 I BOW MY HEAD TO THE SETTING SUN
Exploring this place had been slow going. Her current stature was to blame for some of that slow-going. Though she was aging much faster than a normal youngster, her flight feathers hadn’t yet re-developed to a point where they could sustain flight. Being earthbound in a strange place was enough to drive Iona mad, as if being stuck in the body of a child wasn’t enough. And then there was the fact that both her sister and her niece had arrived to the Rift heavily pregnant. She wasn’t willing to stray too far away from either one of them in a place such as this even if she was certainly a more diminutive presence nowadays.
Iona felt about this place as she did about Nocturne when they had stumbled upon it. Wary. Suspicious. Paranoid. She was never one to really enjoy magic or the so called gifts it brought since it was so easily corrupted. And this place? This place seemed even worse than Nocturne. After seeing how Helovia had fallen, Iona wasn’t sure she’d sleep through the night again. But she could cope with this lifestyle. She had before, and she would again. She keep her family safe.
She didn’t really question her resolve until she had stumbled upon this place. Because it was familiar. Familiar in a way that the Rift shouldn’t be. The trees. The flora. The fauna…they were all things that she remembered from the last time she was, well, the age she appeared to be now. But how? How was a land from her childhood here?
The very same tumult of emotions that had reduced Alysanne to tears brewed frustration and anger in Iona. She didn’t understand. She couldn’t make sense of what she was seeing. And she hated it. And she knew that only her sister could possibly have some explanation for all of this, or at least some hope of understanding…
But when Iona found her sister, she was not alone. The once-pregnant Alysanne was pregnant no longer, and a colt lay in the deep green grasses alongside her. Iona could have kicked herself for not being more aware that Aly’s time was so soon and hurried to her sister’s side.
“Aly, are you alright? Do you need anything?” The words came in a rush as she checked over her sister, ensuring that she wouldn’t have to leave immediately to find someone with some healing ability. Perhaps Lyanna or even little Zoeya…
But then her gaze fell upon the colt and a smile tugged at the child-mare’s lips. ”Hi little one. I’m your aunt Iona. And your momma and I are going to keep you safe.”
I O N A
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image credit
Wanted to have her here officially <3
Solanis
