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

Wasp groaned as she pushed a sun-bleached leg out against the warm sand. She stretched out on her side, her now grey-sheen barrel rising and falling in gentle huffs as she sun-bathed not far from the shoreline. Sand found its way into the matted, black locks of her mane and the feathers at her ankles. Her amber eyes were held half open as she lounged easily among the dunes and wispy reeds not far from the incoming surf.

Weeks had passed and Paradise was seemingly vacant.

She had arrived here with a purpose - albeit a short-term one - which quickly dissolved when the silver-bay stallion had seemingly disappeared. Most of his herd too had gone, except for the likes of the son who had invited her here in the first place. All of this was suspicious to the former Peak mare - but she couldn't put the pieces together. After all this time, and all the torment, why would the Paradise King just leave it all behind?

This left the dark mare with not much to do, except lounge in the warm weather and take advantage of the lush vegetation. It stood in stark comparison to the bleak offerings afforded to her on Tinuvel, in both the Bay and the Cove. She was in no hurry to return to the Cove to tell Solomon of this news - the rumors would get around quickly enough. She'd heard Bacardi, too, had resettled on Luthien and she knew eventually she must pay him a visit. But the stallions could wait. The warm weather was doing her some good.

In fact, Wasp felt stronger than she'd had in months. While the hitch in her step was still there, the limp was far less noticeable. She felt like she had more range of motion in her legs, perhaps even enough strength to scale the rocky paths of her true home soon enough. But she wasn't about to get ahead of herself. The Peak didin't need her, and she wasn't sure what she'd find there.

So here she stayed, on the beach most days and eating her way through the jungle most nights, patrolling the near-empty borders of a home that wasn't hers. Just in case Rougaru did indeed decide to return.

W A S P