When Roisin led Oswald to the Ridge, Oswin knew she should approach and thank her for bringing him home and for looking after him in her absence, but she found she simply couldn’t. The last time she and Roisin had shared words had been years ago now, but they still rang just as fresh in Oswin’s mind. The judgement the Peak mare held against Tyr, while not unfounded, had been another of the many reasons Oswin and Tyr had made the decision together to turn their backs on what they thought their life was meant to be built of. Now they were here, and Tyr was leading the Ridge, the home Roison had grown up in as a girl. She worried, knowing why Roisin felt the way she did toward Tyr, what the mare must think to come to her girlhood home and find it filled with the scent of the stallion who had once tormented her family.

Oswin’s support would always be Tyr’s, but she could not find it in herself to blame Roisin for how she continued to feel toward him. She could only imagine how she would behave if ever she came across the stallion who had tormented her mother, and that’d happened two years before Oswin had even been born. He was just some nameless, faceless cruelty she had devoted her life against; how could she blame Roisin for potentially seeing the same in Tyr, no matter how clear it was he had no interest in awakening that beast again?

Late, the smaller gold and white mare took note of Roisin walking through the Ridge jungle. Oswald was not near her. Initially Oswin intended to let her go on her way but, for some unknown reason, she found herself quietly trailing the mare. When Roisin came to a halt, Oswin did too, still some distance away and shrouded in the thick vegetation and the shadows they cast. She frowned, studying the mare, trying to see what she might be doing.

Then Oswin remembered herself, not too long ago, standing at the top of the Peak and staring down…

An icy coldness hit her gut.

“Roi?” She called out softly, breaking through the silence and shadows to let the mare know she wasn’t as alone as she thought she was. Ferns rustled as they brushed her sides as she walked out, belly slightly swollen with what would be hers and Tyr’s third child come spring. Oswin walked until she was out of the surrounding jungle, but still didn’t impose too closely on Roisin’s personal space. There was a pause, a bit of silence as she wondered what she could say, but found her words were lacking along with a mounting worry that Roisin would be angry to see her and angry to have been interrupted before…

Oswin drew a small breath and simply asked, “Do you want to talk?”

oswin
this is as brave as I know how to be.
I know it’s gonna hurt you, but please… be a little proud of me.