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

Sometimes Wasp worried that her grief was too all-consuming, in that it kept her from accepting the duties required of her. It was the herd here, who chose her to be their leader. They rallied behind her, despite her young age. They chose her, even though Wasp failed to save her own mother, their true and tested leader.

There was a sharp sense of pride the dark mare felt when the Vulcans raised her up. They carried her home from the dreaded Forest, and they gave her space to grieve all that she lost. But now she was meant to lead them, and the dark bay mare struggled to compartmentalize her anguish and clear her head enough to focus on the issues right in front of her.

Wasp had yet to talk to Cherish and Clarity, two of Macabre's longtime traveling companions, since the war ended. There was a jealousy that still lingered in the young Peak mare - Cherish and her daughter had gotten to spend so much time with Macabre during what had been a strange separation for Wasp. There was a bond among the the three of them that Wasp had quickly soured on, ever since they all returned from Luthien in preparation for the war.

Now flushed with guilt over these feelings, Wasp continued to ignore Clarity, who chose to stay in the Peak. It was awful, living with the grief and then the guilt ontop of it, but Wasp couldn't bring herself to approach the young paint mare. Their lives were intertwined in so many ways, from Macabre to Ruger to this mountain home. And Wasp was well aware of Clarity's looming pregnancy.

So as she trodded down the familiar bouldered path, she stopped only once she saw the splashed frame of Clarity disappearing around one corner. Her dark ears flicked forward and back atop of her head and her heart lurched in her chest with that familiar, crappy feeling. Wasp breathed a heavy sigh and tried to stiffen. She grit her teeth and decided to follow the mare, and was surprised to find Adelheid on the other side as she waned around the same boulder. Wasp stopped abruptly but offered Adelheid a friendly bob of her head. She followed the Codebreaker's gaze toward a dark crevice, where Wasp quickly surmised that's where Clarity had chosen to go into labor.

She breathed another great sigh before nickering loudly into the cave, not wanting to further crowd into the small space. "Clarity." Wasp barked, her name feeling so foreign on her tongue. "We're here if you need us."

W A S P