Dawn
we're a flame in the wind
This place doesn’t feel like home.
It’s truly amazing to the girl, how much Hyaline already feels like home to her. Maybe one day, once she’s older, she can join the diplomatic caste of the kingdom. Or the army? Her bear is strong, but on her own she is not nearly as powerful... and her bear is still hard to control. Maybe being a diplomat would become her; maybe she’d learn who she’s truly meant to be. As an added bonus, it would allow her to travel around to other lands and kingdoms as well, and it would allow the bear to be satisfied living within her, instead of her trying to control it.
She doesn’t know yet that Rhaegor has relocated himself to Hyaline; as far as she knows he is still the prince here, being raised by his parents in the beautiful land he had described to her on so many occasions. In her mind he will live in this place eternally, eventually raising children with one of his several girlfriends (yes, she knows about them, too) and perhaps even inheriting the throne once his mothers move on.
That is far in the future, though—they are just teenagers now and much too young to think of futures as leaders or parents. Sunny may have his pick of the ladies to choose from, but Cress knows that young romances tend to break and crumble; she has heard her mother tell the tale of Flamevein one too many times, and even the tales of her own father make Dawn sad. Where is he now? She’d love to know. He broke her poor mother’s heart; a heart that had been burned and broken too many times.
The dark sky seems to echo her mood as she wanders this new land aimlessly, her hooves sinking into the sand as waves crash on the beach. She is lonely here—she had hardly made new friends before the plague struck!—but she is trying to make the most of it. It’s a beautiful place, even she had to admit, but it just feels empty to her. She hasn’t even seen Sunny yet since she’s been here, and she’s so scared for him.
Faint hoofbeats and the rustle of wings grabs at her attention, and she jerks her head in the direction of the sounds. A soft whinny echoes over the beach as she calls to the other horse, and she trots towards it, hoping against all hopes that it’s her Sunny.
It is.
She almost collapses into him in relief, but instead settles for an overjoyed embrace. Her lips graze the base of his neck and she almost cries. He’s here, he’s okay. “Sunny,” she murmurs into his mane, wishing she had wings to engulf him in. “Oh, Rhae, you’re okay, you’re alive.”
@Rhaegor