Her tail ruffled slightly in a chill breeze carried in from the mainland. It was so odd, being cold all of the time. The sand beneath her hooves crunched with frost without the sun to warm the saltwater caught between grains. The world was spinning upside down, and she was only trying to hold on.
Talking to Tiercel had been unexpectedly grounding. She nodded at him with the ghost of a smile on her lips. A legacy? She'd never really thought of it in those terms. "The island takes care of us. My family just happens to have a built in need to return the favor." Her head dipped, rueful acknowledgment of the possibility that she may not have quite met that goal.
They were dark days they were living in, literally and figurativly. The safety and security she had taken for granted all her life was now soundly in question. That, she could handle. It was her family and friends now that she needed to protect, from dangers she hadn't even been aware of until moments ago. How did you protect yourself and others from a hazard you couldn't even see? She made a mental note to find Titanya soon, to see if the more militant mare had any insight to the problem.
His next question took her aback, though given their conversation, it shouldn't have. A soft "huh" of consideration puffed from her lips, making a foggy cloud of mist that tinted blue in her strange sealight. "I think it might be a thing too big to be ruled by whether or not I like it," she mused aloud. "Some days it's wonderful. The most rewarding, fulfilling thing in the world. Some days I want to run away and never look back. But I know if I did that, sooner or later I'd regret it, and I'd miss all the bright, wonderful days like I'd cut a leg off." Plain and simple, it was just a part of her now. She loved her home. Loved it like her children, like it was a physical extension of herself. You didn't have to like something all the time to love it.
@[Tiercel]