[private] i had a feeling so peculiar, aedan

[Islay]

Her days are spent as consistently as the tides coming and going.

She frequents her favorite grazing spots, moves along the familiar black sand beaches, and when the weather is fair enough, she wades into the water and imagines what it might be like to be a kelpie or a nereid. The sea often tugs and pulls against her, and yet it has never been the ocean that has truly captivated her imagination.

As soon as the sun had set, Islay would glance up and her blue eyes would seek out the stars. She had done it during the Eclipse when there had been none to find, after both her parents had left Islandres, and when she had been in the Pampas. It was a foalhood habit that she had never quite grown out of, and she got older, it was one that she became increasingly glad she kept. As a young filly, she had seen those stars when she had brushed against Aedan's dark side for reassurance. As she got older, even if those same stars made her still feel small, Islay was glad for their familiarity.

They always put her in mind of her father, and reminded her that no matter where her family roamed, they were all beneath the same sky.

Tonight brings a change, and though the violet-blue evening brings its usual celestial sentinels, it brings another that Islay hadn't been expecting. The stars are not silent tonight. She turns her face towards the sound of a nicker and smiles immediately when she sees the soft glow emanating from him. Moving into an eager trot, Islay moved forward to greet him and called out "Father!" in return.

"You're back," she tells him softly, moving out to gingerly touch him and finding herself surprised that he was real, warm, and solid and here, not crafted out of stardust and her memories.

@Aedan