[private] we were the first that ever burst into that silent sea

[Lepis]

again you’re gone, off on a different path than mine i'm left behind wondering if i should follow Lepis pride her in her home is such that Oceane’s compliment about the beauty of their stone fortress is as meaningful as one paid to the mare herself. She smiles, ever softened by those who love Loess as she does, and nods her agreement. “I don’t see many hooves,” the blue-eyed mare tells Oceane, and while her tone is pensive it is only because she currently looks for any signs she might have missed. No, the ground around the place is disturbed only by their own feet. The brackish water keeps this spring from being a desirable watering hole to most animals, but Lepis sees the line and angles that are the mark of the wallabies. Shyer than their kangaroo cousins, the dun mares knows they are no threat to a mare and her child. “I think you’re likely to have this place to yourself,” Her head bobbing a bit in confirmation of this. “Though would you mind introducing me to your little one when you’re ready to show them to the world? My children are grown and don’t need their mother anymore, and my granddaughter is back in Taiga.” Lepis has not missed the duties that come with being the mother to a nursling, but she sometimes longs for the better parts of it – wide foal eyes, little snuffling breaths, the way they looked at her like she was the very center of their world. No one looks at Lepis like that anymore. But she is not thinking of that today. She is thinking of the winged child that Oceane describes, imagining a little copy of the mare in front of her. Without knowing anything about the father save that he too is a pegasi, Lepis does not know what he might pass to the child. “You’ve questioned their father about any unexpected gifts in the family?” She enquires, recalling the sudden invisibility of her minutes-old son and the day her daughter first planted a false vision in front of her eyes. “I should have done a better job, but by our last girl I thought I knew what to expect. Then she came out white and scaley instead!” The memory of Celina’s birth is a happy one, but Lepis doesn’t want to chatter Oceane’s ear off. It has just been so long since she had someone to talk to, someone with who she feels might someday be a friend. In an effort to bring the topic back to something they both know as well as to share the amusing thought she’d had, Lepis adds: “Sochi is wonderful, but I don’t envy her those children she’s born. I suppose she knew what she was signing up for when she became Consort, but still can you imagine? Dragons?” Lepis had seen a few scorch marks on the trees before she left Taiga – she can’t imagine what it might be like to raise a child that could breathe fire if it didn’t like its bedtime or had no interest in reciting the list of Taiga’s leaders. Not something she envies at all. LEPIS i’m the one who sees you home-- but now i’m lost in the woods and i don’t know what path you are on

@[Oceane]