[open] lost in the woods; any

[Lepis]

again you’re gone, off on a different path than mine i'm left behind wondering if i should follow The indecision that loomed over Lepis’ last days in Taiga had vanished once she crossed the border. Loessian sunshine – direct in every season – simply burnt it away, and she has been untroubled since. Leaving behind the woods had been difficult, far more difficult than she will ever let on. The land of Taiga itself had never truly no hold on her heart, but there are memories as deep in the redwoods, and it was those she left behind as well. Coming back home had been the fresh start she needed. Her children are grown and she has many good years ahead of her. There are no limits to what she can do, no weights or anchors to hold her down. There’s no ballast either, and no oars, but those are concerns for another day. Lepis doesn’t much care what the Fairies think of her, as she has decided that she doesn’t care much for them anyway. The unicorn beside her seems to think they’re interested in the lives of Beqanna’s residents though, and Lepis doesn’t really care enough to argue. It’s not worth the effort. She is considering exactly what Wolfbane suspects her of (though she’d bid farewell at least before soaring downward) and has even taken a half step forward when the stallion reacts to her name. If she has one weakness when it comes to strangers, it’s flattery. Flattery appeals to her sense of vanity, to her pride that – regardless of what she considers to be a recent demotion – has never dimmed. “Tipper,” she repeats with a far warmer smile than the one before, and her raised hoof resettles on the russet sandstone beneath her. There is no sign that she’d been about to leave his company; the dun mare looks perfectly content. That he flounders in her presence is as charming as he intends it to be; she does enjoy being fawned over. “Pretend I’m someone else,” Lepis says with a soft chuckle of her own, attempting to reassure him that while she appreciates the reaction that she is not so different that conversation need be stilted or strange. “What’s your favorite view of Loess?” She asks, a leading question that she doesn’t doubt he can answer. Everyone who’s been in Loess for any significant time has climbed the ridges, looked down over the vistas of the mountainous kingdom and found one that called to them more than any other. LEPIS i’m the one who sees you home-- but now i’m lost in the woods and i don’t know what path you are on

@[Wolfbane]