Before she knows it, she is swallowed whole.
The portal opens up underneath her and spits her back out at the top of the Mountain. It feels familiar, being at the top: footing unsteady, air thin, body chilled. It reminds her of the Reckoning, when the earth quaked and all she could hear were the screams of those lost and scared. Even Ea, then the cold, repressed Queen, was panicked, frantic, yelling out for her family or anyone she recognized.
But today she stands calmly, looking out onto Beqanna, the land unfamiliar until she catches a glimpse of a place she would know anywhere.
The Dale.
She begins her descent excitedly — any familiarity at all is welcomed after traversing through time in another world — but soon the path down the mountain, steep and uncertain, requires her to move slowly and carefully.

Her trek takes a few days, but then, she arrives.
It’s beautiful; she had long-missed the green valley and the crystal blue lake and the rocky hills that surrounded them. She moves towards the lake to take a drink, remembering that it had once given her a spirit companion for protection, when she became a true Dalean. She wonders now what has happened to that piece of her spirit.
For some reason, Ea hasn’t expected to see any others in the Dale yet — they’d always been a small, quiet but fierce community — and so when she spots a winged mare nearby, she takes pause. The mare is bright blue, a tribute to the clear sky perhaps, and although she looks familiar, Ea can’t quite place her.
“Hello!” She says loudly as she turns to walk towards the other mare. “I’m Ea,” she says as she reaches her, tilting her head slightly, “are you the first to reach the Dale? Have you seen any others?” Others, perhaps, like those who had been left behind in the Reckoning.