“what do you fear, lady?' he asked. 'a cage,' she said.”; any

[Nashua]

(and it's harder than you think)
telling dreams from one another

He really should know better.

His left-wing hasn't even fully healed but here he is, soaring through (another) Beqanna night. It was meant to be a quick flight, a trip to Nerine to warm himself by Popinjay's bonfires and visit with the lightning-bird Khaleesi. But then the wind rolling off the sea had turned foul and though he couldn't see the storm coming, Nashua has flown along the Northern coast enough to know when the weather was turning.

(And some part of him really can't help himself. Even as the Hersir of the Isle, even as a father of two and another on the way, even with that ugly scar running jagged from his still-healing wing towards his copper chest, Nash dares to race the coming gale.)

The pegasus stays ahead of it. Even as the breeze forces him in a new direction, Nash stays ahead of the stormwinds and feels a surge of victory that lifts his spirits. The ordeal has forced him to the south and his green eyes catch glimpses of the shadowy hills of Loess below him. The mountains of Hyaline loom towards the east and the landscape shifts again to what the Northerner knows is the Meadow, the winged stallion attempts a landing.

It isn't his most graceful endeavor. By the time that any horse will hear the crunch of snow or the audible thud of Nashua's hooves greeting the frozen ground, he is already settling his broad wings against his sides and glancing around for any sign of life. While the striped stallion is looking, a nearby horse nearly bumps into him. Turning his blazed head to the side where he catches the shape of another horse and the scent of flowers (it almost overwhelms him; it's been nearly a year since flowers have grown in Beqanna). "The apology is mine," Nashua tells her. "I should have been paying more attention."

A lopsided grin quirks at the edge of his mouth. She seems nervous and so Nash stays where he stands, allowing the flowered mare to approach or move away. "Nashua," he says in a brief introduction and hopes that she might follow with one of her own.

NASHUA

@[Ygritte]