She has decided to be a diplomat and yet she finds herself constantly within Nerinian borders (that is, if she counts her trip to Taiga as the border, since she didn’t venture any further on that day). Today she truly breaks free; spring is near and she finds herself restless. She is an adult, she is a diplomat for a queen who’s scowl may or may not make potential enemies by default, and she has responsibilities that she has placed upon herself - befriend and ally with others: recruit and find more lands to align with.

However, she does not feel up to visiting Taiga again today in hopes of not bumping into Reia; she does not feel like counting the hours she spends in the Field finding no-one, nor does she feel particularly attracted to visiting lands when Neverwhere does not yet have a message for them - other than introducing herself and even that, Eurwen would rather not do today.

So she roams into the common lands as an escape, a day of running away so that maybe tomorrow she can go at it again.

She welcomes the lack of horse-scents, the lack of talking in the distance, the lack of faced pulled into a smooth display so as not to betray emotion. She loathes that part of what most perceive as good diplomacy; having no feelings of themselves whatsoever, to only represent a land. As if the feelings of its inhabitants don’t count - but they count the most, to her. She’s just not like that, she thinks. She can be kind and have emotions and represent her land, she has decided.

The spotted mare watches night creatures scatter from their daytime hideouts, daylight-favouring critters doing the opposite. There’s something strange about the twilight zone, she thinks. Catching the gleam of the orange sunset, she decides she won’t be going home just now, today. She can spend the night here, where the water reflects the sun as much as her mane, the rose and orange colours not contrasting for a moment - hidden in plain light, as it were.

She is approached by a skeleton of a mare - a ghost of a beautiful woman, she sees: having been like that only just a year ago, she noticed how badly the woman is out of shape but also sees what she had been before, or what she could be. After all, she’d watched the process of healing up close - every time she looked in a clear puddle of water over the course of the last year or so.

She remembers Ori, instantly feeling like she should visit her, as a friend, not as a diplomat to Loess.

The mare still has a voice, and a look in her eyes saying she is not as lost as Eurwen was. Again she remembers her conversation - discussion - argument - with her friend and she decides to take on a similar mantle with the newcomer.

”I don’t mind at all, but please eat and drink something while you do. You look like you’re falling apart.” She’d rather not have to add the navy-marked mare to her conscience, but she estimated it might be a little late for that. The least she could do was to try and force her to undo some of the damage.

”Don’t get me wrong, a year ago I looked like you.” A small smile follows. ”I’m Eurwen, by the way.”

There is little one can do when so dehydrated, so underfed - the body must get used to eating and drinking again, and that is why it had taken the spotted mare over a year till full recovery - in fact, that was only a recently-accomplished thing. The navy-marked mare, save for base color, which had at the time looked yellow as well, looked so much like Eurwen’s past self that honestly the knabstrup hybrid was already uncomfortable at seeing her - again, feelings of self-loathing surfaced, for how ever had she thought that hiding would bring anybody anything, would help anyone in any way?

Now, she watches Eyas bow down and for a moment she looks like she’s about to say something else - but the mare takes a few small sips, then a few gulps, and the rose-maned mare knows that the one before her has already learned that lesson, and needs no belated warning against cramps already there.

She latches on to the mare’s question, and gives her a wry smile. ”The short story is that I was being both a coward and an idiot, and it took years for someone to find me who would say that to my face.” The argument she and Oriash had had on the Mountain had not been about Eurwen’s state of being literally, but figuratively it was. Only when the antlered mare had pointed this out, Eurwen had somewhat come to her senses.

Eyas’ greeting doesn’t strike Eurwen as particularly odd, knowing just about nothing about her lineage. The spotted mare might have wondered about it if she had, but now she just gives a polite smile. ”Is it?” she muses aloud. She supposes some might think it nice to see her indeed, but then the question remains if that is because they think her pretty (not that she really considers this as more than just a coincidental idea) or because they like her as a person. Eyas however did not know her, and so, Wen can’t entirely be sure why Eyas thinks it is nice to see her.

She intends to find out though, some time.

She smiles a little at the buckskin-and-navy mare. Never would call her a skeleton - certainly she had thought the same of Eurwen last year. ”While I’m not sure if you’d believe me, I’d like to return the compliment.” The spotted mare smiles, seeing full well what Eyas would look like with some flesh on her bones. Besides, she has been pleasant company so far; as far as first impressions go, she seems like she would be a good friend.

Their conversation might be a little awkward, but the spotted mare doesn’t mind at all. Eyas made good company, even in silence- perhaps a trait the rose marked mare appreciated even more. She has no idea of the understanding of the world that the navy-marked buckskin has, but still, she can perhaps feel it in their ambience.

As Eyas makes her pouty face, Eurwen starts into a girlish giggle. As well as she meant the compliment, Eyas still manages to make a joke out of it and since it’s the kind of jokes she grew up with, well, she had to break sometime.

As the mare asks about the ‘debacle’, the spotted mare grows a little more serious, the smile still lingering on her lips. ”It’s such a mess, I wonder who didn’t get confused by it. Loess seems to want Taiga, for some reason. Nerine of course opposites such an expansion that had no real reason other than expansion in the first place.” She doesn’t know why Loess never offered anything in return, as good diplomacy goes; or why Lepishad once thought that it had only flourished because she led it - half of the Taigans at the time were her family, and the others had already been there, recruited by Aten - but honestly the fact that someone had the audacity to just waltz in and take, was perhaps what went against Eurwen’s nature the most.

Somehow she had the feeling that Eyas knew more about it than she let on, and yet, was equally tired of it as Eurwen. So, the rose-spotted mare smiles at her. ”I feel like it’s not something that’s gonna get resolved soon. I often wonder why the residents don’t get a say in it. Just vote and be done.” she shakes her head. If everything in life were that simple.

If their conversation turned from awkward to weird to suspicious, Eurwen would be late to notice it. Nevertheless, she hums softly in agreement to Eyas' remark. Indeed, greed is a pitfall; one she had seen many times before. Sometimes through her own eyes, sometimes watching from the sidelines. The spotted mare would rather let go of the subject, however, Eyas' words strike home when she tells her that some like to play the long game. Nodding slowly, she mulls over it in her head - then stores it for later. It is something she will take to heart; sometimes it seems that people have ulterior motives that the rest of the world can't see - that doesn't mean they're not there. Some like to play the long game, indeed.

She wonders if she should include herself in those. But does she have a clear plan for the future? She wouldn't dare to think she would be able to achieve that influence- or want to, in the first place.

That is, perhaps, why the buckskin mare's question nags at her so much. "Me?" A small chuckle escapes her. "What makes you think that?" She'd always thought of herself as just a small stick in the wild currents of life - maybe with enough sticks, a beaver would build a dam and change the course of the river, but surely she was not the beaver in this story. Every little act of kindness helped, of course, but to organize anything on a scale beyond one-on-one? She couldn't see herself doing it.

At least, not now... she hesitantly looks to Eyas. She might stick up for her, but just because she knew how to get back from where Eyas was right now, physically. "Who are you, really? Beyond your name."

Finally, the question of the ages.