Carnage had come and gone.
Aela can still feel that (wonderful) tug on her mind; that command he gave to all of Pangea in the aftermath of Straia and the laughably short-rise-and-fall saga of the Chamber. It had been like static brushing against her senses and then parting through the waves of her thoughts, the Dark God himself came crashing through.
He had given the command (and some little part of Aela had bristled at that, she has never taken kindly to being told do anything) to bring a piece of Pangea to him.
She had almost done it. The golden filly had gone out with Skandar to search for something worthy. The pair of them had scoured the lands and had even ventured as far south as Loess, thinking that some kind of physical proof of Pangea's conquests might appease the Dark God. To serve as a reminder of the things that the canyon country was capable of achieving; of the havoc it could wreak to the lesser kingdoms across Beqanna. But all they found was ashes and what good is dust to a God?
(And Aela had remembered Heartfire's words: that the Seer had recommended avoiding him. His offspring were legion - and even if she was descended from the loins of that God, it would matter little to him. Her grandmother had said that Straia would have been ant to Carnage; young, ambitious, aspiring Aela would have been less than that.)
It's why she comes out here. It's why she leaves Skandar in Pangea (though his... abilities often help others come around to her way of thinking - the threat of a laser beam between the eyes does wonders). But Aela is not less than; Aela is quite capable on her own. She wants a reminder of that power and when her blue eyes land on him - a colt not much older than her, golden and winged, lanky and gangly with youth. She recalls that Heartfire's last lesson had not been about stifling ambition but rather understanding the calculations in the steps you make to get there.
The gold-striped filly decides that he makes a good first step as any. Aela comes near the buckskin pegasus and gives him a small half-sickle smile: an invitation or a warning, his choice.
@[Narcisus] Merry Christmas.