She is visible, and very quickly, no longer alone.
She hadn’t been taught how swiftly the vultures would descend upon her in the Field. Apart from all her other failings as a mother, Emmerly’s education of the girl hadn’t extended to what happened after she left home. Of course, the once-warrior had never imagined her daughter would flee rather than fly from the nest. Eila doesn’t know that her dam had meant to keep her pressed to her side forever, both a crutch and ward against a world that had so wronged her.
So she starts when she sees the stallion emerge from just behind the trees. He spots her almost immediately, his eyes connecting with her’s and making it clear that he will change his path in order to approach her. The assuredness of his movements unnerves her more than anything. Where does his confidence stem from - a desire to help or harm her? She considers becoming invisible again to evade the fiery-colored man, but then what would be the point? Hasn’t she run away to escape the fear that her mother perpetuated? Hasn’t she traded in the certainty of the golden fields of heaven for the shadowed unknown of the rest of the world? Fear is her motivator - she will not be caught by it.
But his greeting is less than pleasant.
The younger girl eyes the older man with a healthy amount of trepidation. Her hesitation only grows when he fails to provide his name, instead inquiring about her purpose in the Field. As if she would be safer still at her mother’s side (if only he knew) or anywhere else but here. “I…I don’t know what I’m doing, I guess.” Eila takes a step backwards, further away from the red male. He is much too close for a mare as alone as he says she is. Fear doesn’t flash in her eyes at his remark but nor does she look apologetic for moving.
She fumbles for an answer but is spared the necessity of finding one when they are joined by another. The black spotted mare has an easy, warm manner to her approach that the young woman should be reassured by but isn’t. The first vulture has done enough damage, but she sidles closer to the other woman anyway. She at least gives her name and place of origin. It coaxes the smallest of smiles from the painted girl, because she knows the Amazons best of all the kingdoms outside of the Gates. Emmerly’s lips had loosened enough to reveal a great admiration for the place; she had even abandoned Heaven and gone to the Jungle seeking a new home at one of the lowest points in her life. Not the lowest, Eila thinks, tasting the bitterness of truth on her stilled tongue. My birth was ruinous.
“Hi Lexa, she says quietly, looking back at the chestnut stallion. Something tells her he won’t be happy with the expansion of their conversation. But just as she thinks it, it expands even further. A blue mare with dazzling wings breaks into the small group. And if Eila thought the male had confidence lying as quiet as dynamite in his veins, she now thinks he pales in comparison. Kimber barrels into her quick introduction which she follows up with a warning against the other competitors. Eila’s eyes grow wider the longer the Chamberling’s speech goes. She realizes how little she really knows of the world outside of Heaven’s idyllic bubble. Is that what the herds are really like? Do the women simply churn out child after child, content in their meager existence serving the stallions that claim them?
The chestnut refutes Kimber’s criticism, but the visible girl has heard enough. “I…I don’t even know your name. You don’t even know – or have asked – mine. It's Eila.” She swallows and looks at the other two females, trying to imitate the blue one’s strength. Besides, she rather likes her flashy wings. “I don’t want to go with you and live that kind of life.” She wants a life of surety, of stability; she cannot continue down her mother’s shaky path somewhere else. The idea of being replaced is horrifying to the young girl, especially when she’s never felt wanted in the first place.
Another mare joins the group, this one golden and glimmering. She has a motherly aura about her, though, that sets Eila’s nerves on edge. With a foreign accent, she chastises the herd stallion before turning to the rest of them and then to Eila, specifically. It is so strange being courted by so many in such a short amount of time that the girl misses the beginning of Yael’s speech at first. It sets a part of her to purring; she’s never had so much attention heaped on her at once. Her ego had been fueled by rejecting Hasenel – what will it be like to turn away another? She waits until the desert-mage has finished before she decides to find out. “These two women already have offers on the table. Thank you for your concern, ma’am.”
She doesn’t know that Yael is far more powerful than she can ever hope to be, but in that moment, she feels close enough to invincible. Sparing the older woman a small smile of dismissal, the silver-dipped girl turns back to Lexa and Kimber. “Please, tell me more about your homes. What will my life be like in each of them?”
Eila