a new world hangs outside the window
beautiful and strange
it must be I've fallen awake
I must be

Wasp winces as she moves her heaving frame down the steep incline of boulders, and she cursed Bozena's name under her breath as she did so. Her muscles were quite sore from the constant endurance work Bozena required of her. Together they scaled up the mountain and back down again, over and over, with each new round picking up speed and finesse. Bozena called this "training". But Wasp called it torture. What they were training for, Wasp wasn't sure. Bozena had yet to make a move on Cullen and his band of cronies in the Lagoon. While Wasp dreamed of nothing more than attacking Cullen physically herself, she knew she was no match for the slivering stallion. At least not yet.

But still, all of this exertion and effort was tiring.

As such. Wasp waited for the roan mare to meet her on the flat path of rock. Two dark-colored ear lobes flicked forward at attention as Wasp caught the stranger's name. She'd never heard it before, but bobbed her head once in acknowledgement. Persephone was certainly a long way from the Forest. Wasp appreciated how matter of fact the mare was in explaining herself, but the second she mentioned her mother's name, everything around Wasp seemed to fall a part.

She could feel her heart beginning to race in her chest, and for just a moment, whatever outlier noise that drifted around them went mute. "You know my mom?" Wasp blurted out, her tail flicking frantically over her rump. The heavy-set mare took a step forward to Persephone now, her wide black nostrils flaring as she searched for her mother's familiar scent on this stranger's body. She couldn't find it. But she did smell the familiar murky earth scent of the Lagoon on her. "How is she? What did she say?" She peppered incessantly, her amber eyes trained onto the roan mare now, anxious for answers.

W A S P