It’s a strange thing, entering Hyaline of her own free will. She’d never travelled the pathways through the mountains before. She’d been teleported in with one parent and then carried out by another - or so she had been told.

Even Sickle has to wonder whether that day had been just a nightmare after all. And all the fears she had carried with her through her life could be just made up. No one else seemed to share them, after all, and one-by-one the stable figures in her life seemed to have faded away. So maybe it was all a dream.

These thoughts don’t bring any comfort but they keep her occupied after she leaves Bolder and begins to search for her siblings. She isn’t sure what Myrna looks like - but expects a dark coat like herself and Malik.

Wary about being recognized by anyone else before she can find them, particularly her mother, Sickle takes the form of a dark blue phoenix - making a near-matching set with Oceanus as the pair circle over Hyaline and the lake there. It shines now with sunlight rather than starlight but the sight of it makes her heartbeat race. Real or not, the memories of her short stay here are bright and vivid in her head and through the roar of them, she can barely think enough to continue scanning the ground.

Since she had been hoping to see a dark figure below, naturally there is a pale one instead. Sickle watches as the wolf becomes a horse with twisting horns and her heart sinks. The colours aren’t quite right but her mind immediately snaps to Mazikeen. No sooner is she registering the pale figure is she tilting her wings to veer away. She isn’t ready to just drop to the ground and confront - meet - the mare who had birthed her, protected her, and then kidnapped and hurt her. She still has scars on her sides from the sharp talons that had gripped her and carried her from the Pampas.

No no, they’ll leave the kingdom that had taken them forever to get into and try again another day.

But her companion doesn’t like this plan - Oceanus veers before her, flapping his wings to throw her off course and shouting through their bond to get her attention.

It isn’t her mother, he tells her.

And of course she believes him. Oceanus is a constant in her life, he wouldn’t lie.

There isn’t much bravery in Sickle - she is pretty sure there isn’t any at all - but she borrows enough of Oceanus' certainty to dive down. Her eyes are fixed on the stranger as she draws closer, seeing similarities between the youth and Mazikeen and hoping this isn’t a trick. Hoping those blue-grey eyes aren’t masking ones made of fire. Her companion lowers his altitude but remains in flight, circling above and keeping an eye on things.

Sickle shifts as she lands, becoming her horse self - iridescent blue with black brindling. Eyes that never matched each other - they only matched Malik.

“Are you Myrna?” No bravery and next to no confidence, but it feels like a good assumption to make so she does not waste time in checking. “I’m… I’m Sickle.” She doesn’t know whether Malik had mentioned her or not, so she adds in a cautious voice just barely above a whisper. “Your sister.”

There’s a nervous sort of joy that flutters around Sickle’s stomach when she hears I know who you are instead of I don’t have a sister you weirdo (or something to that effect). She hoped to be recognized but she hadn’t let herself expect it. After all, these last few years had started to feel like she didn’t really exist for anyone at all.

But someone had told Myrna enough about her that her name was recognized, someone had spoken of her - however briefly - and that helped ground her in this reality.

While she doesn’t think anything of the question (it certainly makes sense to wonder), a quiet laugh escapes Sickle when Myrna mimics herself and brushes curiosity about reasons aside. There’s a light in her blue and orange eyes as her caution begins to recede.

Only for it to flare back up when her sister steps forward to hug her. Sickle’s indecision roots her to the spot rather than making her move away - and then she finds herself being held. Her black brindling flashes with a series of colours - reflecting the soft white of Myrna’s coat and the pale colours of the flowers in her mane.

After her initial shock - Sickle returns the gesture. She feels shaky and is afraid she’s going to start crying just from the joy - and that’s when she carefully breaks away from the hug. She isn’t going to cry. She is definitely not going to cry.

“She really is different, isn’t she?” Sickle asks once she steps back enough to look at Myrna - thinking it inconceivable that the burning rage she had known from Mazikeen could’ve raised the bright girl before her.

And though the younger girl had said it didn’t matter why she was here, but Sickle wants to explain anyway. “Malik told me I should come when I was ready… I don’t know if I am, really. Not to see her.” Her nerves rise up again and she resists the strong desire to look around them. Oceanus was keeping an eye out, he'd let her know if Mazikeen was approaching. “But I wanted to meet you.”

Sickle is grateful for the suggestions that Myrna gives - sure that it’ll be better than just standing around. And she would like to see more of Hyaline, especially with a friendly face. There’s a whole collection of her family from here - more than she ever thought, and more than she even knows - and there must be something redeemable about it. It has to be the land itself - it’d be far too hurtful to think that it’s the family that she wasn’t really a part of that kept everyone here.

“Maybe a walk? Or a swim?” She glances over to the lake and then up to the sky where she can see Oceanus making lazy circles and floating along on air currents. “I don’t spend a lot of time flying, I’m not very good at doing it and talking at the same time.”

And she’d like the chance to talk.

She would be equally happy with a walk or a swim so she lets Myrna lead the way, spending on what she’d like to do, and does a little more of that talking. Maybe she’s rambling because she’s nervous - but she also feels like explaining where she’s been. And of all the things in her life - that little piece of it that was tragic for reasons unrelating to her family. “I’ve been in the forest, mostly. I’ve got a friend there - she can’t leave her pond so I like to keep her company.”