the firestarters always get the burns
and the good guys never get the girl
Hyaline takes some getting used to in the first fall and winter one spends here, she knows - the water is icy from fall to halfway through spring, because the lake is being fed from the eternal snowy peaks and metlgin glaciers. Even in summer, it doesn’t get very hot in the lake; then, it is usually a welcome place to cool down. But this late in fall, she simply doesn’t expect anyone to go in, unless they happen to be a water-creature perhaps. Except Solace’s brother, who’d just run into the waters in the midst of winter, so used to the cold or just too excited to care perhaps.
The girls down here are neither, and when she comes across them on her morning walk by the lake, she crosses over to them with a small smile, wondering how many recruits she’s missed out on this summer. One of them is Kensa, who’d arrived this spring, and one a palomino filly that she also hasn’t met yet. Honestly, sometime last spring and summer, when she wasn’t looking, a suspiciously large n
(and growing) number of young girls seems to have flooded to Hyaline, and she’s pretty sure she knows the reason - and not sure if she likes it. For some of them, Hyaline could be a true fit, with shared beliefs and working here towards the goal of helping Hyaline open up to refugees. Others, they’ll only find a crushed heart or have to settle with the idea of sharing, because she doesn’t think the boy has recruited them solely by explaining what the kingdom was all about.
She smiles at them nonetheless, knowing they have to find out on their own if this is a place to stay or leave behind. ”Good morning. I do believe we have the same questions,” she opens with, and looks from one to another, ”So I hope you don’t mind the intrusion.”