Lilliana told herself she wasn't avoiding Leilan.
And she wasn't. They were seen together often enough. But that was always with Oren and Rosey. The few times her youngest set of twins hadn't been with her, Nashua had landed to check on Noel and to see how things fared in Taiga. Sometimes she thought about asking the Freyr what had happened after the Alliance - something had happened - but decided against it. Politics and their children seemed safe enough topics of conversation.
The rest? (Lilliana still remembers the way that Taiga smoldered and the scorch marks left behind in Nerine. She has too many memories of the way things fall apart.)
He had wanted to show the twins something and so the trio had trekked off through the woods of Taiga. Lilliana had started a patrol that drifted north and then kept going. The chapel redwoods gave way to the imposing cliffs of Nerine and Lilli climbed, following the old hooftrail that would take her to Neverwhere and Brazen. Another extension of home. Though it's been years since her first journey to the land of the former Amazons, the ledges still draw her attention, followed by her blue eyes and then Lilliana herself. The chestnut mare walks a path that weaves close to the ledges and despite the autumn chill that blows in from the sea, she doesn't veer from it.
The sea is below her is gray. It is gray like the stones that she stands on. The day will warm as the sun will rise but the moment that Lilliana finds the shore, she sees the churning ocean below her and the woman has a moment of rapport with it. It surges forward - crashing waves that pound endlessly against the craggy shore - and Lilli thinks she understands the sea; they are both souls in turmoil. The vast ocean keeps her company and it helps put her own problems into perspective (even after all this time, she still keeps the things that trouble her tucked away from those she loves); they seem much smaller than the horizon she stares out at.
She had been alone on that cliff - windswept and wild (and she can hear Elena tell her: 'You look so dramatic, Lilli.') - when a voice echoed over the moors and morning gull cries. It had been Amarine, fluttering with those lovely wings of hers. The young mare was a gleaming jewel in the morning sun as she flitted towards a golden mare. Her heart stopped as the chestnut turned away from the ledges and towards the pair. Lilliana trotted towards them, finally slowing as the revelation of who the palomino mare was stopped Lilli in her tracks. (Not Aela. Not Aela. Not Aela.)
"Ruth," she breathes as Lilliana comes alongside Ama. The sight of the young mare almost makes the devastation that the Pangeans left behind easy to overlook. "You're back."
@[Ruthless] @[Amarine] i'm so sorry that this took so long
but it's all in the past, love
it's all gone with the wind