might smell like (it changes always). She wonders if he calls one of these nameless (nameless to her, that is) herds home, or if, like any average horse, he simply spent enough time with his feet firmly planted to the ground. She suspected the former though, having noticed that different lands had distinctly different smells, much like the seasons always smelled different.

“They are one in the same, I think.” she says, strangely museful and calm as she flies backward in the middle of winter. This truly is her home, for she is far calmer and far more capable in the air than on the land. He seems to hesitant then – or perhaps she only imagines it – debating whether to join her or not. Though she had hardly shown her true hand, she had given him glimpses, and perhaps the challenge was too much. After all, she had never promised to play fair, though for the moment, she was. Not that she cares, as she’s already taking off, letting him choose or not. He would be worth her time if he followed.

Then he accepts, and she laughs as he loops over her head. “Is your goal simply to stare at my rear?” she calls, entirely at ease here in the air. Funny how difficult she found something so simple as conversation when it began on the ground, but of course there, she was too far out of her element to know where to begin. He levels out, and she grins. “Shall I play fair?” she asks, though she doesn’t wait for an answer.

He was good, and she found herself trying to keep up with him without the aid of her power. She could, of course, but it was challenging and fun. Oh, it was rare to meet her equal in the sky. Well, equal when she took away her magic, but that simply was unfair. With a few powerful beats of her wings she begins to move up. Up, up up, loosing herself in the clouds she hadn’t cleared above them and simply disappearing for a moment. Then, without warning, she tucks her wings and dives, aiming herself right in front of him, shooting down in a spiral. The clouds beneath them loom beneath her and at the last minute she spreads her wings, leveling out and coming to a near halt above the closest cloud.

“Or, I could play unfairly,” she grins, stepping on the cloud below her and tucking her wings to the side. It’s unclear if she’s solidifying the cloud or simply keeping herself aloft with magic and not wings. Perhaps it’s both. Either way, she grins up at him from her perch on the cloud.

She has never particularly cared much about the attention of boys. The behavior is expected and besides, she has yet to meet one that she can’t beat in a fight anyway. There are few more powerful than her, and should she find one, she’ll simply out run him or leave him stuck on the ground. The stallion in the sky with her hardly seems like a scoundrel though, and so she doesn’t mind the playful teasing. It’s refreshing, sometimes, to feel almost normal. Almost.

Rae simply is not normal though, doesn’t know how to be normal. Normal at least in the sense of the way other horses live, as part of a herd, with their feet on the ground rather than settled on a cloud more often than not. She is too much made of the sky to be like them, and yet, sometimes she wonders if she could learn, if learning would even be worth it. What is life like? Yes, life. Life with others, life with friends and love and conversation. The truth is, she cannot quite fathom it.

He comes to join her easily, even his descent an impressive display. Now she does solidify the cloud, turning it into something akin to a tube floating down an ocean. “It's safe, she says, nodding to the cloud beneath her. Her wings are tucked casually against her side, as if this is normal, and for her, it is. More often than not she slept on clouds, letting them carry her where they willed. The wind took her where it wanted, and she found treasures and secrets simply by letting it carry her along. What she never found was connection though. You cannot connect to the things that you intend to leave.

A smile curves her lips at the compliment, though there’s something mischievous in it. “It is a better compliment when I tell you the same is true for you. It is rare I meet anyone capable of keeping up with me except for hawks and eagles.” Both types of birds were always up for a good flight, though she found they tended to be competitive and their smaller size made it far easier for them to maneuver. Unfair. “Rae,” she offers. “So tell me Wolfbane, have you lived here long?”

Company was not a thing Rae entirely understood, though she’s finds it a pleasant thing when it does occur. Most don’t stop to chat or play when they see her flying by. No one seems to take much pleasure in flight, but see it only as a means from one place to another that happens to be faster than walking. Wolfbane, then, is a pleasant surprise, and one she finds herself glad to have been given. Even if she cannot help the rather sassy responses that slip from her mouth. Where she’s learned such things is beyond her, but then again, where she’d learned manners in generally is beyond her as well. Rae is wild in the way the wind is wild, but she has watched and participated in the world just enough to be somewhat civilized.

He settles on the cloud only a bit hesitantly, and she can’t help but chuckle slightly as he gets used to sitting on a cloud. It is a strange thing to do, and she doesn’t blame him for hesitating or simply not trusting her fully (after all, why should he), but mostly, she just enjoys watching what she assumes is his first experience cloud surfing. “I’m glad you could as well,” she replies, clearly teasing from the mischief glimmering in her eyes, though she manages to keep her voice rather serious.

He answers her question honestly enough, rattling off names that mean little to her, but she has a vague idea of what each is. Two lands, of course, and she vaguely knows their borders. She knows nothing more than that though – not who rules them, not which is a kingdom and which a territory (truly, she barely understands the difference), not what they stand for. She does not miss the way he emphasizes “my home” though, and she simply grins at him in return.

His voice seems to grow a bit softer though, nostalgic perhaps, as he admits that this place called Loess houses his world. She can understand this sentiment, but the smallness of it baffles her and intrigues her. “What is it like to live in a herd, in one place, like that?” she asks, not judging, but genuinely curious. Her twin had set down his own roots and yet Rae…she longed to know and yet couldn’t quite bring herself to actually do so. She feared it would prove to be a cage.

The topic switches to her, and she laughs as he calls her a sky goddess. “I am no goddess. I’m not entirely sure they exist, anyway. From all I’ve seen, they are simply powerful immortals that managed to position their existence in just the right way. They are little more than tyrants, usually, parading as benevolent.” This was not the question he asked though, and so she halts her judgement of the thing notion of goddesses. It wasn’t as if she minded being called one, but still, she was not that powerful.

“I was born here just as the lands changed, just as magic was stripped away from Beqanna. I suppose timing in the womb was just slightly off, and my twin and I did not lose our powers here until we were born. Our mother, however, was not so lucky. He controls electric and I control the sky. Without her own power over electricity, she could not survive two unborn children that together, were a storm. I was born on the beach, to death and destruction. I did not stay here long, but took the sky as soon as I could and left this place behind. I’m not sure what brings me back now.”

The truth hangs there for a moment before the wind whips it away. It is the honest truth though. What is she seeking here? Why has she returned? She doesn’t know. She doesn’t expect her family to be here. She knows Kry, certainly, is elsewhere. If she were to set down roots, would it not be with him instead? Yet here she is, playing sky goddess above Beqanna.

Rae the fairytale.

She would like, if she knew it, though it wasn’t wholy accurate. There was something of a fairytale in her life, certainly, but in the end what fairytale leaves you alone? Not necessarily lonely – not all the time – but certainly lonesome. In the end, though she lived so much of her life in the sky, she was a creature made for companionship, a thing she has lacked for far too long. She isn’t sad about it though. After all, her life was her choice, at least, most of it. The death of her mother was not her choice, the changes wrought upon Beqanna were not her choice, but she’d be a fool to mourn things so far out of her control. Then everything else were repercussions of her decisions, her choices, and she did not see a point in being sad over the choices she made.

If she wanted something different, she simply had to make different choices. It was that easy. The hard part was knowing what she wanted, her heart so torn in two between remaining a bird or living as a horse, for she was meant for both.

He listens quietly, answering her question about a herd only after she has told her story. His answer feels like the sky to him, and she begins to imagine that it’s possible to love both the earth and sky equally, to belong to the place above and below. Herd life doesn’t sound like a prison, just a place that others could be present too. The clouds and the bird were familiar to her, yes, but they were not quite the same as seeing the same faces every day. This was the piece she missed up here in her blue and white world.

He stands, and she watches him unfurl his wings, gauging the air around them. She already knows its spend without needing to ask though, already knows she can change it to suit her whims and will. For a moment, she almost changes it around him, almost makes it a perfect takeoff if it’s time for him to return home (a fact that makes her a little sad but also something she can certainly understand). Then he speaks again, eyes still closed, and she finds herself smiling at the way he appreciates the wind.

“You have,” she says, using the word you in the collective sense, though he too has caught her fascination just a bit. There was a bit of the sky in him, and he makes her believe it’s possible to have both, to be more than just one thing. “Even goddesses grow weary of their domain,” she says it with a laugh, teasing clear in her voice. At that, she stands to join him, pulling at the wind to speed it up just a hair. “I suppose I should let you go to wherever you need to be,” she adds, unfurling her wings. The wind calls to them both, tugging gently and waiting with open arms. “Though I do rather hope to run into you again.”