all these countless nights

otem You'll remember me when the west wind moves upon the fields of barley You can tell the sun in his jealous sky when we walked in fields of gold The pain in Otem's shoulder seems to disappear entirely when the odd looking mare opens her mouth: the girl had never heard anyone speak to her Father like that. Anyone who came close usually received more than a handful of bruises for their verbal errors in judgement, and Otem very much doubted that now would be any different. Part of her wanted to groan at the mare, because as odd as she looked and as much as Otem was pretending that she wasn't hurt that badly, the truth was her shoulder radiated pain and the clotting blood made it feel like someone had stitched her wound shut far too tightly. But if her Father put this mare in her place, she'd probably use the magic on herself, or retract her offer to heal all together. But apparently her Father was in a generous mood, for instead of beating the mare back to her senses, he simply allowed her transgressions. But why? You Pandora hooted into her mind, alongside an image that radiated warmth and love from her sole remaining parent. Ahhh yes. Love and sacrifice. It wasn't only Isopia who was capable of demonstrating those emotions for her children. "Thank you. That's very kind of you to offer. I'm Otem by the way. This is my dad Volterra, and that's Pandora." The filly nosed towards her owl as she stepped out of Volterra's shadow. Otem wasn't trying to undermine her Father, but the strange Rift mare was quite right that both of the Helovian's had completely done away with manners. And like Volterra, Otem too was worried that the mare might do more harm than good if they continued to be rude. The autumn-coloured girl continued forward, halting and turning her body so that her wound could be seen. Even if this mare couldn't heal the wound itself, Otem would happily take a respite from the pain. "So you live here? You were born here?" The words were almost a whisper, as if the filly couldn't believe that such a thing was even possible.

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