She doesn’t know which would be worse – to have a family and fear for their lives due to one of your own, or to simply not have a family at all. Rae is too used to the latter to really consider any of the other options, and for her, it’s been fine. She has nothing to compare it too, and so she cannot mourn for something she’s never really known. The sky calls to her. It is friend and family and lover, and it is enough, has always been enough. There is Kry, of course, and though he is her other half, her counter, he does not complete her in the way some twins do.
She would be torn to pieces without the sky, but there is always a sky, will always be a sky. There is no fear that she will lose the thing she most loves. The sky is ever changing, but she loves it as much in a storm as she does on a clear blue day. Each of its moods is perfect, and she has never needed more, never sought more. Rarely does she even find someone that can keep up with her, not up here, but today there’s another presence trailing her and…gaining.
It is not easy flying weather, unless you are Rae, of course. The day is dense with clouds and winter breezes and she finds it highly surprising there is anyone else here with her other than the winter birds. She slows, allowing him to catch up, curious to meet this other equine brave enough to fly in the winter weather. There are some, of course, everywhere she goes, but they are few and far between.
It’s not long before he’s behind her, calling out over the wind. You come here often? he asks, and she laughs in reply as if it’s the most obvious answer. Of course. “This is my home,” she says vaguely, though if he’s keen he’ll understand she means the sky and not Beqanna or the land they are currently flying over. She’s been exploring from the safety of the sky, avoiding potential recruiters or what have you until she better understands the changes that had been wrought upon Beqanna in her absence. Not that she was entirely against choosing a place to call home, but she simply didn’t know if that was something she could truly do. Rae didn’t understand how to be still, not like that, not yet.
She turns in midair, flying backward, a thing that perhaps ought to be impossible but if he’s watching, it’s clear enough that she’s not using her wings to fly right now, though they beat lazily, bright against the gray. Now, her blues eyes on him, she can see he is striking, colored gold and white and blue like her though in a different way. His white wings blend into the lighter clouds around them, but the deep blue that masks his face is impossible to miss. Her own blue is bright like a sunny day, but his, his is deep like the night.
“You are brave, to be up here in winter,” she offers, appraising and assessing him, pleased with what she has seen so far. Someone that perhaps might begin to understand her love, even if only a bit. There was not a day that she couldn’t be found flying, but of course, the wind answered to her. Even now, she pulled warmer currents to her, and though it was far from hot in her vicinity, the breeze wasn’t nearly as biting. In front of them, the clouds part easily, giving them a clear path if he’s in the mood. She turns back around, letting the wind currents return to usual around her, her wings now keeping her aloft, an even playing field.
And then she takes off.
@Wolfbane