lukasz had wandered quite some time before settling down on the isle of salem. he no longer held out hope that he would ever find any of his rodina, his family…no, not after the great tragedy that had befallen the vlast. his homeland had been decimated by some terrible natural disaster. in truth, the massive ebony stallion didn’t recall much of the event… just scattered pieces of memories that his mind shuttered tightly against him. it was better that way, he thought… not to remember the end. he had chosen salem because it seemed the least controversial isle of them all… the territories were hot, dry… distasteful to many, and so he thought they seemed a place least likely to find trouble. he was nearly right. though the lead stallion of the first land he had inhabited there, the dunes, had been usurped, they had all been welcomed easily enough into the badlands.. so far though he finds he prefers the less sandy of the two realms anyway. kirova accepts her fate gracefully, laying out her own conditions as she reacts to vasilissa’s claim. lukasz watches the transaction quietly, realizing that despite his nervousness, he was just happy to be in the company of others. the smiles bestowed on him by kirova were also contributing to that small joy. his ears perk interestedly as she volunteers the idea of visiting each other and he nods, his low clear voice in agreement. he responds to her before directing his words more broadly toward the pair as he describes his new home. “i would like to see the thicket some day… and to show you the badlands when you are ready for travel. it is an unusual landscape, unassuming and not particularly welcoming… but I find it peaceful and quiet…” he doesn’t add the other reasons why he had chosen the hot and dry landscape… reasons such as his aversion to anything that reminded him too much of the vlast… and the desire to find a place that would not be so highly sought after. the stallion was not a coward, no one could call him that... but he had suffered. and now he only wished to find the path forward with the least resistance. when vasilissa cautions the bay mare on her travels, mentioning atlantis and tinuvel his large black frame shifts intently. he had ventured to atlantis briefly but never to the cold tundra of tinuvel. he held a morbid curiosity toward the place.
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