Lepis glances once at her husband, then flicks one navy ear back to be sure that Eyas has truly left them. Only then does she focus on Heartfire, and the pointed demand that Lepis tell her the real reason behind their coming to Taiga. Internally, the little dun mare bristles at the demand and the authority it implies. Her expression remains clear though, at least until the roan follows up the demand with the accusation that Lepis has been duplicitous in her dealings with the residents of her home. At that she does frown, and the expression shifts from confusion – how does Heartfire know what they’ve said to each other? - and then to disbelief as she realizes exactly how.
Her husband’s disgruntled voice suggests that his reaction to this is not too far from her own, though she supposes that with their family history that he might have been aware of Heartfire’s spying. It’s not something she had considered before. Her own children possess the same talent, and Lepis briefly wonders how much light Eyas might bring to the situation if Lepis were to recall her and inquire. But no. Eyas is still a child, and Lepis has no intention of involving her in such duplicitous acts. The pegasus is a great many things, but she’d not involve her children in things they are not prepared for.
Wolfbane answers his grandmother in a manner far more diplomatic than Lepis might have, and she leans against his shoulder with a quiet press of gratitude. There are times – and this is one of them – that the dun mare wishes she might be able to take emotions as well as give them. She would not mind some of the calm that infuses his voice when he sheds light on their plans. On her plans.
“Our coming here revitalized this quiet land.” She says, and though a shadow of the frown remains on her expression, there is also something of a dare in her alto voice. Surely Heartfire with her all-seeing eye has witnessed the quickening of the redwood forest south of her home.
“The residents here are safe and well-defended.” Lepis adds, having tallied the able bodies of the woods and not found them lacking. “We could always be safer though, which is why I intend to ask Castile if we might be considered a territory of Loess rather than Nerine.” She wonders if Heartfire can see the past as well as the present, and if so hopes that she is able to find the draconic stallion that Lepis has always considered family. Far closer family than her husband’s grandmother, certainly.
“I understand if you’d rather the Northern lands remain united though,” The dun mare says, a casual gesture of her muzzle encircling the direction of the Icicle Isle and Nerine. “Without Taiga, you’d be left with...what? Yourself and Jesper and his little mutineer? It would be difficult to keep a kingdom safe with such low numbers.” Her tone is flat, an indicator that her emotions are bound in a steel-fist lest the less ideal ones escape. It makes her sound cold, harsh even, despite her inner turmoil and her shared belief in what her husband has more delicately phrased. She means well, she truly only wants security for her children and for Beqanna, yet she cannot make herself become something she is not, cannot make others see what she sees or feel the true desires of her own heart. “If you’d rather we’d stay, Bane and I would be willing to accept the kingdom seat here. It would make more sense, don’t you think, that the most thriving and active land be the one from which the North is governed?”
@[Wolfbane]
@[Heartfire]
Her husband’s disgruntled voice suggests that his reaction to this is not too far from her own, though she supposes that with their family history that he might have been aware of Heartfire’s spying. It’s not something she had considered before. Her own children possess the same talent, and Lepis briefly wonders how much light Eyas might bring to the situation if Lepis were to recall her and inquire. But no. Eyas is still a child, and Lepis has no intention of involving her in such duplicitous acts. The pegasus is a great many things, but she’d not involve her children in things they are not prepared for.
Wolfbane answers his grandmother in a manner far more diplomatic than Lepis might have, and she leans against his shoulder with a quiet press of gratitude. There are times – and this is one of them – that the dun mare wishes she might be able to take emotions as well as give them. She would not mind some of the calm that infuses his voice when he sheds light on their plans. On her plans.
“Our coming here revitalized this quiet land.” She says, and though a shadow of the frown remains on her expression, there is also something of a dare in her alto voice. Surely Heartfire with her all-seeing eye has witnessed the quickening of the redwood forest south of her home.
“The residents here are safe and well-defended.” Lepis adds, having tallied the able bodies of the woods and not found them lacking. “We could always be safer though, which is why I intend to ask Castile if we might be considered a territory of Loess rather than Nerine.” She wonders if Heartfire can see the past as well as the present, and if so hopes that she is able to find the draconic stallion that Lepis has always considered family. Far closer family than her husband’s grandmother, certainly.
“I understand if you’d rather the Northern lands remain united though,” The dun mare says, a casual gesture of her muzzle encircling the direction of the Icicle Isle and Nerine. “Without Taiga, you’d be left with...what? Yourself and Jesper and his little mutineer? It would be difficult to keep a kingdom safe with such low numbers.” Her tone is flat, an indicator that her emotions are bound in a steel-fist lest the less ideal ones escape. It makes her sound cold, harsh even, despite her inner turmoil and her shared belief in what her husband has more delicately phrased. She means well, she truly only wants security for her children and for Beqanna, yet she cannot make herself become something she is not, cannot make others see what she sees or feel the true desires of her own heart. “If you’d rather we’d stay, Bane and I would be willing to accept the kingdom seat here. It would make more sense, don’t you think, that the most thriving and active land be the one from which the North is governed?”
@[Wolfbane]
@[Heartfire]
