Jude gets the feeling the mare before is older and wiser in her ways. She does not feel quite pleasant, but she relaxes just enough to really hear what the woman has to say. Her words do ring true: children are so precious and important (just a responsibility the pink mare does not want).
Ilma speaks of Hyaline soon after, describing what Jude would now consider Sanctuary of the East. From what she has heard of the land, it is a fitting title. She wonders if she will ever make the trek out there, having flown over Hyaline once. The curiosity that took Jude by the horns when she first arrived in Beqanna has not disappeared: the consuming need to know the ins and outs of Beqanna in its entirety. She wanders into that thought - the deep valleys, tall mountains, and cool lake she has never seen but hears plenty of.
The question posed causes her to think for a moment, pondering what she truly wants to name her child. Yet another responsibility she did not ask for.
“Cosmos, I think - for a boy or a girl,” the name falls out of her mouth and solidifies the child’s realness. Jude sits quietly, frowning at the storm brewing in her mind. She is not ready for this, not ready or willing (but in actuality, quite scared).
After a few seconds or brewing, she murmurs, “Can I be honest with you about something?” Jude is not quite sure why she wants to confess to this complete stranger, she just knows that there is a warmth and knowledge about the women she admires immediately. The pink pegasus mare sighs flicks her tail irritably against her hocks.
“I never wanted this, but I suppose I got caught up when I clicked so well with Magnus. I have aspirations, but the thought of being tied down . . . I - well - sometimes I think I can’t handle it. Magnus is good, but I am not,” she confesses, her voice soft and made sweet by her deep southern accent.
@[Ilma]