anyone;

[Nayl]

I am not afraid... I was born to do this.

Here on the shore, there is a sense of freedom. The salty wind tousles Nayl’s mane as she lifts her nose to breathe it in. It had taken years for her to accept Nerine as home, to move past the loss of the Jungle. She made it her own, strengthened it, breathed new life into its veins. Years ago, she created an empire that has since crumbled. Her legacy is gone, her name lost on the wind she so admiringly inhales.

Nayl wants to turn around to see Lior stepping toward her, to embrace her, but she knows that he remains tucked away in their cave. He isn’t drawn to Nerine as she is; she is his anchor, his reason to live here.

But she hears footsteps eventually, even over the dull hum of the ocean waves. The voice that caresses her had almost been lost to memory, but she remembers it. It cradles her thoughts in a most reassuring way. ”It has,” she says back in a voice so eerily serene, but her fiery personality hasn’t been tampered. The nostalgia from Scorch’s voice creeps through Nayl’s mind like a cloud of fog, tendrils of memories playing back what they had in the Jungle.

When she finally turns around, she is surprised to see the change in the Jungle sister, but her face doesn’t betray her. There is still a lick of fire in her autumn eyes as they level on the face from her past, a lopsided grin channeling across her mouth.”Scorch,” she finally says, an affirmation to herself that a sister of her valor would never be forgotten, ”welcome back to the living.” A low chuckle slips from her but it’s fleeting as she steps forward into a familial embrace. This is the closest she has to family now (besides her own son) and she can’t deny the allure of it. What had once been dead now stands before her, still powerful and in whole.

A few seconds pass before she inches back, withdrawing from the brief touch so that she may search Scorch’s eyes. ”How much has changed in Nerine since I resigned?”

former queen of nerine
daughter of covet & myrina