Lilli sees the brief snarl as it changes the features on Neverwhere's pale face. And then the mare shakes her head, chasing away the reaction. The crimson girl tilts her head ever so slightly to the left, her daintily-tipped ears pricked forward in complete attention. And then Lilli's eyes flash with amusement. She chuckles - a bright, bubbling sound that comes from deep within Lilli. She can feel it wrap itself around her ribs, around the darker places where she has been harboring her regrets and her hurts. It reverberates against her troubles and for the first time in weeks, something in the young mare feels.. alive. "I think I'd rather enjoy that," she adds. Her own chiseled head shakes then, the smile still lingering and the laughter still ringing in her ears.
The image still stays in her mind, the proud King of the Trees, thinking his rule absolute and his power infinite. She had never known him, only knew that he had taken her aunt as his Queen and that Broch, her beloved Brochturach, had a distaste for the stallion. And for a moment, she can pictures the Warlander, his blue eyes resting warmly on hers as he tells her of his reasoning for stealing Elaina from the Woodland kingdom. He had given many reasons - her talents as a healer that his own kingdom had needed, as a way to remind the Tree King that his power wasn't as absolute as he thought it was and all it took was a certain rogue to sneak the golden mare out. And then there had been that moment, that beautiful moment when the normally charismatic had told her (almost shyly, as if he was unsure of her reaction) that he thought that Lilli might have liked to be reunited with her beloved cousin again.
Broch is gone. Culloden is gone. And yet here Lilli stands, still carrying the distaste for the Tree King because it was still something that she can still cling too. Something she still has left from those days beyond the mountains.
Her weight shifts now, moving to her hind end as she cocks a leg. The more time she spends with Neverwhere, the more she becomes at ease with the silver mare. She inclines her head towards the Forest, "If you decide to leave Beqanna, the best advice I can give is to avoid the mountains beyond it. I know his realm lies somewhere out there." Home, the inner voice in her chants. The place you were born, to whom you owe your blood and allegiance too, she thinks. At Neverwhere's next words, the chestnut sighs and finds herself agreeing with the traveler. "I grew up with stories about plagues and wars and magic in Beqanna. I don't know if they have been embellished over time or if the magic has gone. I wasn't sure what to expect but it's... more peaceful than I thought it would be." And to Neverwhere's next question, Lilli shrugs away all the explanations she can give and offers the truth. "I have nowhere else to go," comes the gentle reply. "So I'm here to start over again. And what about you, wanderer? Do you plan on staying or will you continue to pass through?"
@[neverwhere]
but it's all in the past, love
it's all gone with the wind