stars when you shine, you know how i feel
oh freedom is mine

Nashua has been on the Isle for nearly two years now. Most of the faces of the residents are well-known to him. And the Freyr, perhaps the most notable, is as close to Nash as family. His mentor has taught the young pegasus much of what he knows and it usually presents itself in his quick, bold smile. He's been told about Jesper but the chestnut stallion has never formally met the fox-shifter before.

Most Northerners know about @[Jesper], though. His theft from the North had been whispered about from the Isle to Nerine and even made it to the forest of Taiga.

An unseasonably warm spring day finds the striped stallion on the southern edge of Leilan's kingdom. The winds are mild and it strikes a thought in Nash's mind to journey further south. Perhaps it was time for a trip. Tephra, perhaps? It's been years since he had last seen the volcano. Icshia and its tropical beaches strikes something in his venturing heart. This past winter and spring have been the longest that Nashua has stayed in one place. Save for an occasional visit to the Taiga with Yan and his mother, the winged stallion has kept mostly to himself.

He, like many others, had struggled with the fires and consequences that blazed across Beqanna that winter.

Leilan's young lieutenant finds the dark stallion sunbathing and the sight marks the start of a smile on his pale lips. The warmest part of the year would be here and then gone, he knows. Just like an Islander to know this as well and take advantage of the pleasant weather while it remained. "Jesper?" Lilliana's son asks while coming to a stop not far from the Skald. When the other stallion has had a moment to open his eyes, the pegasus says, "Leilan thought it was time we met. I'm Nashua."

stars when you shine, you know how i feel
oh freedom is mine

Nashua has stopped a polite distance away from the dark stallion. Their conversation holds all the promise of being a cordial one, something his mother would have approved of. It quirks that handsome smile towards one side of his mouth, an unspoken jest. Most of Beqanna knows the Isle as a land ruled by another Dragon king; his subjects have taken on the reputation as an unruly bunch, distrustful of outsiders.

And yet here stand Jesper (once Lord of this place) and Nashua trading pleasantries as if they might courtiers instead of reputed marauders.

"Likewise," the pegasus says to the older stallion. The lopsided smile evens out and finally reaches his green eyes, the glint of them warmer than the sunlight that very rarely warms anything this far North. Nash has been on the Isle nearly two years now and though his stays are frequently interrupted by his travels, it's home for the striped stallion. "Cold, the younger stallion says factually and flicks his flaxen tail, as if it might tempt a stray strand of sunlight to his chestnut hide. "And it could perhaps use some greenery," replies Nash before hastily explaining, "but I grew up in the Taiga. Where the trees weren't towering out of the soil, there were ferns and shrubs everywhere." He doesn't add more; Nashua assumes that he doesn't need to. @[Jesper] probably traveled through the Redwood forest more times over the years than Nash had.

There is a fondness in the expression that follows. Nash looks over his shoulder towards the northern part of the Isle that still glittered with snow in the distance. His wings ruffled against his sides and for a moment, Nashua imagines the journey towards the edge of Beqanna's known world. The aurora burned across the sky brightest there, as if the lights there knew they dancing between realms. He had thought about it once or twice, aiming to fly so high that he found the stars. A story of his youth and the chestnut brings himself back to the present, where he tilts his head invitingly to Jesper when he glances back to his companion.

(The smile on his face tilts with it and turns into a smirk that plainly marks him as Wolfbane's son.)

"That you were very cunning," the pegasus teases, though Leilan had never imparted as to why Jesper might be so. Not realizing that his eyes have changed to a familial (playful) shade of blue, Nash adds, "He told me that you once had charge of this place." The stallion eyes the other curiously. "What were those days like?"

stars when you shine, you know how i feel
oh freedom is mine

"Home sweet home, eh?" Nashua jests with the older stallion. He stretches out his auburn wings as if he might shake out the chill that the pair were joking about. For the horses who could acclimate to the Isle, it wasn't such a bad existence; one that Jesper points out.

Apart from the damage done by Castile, the Isle was primarily left to its own devices. It was the mainlanders who seemed to get tangled in political and personal affairs. At least out here, most of the residents tended to keep to themselves.

Nash can't say that he exactly minds.

(All of this is about to change. There is a white pegasus tucked somewhere along the North who occupies most of his thoughts these days, with the impending arrival of their child. A fleeting glance back at the hazy landscape in the distance shows this.)

The pair walks as Jesper shares some of his knowledge with Nashua about his time as leader. It had been Leilan who had left the Isle to the fox-shifter when he'd abdicated, he wonders? There is a gap in his mentor's history that Nashua only knows that he took to roaming the lands. The theft of @[Jesper] explains (at least to the young pegasus) why the Freyr had returned.

"You defended your home," Nashua replies to the dark stallion. His eyes shift from bright blue to dark green. "And when you returned, you didn't seek to regain your title." Perhaps a more ambitious,  power-driven creature would. But that does not seem like Jesper. "Rather you appear to want to help the place you once ruled?" Nash asks his companion, looking at the black stallion from beneath his flaxen forelock.

It'd be admirable, Nashua thinks. Honorable, even.
Fitting traits for anyone, leader or not.