[open] consider how to find a place to stand

[Gale]

Gale this is going to break me clean in two -- this is going to bring me close to you Tiercel repeats the name of the mountainous kingdom and Gale nods, looking toward the peaks with his bright eyes. They are dark against the blue sky, and the view is one that the brindle stallion had almost forgotten. He hasn’t looked at Hyaline from here since he was a child. The mountains had been sparsely inhabited during their youth, and adventure had always seemed to shine most brightly in the opposite direction of Hyaline. He has entirely forgotten about Tiercel’s question as he looks west at the rocky terrain he now calls home. Why hasn’t he explored much of it, he wonders? The thought (and the concern that accompanied it) are plucked away from him as soon as he has them, and before he can realize this, Tiercel is telling him about Islas. Is she the star Ciri spoke of, Gale wonders? Or are there many stars walking Beqanna? He has a brief memory of a starry woman with legs and hair like snow, but then that too is gone, and Gale is smiling with delight at his brother’s sly grin. Intrigued, Gale alters both their vision so that beside them are the Islas from Tiercel’s mind and the Mazikeen from Gale’s. Two pale women, though beyond the coloring the similarities are many. Gale might have spent the morning comparing them for no reason other than he enjoys looking at pretty things, but then he remembers that he is in Loess and Tiercel is here and he hasn’t said anything at all. “That’s Mazikeen,” he explains, showing only the black-horned mare now, with her shadowy wings and bright orange eyes. “She’s the alpha of the Pack, and they live in Hyaline. So I live in Hyaline now too.” Gale is smiling contently, the warmth of emotions in his chest clear in his blue face. @[Tiercel]