It warms Grier's heart to see the happiness return to Zjeena's face. She deserves a moment of bliss after weathering so much. I am not glad the boys are gone, poor souls, but mayhaps its better that these 'uns have no ties to Liland. He cannae hold them o'er her head. Eagerly she follows the direction of Zjeena's gaze to where the half-siblings play together. It warms her to see the way they respond to Zjeena's look, the small colt's face rising immediately before turning away when they are not bidden to her side.

Isla, for better or worse, continues in her butterfly hunting expedition, oblivious to her dam's conversation. That girl'll be the death of me, she thinks to herself fondly. As much as the bright girl stressed her mother out with her wild ideas and independent nature, Grier cherished every moment she was gifted with her.

As she mentions the babes that Zjeena had lost, the air grows serious between the two of them and they search out the truth of the moment in one another's eyes. When Zjeena apologizes for not knowing, the pony mare shakes her head dismissively. "Aye, ye had no way o' knowing. Hamish passed long before I ever came 'ere."

She pauses for a moment to consider Zjeena's next comment, her gaze still focused on the dun mare. The memories of her son are distant but still sharp. Even her memories of Dougal, the main she had lain beside for nigh on six years did not hurt as much as that. A sign slips from her before she speaks again. "I dinna ken if easier is the right word fer it."

Grier swallows, her focus far away as she responds. "It's more like life keeps goin' on, whether ye want it to or not."

She offers a smile toward the mare through the tears that gather but do not fall from her lids. "Eventually, sometime down the road ye won't even think of em for a day or two, and ye'll feel guilty for it. And when the grief comes back it willnae be any less sharp than the day it happened."

She steps forward, extending her muzzle in comfort to the drappa. "Even as that maybe, the good in life keeps comin' too. Like the wee ones at your heels. An that helps. An so will your loved ones." Her smile broadens slightly and she sniffs back the tears that threatened to spill. "Aye, I'm sure yer spotted friend can hold ye if ye need to cry, but dinna be afraid to ask me either."

Grier doesn't bring up Rougaru for a number of reasons, chief among them that she had never seen a stallion experience grief in the same manner as a mare. Whether it had something to do with the fact that he had not held the child next to their heart for nigh on a year, or their propensity to sire so many at a time, she did not know. Whatever the cause, she did not yet know if Rougaru would be capable of grieving for Liland's lost children, nor if Zjeena would find it appropriate to go to him with it.