They had flown here that first night, after she had found Nashua in the Taiga. They had flown here despite his exhaustion, but even before they had arrived, Noel had known he was too spent. An ugly fear and dread had coursed through Noel then, and she had been tempted to carry on without him, but the words he had said just before they left echoed through her ears. She knew then that she would not. She did not fear her own death, but sense (and other emotions) had prevailed.
And so they had returned. Still, while he had searched for one of his brothers, she had quietly sought out the other (if for no other reason than to reassure herself that Bolder was not suffering at their hooves).
Now, as they approach Hyaline once more, Noel hopes Bolder had found her own mother. She knows she couldn’t truly protect him from what Nashua had told her now possesses his elder brother, but she knows Ryatah would care for him.
She watches as Nash descends into the kingdom - watches as he disappears from sight. What worry and anger she feels is banked now, replaced by a flat, stony expression that had once come as naturally to her as breathing. When she follows, she doesn’t rush in, her wingbeats meticulously steady as she approaches the place Nash had told her to meet him. She has never had a particular grace or flare in her movements (not like Nash), and when she lands, it is with the firm practicality of one who finds flight utilitarian rather than artistic.
When she lands, it is as the woman Nash had once found on the distant cliffs of Nerine many years ago.
She closes the short distance that remains between herself and the small group, the glowing hoofprints she leaves behind fading slowly. She doesn’t greet them. But then, they hadn’t bothered to greet her either, so it seems they believed her little more than background noise. If she were a different sort of woman, this might have bothered her. Luckily she is not, and so she merely watches, her black gaze hard and wary, pale features schooled into implacable lines. She has never been a conversationalist, so she is more than happy to allow Nash to handle this part of things.
If they chose to relegate her to some dusty, forgotten corner of their thoughts? Well, all the better for her to execute her true purpose here.
- noel
@Nashua @
Gale @Mazikeen