they promised that dreams can come true

Ori has no experience with the faeries, though she has heard plenty of stories. They sound like less than pleasant creatures and she finds herself mildly thankful that she’s never felt the urge to go seek their blessing. Perhaps someday, but she is content for now with the power given to her. What more does she need, really, other than the ability to be certain of reality? Yet to ask for that seems like a quick recipe to have her illisionism taken away, and she isn’t sure who she is without worlds at her fingertips.

No, Ori would far rather lose sight of what was real than lose the ability to create. After all, it had been her own companion growing up, even if it cruelly showed her the life she never got to have. Ori had made her own memories, in a way.

Today, so far, has been a mild winter day, which Ori finds herself thankful for. Her coat is long and warm, but still, the biting wind gets to her somedays anyway. Without it though, it is a nice enough day to wander through Loess. It doesn’t take long for a mare to catch her attention. To be fair, she is the kind that’s rather hard to miss; bright pink and purple, with yellow fins instead of a mane, the mare looks rather out of place in Loess entirely. They were not a sea friendly place, after all.

The other mare moves stiffly, looking a little worse for wear. Ori seems to be running into that sort lately. Maybe being kind is her calling, or maybe she just can’t help becoming her damn mothers, but she makes her way over. “You okay?” she asks, coming to settle a polite distance away from the other mare, waiting to see if she needed any help or could use some company. 

they promised that dreams can come true

Desperate to help is probably not quite an accurate way to describe Ori. Rather, she’s just desperate to do something. Helping seems easier than going off to fight a war or whatever, so usually she finds herself helping. It is either that or she tends to find herself lost in illusions, the world changing in subtle ways around her without her really noticing. The deer that follows her around on occasion, flowers that bloom, light that shifts and sparkles. She is never quite sure exactly what the world looks like to everyone else in Ori’s absence, though in her presence they will see the world as she does.

Helping gives her something to focus on, gives her some semblance of grounding. It occupies her brain. She is not desperate to help, but she is desperate for what it gives her sometimes. This particular mares seems a prickly sort though, and Ori finds herself vaguely regretting deciding to be nice. Still, the response is nice enough. Lucky for the brightly colored, finned mare, Ori doesn’t really do small talk. They might get along on this front. “Ah,” she says, just a soft acknowledgment of the mare’s comment around the fairies with no further expectations attached to it.

The mare asks for water, which is not surprising. “Not far,” she offers, nodding in the direction of the north. One of the larger lakes, situated toward the north-eastern side of Loess was not too far off. Noting how the mare’s wings droop low toward the ground, Ori doesn’t suggest they fly. Instead she moves off at an easy walk toward the nearby lake. She wonders, briefly, as they walk exactly how the mare ended up in the middle of Loess after a trip to the fairies, but that seems like a topic best left alone.

“Where do you live, normally?” she asks, though it’s the only question she asks as they walk, not attempting to fill the space but merely curious how far away from home this mare actually was. Ori has delivered others to their doorsteps before, though she doubted Rebelle would need an escort, but rather just a nod in the right direction. “I’m Ori, by the way” she adds, cresting over a slight hill to reveal a rather large lake. It would be anything but warm this time of year, but she suspected that was not the sort of thing that bothered a mare made for the sea.

they promised that dreams can come true

Her answer to her home is unexpected. Loess. Ori lived under a rock, she knew, but still she showed up to meetings and wandered around enough she was pretty sure she would have seen a mare that looked so obviously out of place. Her question, no, comment this is still Loess, isn’t it, doesn’t seem to be looking for a response and so Ori just stays silent and continues to walk on.

The other mare gives a name, and if only they each knew that the other did not give their true name. She had been Ori for so long that she did not know who Oriash might be. She’d simply become Ori, a name that her mother had not given her, because that was the important part. It was a name that her mother had not given her. But they do not know such things, and it’s clear enough to Ori this mare doesn’t really want her around or a conversation. Which was fine, Ori would go back to doing the things, or lack of things, that she did normally.

They arrive at the water with an awkward thank you from the other mare, and if Ori were anyone else she probably would have laughed, but that wasn’t a thing she tended to do. Instead she just nods. “Do you need anything else? If not, I’ll leave you to the water then.”