[private] the birds they sang a melody

[Malik]

Malik has never come across someone in these woods before, so though he is scowling when he first meets Areane’s gaze, the furrowed expression on the youth's handsome brow is soon replaced by surprise, and then curiosity.

Like everyone else he has seen in the last few months, the amethyst-eyed mare is a stranger. Malik’s bicolored eyes - one orange and one blue - fix on hers for a long time, having never seen such purple eyes before. He realizes this as she speaks, and turns his attention to the rest of her as she explains she’s looking for the queen of Loess.

Black and green, she says, not someone that sounds familiar to Malik. He shakes his horned head as a smile tilts the edge of his mouth, agreeing that he is not the one she searches for. He is black, but that is where the resemblance to his cousin ends. Malik is unaware of his relation to the woman that the dark-haired mare is looking for.

Good morning, she begins again, and the smile on his face grows wider. They’re starting over, it seems, and Malik is happy to play along. “It is,” he replies, “Hardly any wind last night at all.” The midwinter winds that travel downstream from the mountains often carry snow with them, but the sun has risen with hardly more than a few inches on the ground.

“I’m Malik,” he tells her, and wonders how long she will stay before resuming her search for the missing queen. How long has she been missing, Malik wonders? Since the flooding? It would be rude to ask, he knows, so he remains quiet, waiting for a name in return, and then perhaps a goodbye as she takes off again.

@Areane

[Areane]

The scowl that had been there moments before clears quickly, like thunderstorms happened to do during the summer months, and it allows Areane to release the small breath that she had been holding. She knew that she would never make the diplomat that her father had wished her to be. They had an eloquence in their way of speaking, and to Areane’s young mind, it seemed that a good diplomat always knew exactly what to say.

She never did, and that only further convinced her that she would make a poor one. Besides, it was Tarian’s stories about his time in the Air Guard, fighting in the Alliance, becoming Champion of Loess that always intrigued her more than any of his others. And she knows there is still a ways to go before she can even join a military rank; her family is just newly-settled in Tephra and she is still learning the landscape of her new home.

He smiles at her, and it emboldens Areane.

It would seem that she hasn’t completely offended the horned stallion.

So Areane smiles back at him. ”It was lovely this morning,” she goes on to say. ”Everything was so still, and the breeze was so light, even coming from Tephra.” It had required more in terms of flapping her dark wings, but she hasn’t had many chances to truly stretch them out. ”I haven’t had such an easy flight before.” But then she realizes her mistake a moment too quick; the brindled youth before her has no wings - only feathers - and it feels rude to gush about flying with someone who has never experienced it.

Nice going, feather-head. She chides herself.

”But I’m sure it was lovely to just… walk,” Areane begins, and then sheepishly adds, ”I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to -,” she continues and wraps her dark wings tightly against her slender sides. ”I’m Areane, and sometimes I say too much,” the young mare says, offering her name as well as an explanation when she glances up into his bi-colored eyes. She continues to peer up at him until Areane abruptly remembers that she had been given a task; her very first scouting mission and determined not to fail, she tentatively asks "Have you heard of anything? Where anyone from Loess might have gone?"

@ Malik

[Malik]

Malik has had two childhoods, been raised in two different ways.

He is the child of Wishbone, raised as a member of Tephra’s ruling family (an impressively large group, full of smiling and friendly faces). Malik had been well loved and well-educated, with time spent learning not only the lands and histories of Beqanna, but how to make and hold the diplomatic bonds that keep them together. The purple mare had taught him the benefits of a silver tongue and how to read faces, and so Malik recognizes the brightness of the second chance appear in the young stranger’s face as she describes her morning flight.

From Tephra, she says, and there is not even a flicker of a reaction from the black stallion. Diplomatic lessons, or perhaps a remnant of his second childhood. He’d not been given lessons, but Gale and Mazikeen had made him observant, ever watchful for the shifting of emotions that might precede a violent explosion. Her frustration is brief and self-directed, never enough to concern him, and he’s smiling when she looks up after explaining that she talks too much.

“It was nice to walk,” he replies, “and to hear about your flight as well.”

That she returns to her mission - finding the black and green queen - quickly does not surprise him, but he knows nothing of her missing monarch. “My cousin met a pair of Loessians looking for survivors, a grey stallion and a…” here he trails off with a faint smile, recalling better what his cousin had said of the amethyst-eyed daughter. “Hmm, perhaps a you, I think.” So she has been searching for quite a while then, with no news at all. “But nothing else, I’m afraid.”

@Areane

[Areane]

Areane has been given lessons from both her parents. There is much she has learned from Altissima about the landscape of Beqanna, about the different lands and the reputations attached to some of them. From Tarian, she had been given the same lessons that he had been given as a foal. She’s been taught about the importance of manners, of the etiquette that would be essential to Court life.

And so far, she has done a poor job of displaying that upbringing. There is a certain kind of wildness to her, an unbristling sort of emotion that never allows her to fall into the polished category of a courtier. She is entirely her own creature - a little bold and rarely shy - a mixture that lacks the polite restraint required of a kingdom horse.

For now, she is still a whirlwind, not yet tempered by the storms that life will surely bring.

"And you are too kind,” Areane tells the well-mannered stallion. But she smiles still, and it brightens the amethyst eyes that peer up at him from her windswept mess of a forelock. He expression remains optimistic when as he begins to describe a pair of horses encountered by his cousin, and then tries not to show her disappointment when she realizes that the Loessians his cousin came across was most likely her and her father, some months ago.

But she refuses to give into it. There were still other places to search. There had to have been others who escaped the flood waters. One of the former Queens of Loess was rumored to have the power to grant wishes, and though Areane knows little of Cheri, her father had described her cousin as powerful as well as capable. Her search will continue until she learns something definitive, and in the mean time, she will enjoy the paths that she takes.

The thrill of encountering others is one that still hasn't dimmed yet and Malik is certainly far from dull to the young pegasus.

"Do you mind a little company?" she asks, "Perhaps you might tell me something of yourself, since we've already spent enough time talking about me." Areane says with an encouraging grin to the brindled youth.

@ Malik

[Malik]

Malik has seen little of Beqanna, but even that little is enough to appreciate the scope of Areane’s task. There are a hundred places to hide in these woods alone; even with the South gone there are vast stretches of forest and field, steppes and mountains. At least she is likely to be trying to be found, Malik thinks. But he will keep an eye out too, for a green and black mare.

You are too kind, she says, and Malik responds with a brief soft smile.

He expects her to be off again, and when she asks if he would like company the black horse is surprised. Pleasantly so, aided by her encouraging smile and bright amethyst eyes.

But what to tell her?
It should be something good, he thinks, something he is proud of, perhaps even something that will impress her.
But what might that be?

As they walk on, he tells her “but I lived in Tephra for a while with my mom, Wishbone.” It no longer hurts to think of his mother, though that has been some time coming. He knows she is no longer in Tephra, but perhaps Areane might know the name, and Malik is proud to have called her his mother. “Though now I live in Hyaline. My mother, Mazikeen, is the Queen.”

He’s been going for impressive, but realizes as he ducks under a low-hanging branch that perhaps he’s gone too far. He doesn’t want her to think he’s bragging, and so adds: “I can ask her if she’s heard anything about your missing queen, if you want. What’s her name, anyway?”

@Areane