Here in the lowlands, the breeze was fitful. It dashed across her skin and sent flurries of loose snowflakes scattering in pale eddies across the open spaces. She followed their progress absently as she chewed the bland remnants of summer grass, and mulled over her place in the Peak.
As a girl, she'd always envisioned that the Peak mares were Valkyries, fighting to free the downtrodden and to right society's wrongs. What she'd learned, however, was that they were just horses, the same as she was. Just as prone to their own doubts and mistakes as she was, and hardly worthy of the hero worship she'd favored them with as a filly. Which wasn't to say that she didn't believe in their purpose. Róisín still believed in her heart that they were working for the good of the islands as a whole, and that their path - while rocky - would eventually lead them to a better tomorrow.
That didn't, however, mean that she always agreed with her sisters.
The Lagoon being allowed to keep a prisoner around the same time that Oswin had fallen pregnant had made her suspicious, and not even the release of said prisoner had soothed her distrust. Róisín had always been the impulsive daughter in their family, as likely to wound with words spoken too hastily as she was to soothe. And yet here, in the Peak, she almost felt like the more rational ones, especially after the way the Paradise visit was handled. Róisín didn't know what Oswin had expected by boldly calling Rougaru a villain to his face, but she doubted that it would bode well for her sisters.
A movement to the side draws her gaze and she smiles reflexively at the sight of her champagne sister. Her opening statement earns a subtle head tilt from the younger mare as she tried to puzzle out how their mothers would have met. The last that Róisín had heard, her mother was safely sequestered in the Inlet with her father and would have had little reason to come to the Crossing. However, Bane's clarification as to her mother's message makes the red-gold girl laugh, her face warming with delight.
"I'm sure she did," Rói answered, still chuckling. "I keep meaning to go see her and my newest sibling." Her voice trails off at the memory of why she hadn't gone to see her mother, and she sobers for a moment. She still wasn't sure if she was ready to face seeing her parents happily together again, although she could not have told you why this was the case. Her own feelings regarding the situation were so muddied that she had taken to just avoiding them in the hopes that they wouldn't drag her back to the abyss.
Her gaze dances back to Bane's face with relief as she asks about the winter instead, and she offers a rueful smile. "I miss summer." Chuckling softly again, she gestured vaguely in the direction of Atlantis. "I grew up in the Ridge, on Atlantis, and I'm afraid I will never get used to the snow."
Róisín didn't hate the snow as much as she had that first winter, when every new thing - blizzards, and ice, and the threat of frostbite - had seemed willing and eager to kill her. This year, it was mostly just inconvenient, but she still held a grudge. Peering back at Bane, she spoke again. "Have you always lived in the Peak?"