may your dreams come to reality if all else fails; ilka

[Ikaro]

After watching his sister set out on her own (paying a visit to a certain winged acquaintance of hers, no doubt), Ikaro decides to venture forth from the Desert as well. While he is accustomed to having Nao’s constant company – and to her commanding presence – it feels good to breathe his own air, keep his own thoughts, set his own pace. He makes his way to the Meadow, where everything is damp with the musty smell of freshly-fallen rain. Still, he inhales the lingering condensation with grateful lungs. Though his breeding allowed for him to call the arid heat of the desert bearable, he wouldn’t go so far as to call it pleasant – and so the more temperate conditions were a welcome change. Lowering his head, the dappled bay grazes a while, the lush spring grasses tasteful and sweet. Without Nao to conduct his business for him, he finds that he is content to simply be – letting the uneven murmurs of distant conversation wash over him, the sound of birdsong mingling with the occasional pattering of stray raindrops, still falling from a greywash sky. He lets his mind wander then – back to the Beqanna of before. To the father (the sinner, blackened inside and out) who had robbed his sister of a childhood. To Nao, who had done her best to preserve his own. (She had failed, but who could blame her?) To the years that have gone by, blurring one into the next until he loses count, until he forgets that time doesn’t stand still for everyone. And finally, to the mother who had left – the one he could hardly remember – to a blood bay mare named Kagerou. ikaro they all need something to hold on to, they all mean well may your dreams come to reality if all else fails