[open] I will be your sword and shield; any

[lilliana]

It had been a relatively easy thing to leave. The action itself had been rather simple. After making the decision and with her mother's blessing, Lilli had left home early one morning and simply kept going in the direction the silver mare had pointed to. The decision had been agonzing and heartwrenching. It had taken the crimson girl days to make her mind up but once she had, Lilli had set those blue eyes in Beqanna's direction and had spent months making the journey. Her thoughts often went to her family - she wondered if her mother had become swallowed by the mists on the mountain and if her father had ever come to claim his dappled mate. She wondered about her sisters and her brothers, about the children they had and she wonders about Orani and sweet Jacob.

She misses them all. Lilli had known she would. Her family had defined her whole world since she took her first steps. They had been her protectors and secretkeepers and playmates in a herd that lacked foals her own age. She had grown up knowing her family was everything and that without them, she was nothing. Leaving them had been easy. It has been the living without them that has been hard. There have been times when she wants to turn around. Even now, after she has come to Beqanna and has tried to formulate some kind of plan for the coming days (where will she go? what will she do?), the call to return to the land she had been born to has been strong. The thought of starting over, of beginning again is both exciting and terrifying. The possibilities seem endless and it is exactly for that reason that it threatens to overwhelm her.

The chestnut mare has made a temporary home in the common lands of Beqanna. From her limited knowledge of the land, it had seemed the safest choice to make. But Lilli hated the lingering. She hated the state of being inbetween, of belonging to nothing and nowhere. Her blue eyes scan through the pillars of trees. She stands quietly in the shade, alone with only her thoughts. Not for the first time, she wishes for Elaina and her decisiveness. If the golden mare were here, she would make Lilli choose. There would be none of this wishing and longing and regretting. She has done this once before, she reminds herself bitterly. She had waited and waited and he never came. So what was she waiting for now?

Make up your mind, she thinks through clenched teeth. Nobody was coming for her. There was nothing for her in Beyond. She reminds herself of that again and again. There were ghosts and unfufilled promises. To have stayed would have condemned herself to living in the shade of things that would never be.  So Lilli moves forward and moves through the cathedral of greenery around her. The crimson girl weaves in and out of the trees, trying to find a trail or path that might lead her to something.  But the path remains wild and instead of finding something, she finds someone. She sees the dark form ahead, the smell of sweat and exertion carrying downwind to where the chestnut slows and finally stands, studying the uniqe young mare ahead of her. Her own silver-blue gaze takes in the bone armor, flicks over the youthful form and Lilli grows intrigued. Beqanna it seemed had no lack of exceptional individuals.

"Hello," comes the soft sound from Lilli, a gentle greeting. The young mare takes another step towards the filly, interested in this newcomer. "What brings you out here?" She wants to take another step forward but decides against it, not wanting to chase away the only horse she has seen in days. "I'm still figuring this place out," the young mare adds, as if it will explain her own existence out in these woods. "I'm Lilli. What's your name?"

brazen