Falls

At first Evren’s nod is one of sympathetic interest. It pleases her to hear that another mare has an interest in leading a home, something which had been all too uncommon when Evren was a girl, and Evren knows the struggle that is trying to hold a land as one’s own. She parts her lips to comment on this, but something about a combination of the mare’s smile - so strangely familiar, almost like her mother’s - and the way the mare says “where I was born” gives Evren pause.

For those moments Evren’s copper eyes are vacant with thought, but she gives her head a minute shake at the stranger’s question to bring herself back to the present. “More or less. The horses I seek are my sister, Indira, and my nephew, Tarek. We haven’t lived there in some years, however.” As Evren thinks back to the rolling sands of her homeland, she briefly contemplates the possibility that Indira might have returned there to seek refuge from the war, and that Tarek had joined her. Evren quickly rejects that idea, however - surely her family would not be so cruel as to move from the Forest on without a word, when as far as Evren knows they had become casualties of war.

Shifting her weight, Evren prepares to thank the stranger and be on her way, but there’s something strangely comforting about being in the presence of another Salem-born individual, and she finds herself rooted to the spot, standing there awkwardly as she searches for a reason to delay her departure. “I’m sorry you’ve had such trouble securing land,” she finally says with a sympathetic smile. “I’ve been there; it’s tough. Hopefully you have more luck in the future. If you don’t mind my asking, which of the lands in particular are you interested in?”