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

The Prime Minister felt good about how her conversation ended with Nekharat, despite its tense onset. Wasp was able to put her own feelings aside and focused on what she thought Nekharat, a new but eager member of the Vulcan herd, needed. That was leadership, right? Or at least, it was a step in the right direction. The dark bay mare was riding high after this encounter, and wanted this feeling to last as long as possible.

The lean red mare was noticeably absent in recent days, however, which made Wasp wonder. Perhaps she was just too anxious to get started on the work they talked about. Wasp assumed then that maybe she already landed on Luthien, and was busy catching up with Persephone in the Forest. That is, until a stranger from Atlantis showed up in the night.

The Vulcan mare was already awake and on patrol, as the sun began its rise over the ocean, casting the boulders of their home in deep hues of pink and orange. She carried her heavy-set body down the rocky path with ease. Wasp rounded the low lying meadow at the foot of their mountain top and stopped briefly to drink from the cool stream. That's when she caught Nekharat's scent in the brisk air, along with another.

Wasp stared out across the open land, surveying the landscape until she spied Nekharat's familiar form moving inland and away from the shore. A smaller, dainty painted mare was at her side, along with a colt. Wasp's jaws instinctively clenched as she watched them. She forced a snort from her whiskered nostrils, which blew into the cold air in a creamy, short-lived plume. Indeed, Nekharat had found something new to keep her busy.

Wasp didn't issue a call to her new sister, not at this early hour, but instead, plodded off at a trot to meet them before they reached the path up the mountain. "Morning." She said gruffly as she neared, one ear trained onto Nekharat and the other on the stranger she brought home. She breathed them in again at this closer range, catching the nodes of Atlantis - Paradise - this time on them all. Her heart sunk.

"Everything alright?"

W A S P