These moments were not as rare as they had once been between them, but it was still not always easy to find time alone together where their attention would not be pulled away. Still, she remembered the weeks, months, even seasons they had once had to spend apart, and it made Oswin all the more grateful to press into the large stallion as she did. Their warm breaths mingled together as his whiskered lips tapped her muzzle, and she blew a content sigh from her nostrils to his, so he would smell her tranquility in this moment and know.

The question he asked briefly surprised her. Oswin’s eyelids fluttered open, long pale lashes blinking over her blue eyes, and then a thoughtful look crossed her expression. Tyr only ever received absolute honesty from Oswin, especially in these moments where they stood alone. With others they often had to wear masks, but alone, they could strip themselves bare.

“Yes and no,” she admitted after thinking about it for a moment. Her eyes drifted toward the dense jungle around them and the shadows that lurked beyond where light couldn’t stretch through the thickly grown canopy of branches, leaves, and vines. She was not seeing their home, but the top of her Peak where she used to watch the sun set, then awake with the first golden rays of dawn shooting out across the sky. Briefly she saw Róisín and Bane, when they’d stood at the cliff halfway up the incline and spoke of the past, the future, and the passion that stirred within them to try and change everything that lay ahead. Then her memories stretched further back, to before she had ever left the islands, to when her sisters rallied and pushed her to be their Prime Minister, back when she had never considered herself sharp-minded enough for those politics.

“I miss pushing myself,” she said after a moment of quiet reflection, “I miss stepping in where no one would and protecting those who couldn’t protect themselves.” She smiled briefly as her eyes left the jungle to finally reach up his handsome profile and lock with his; her smile deepened. “I’m afraid your queen has grown content raising our children in the jungle rather than diving head-first into fights I have no business getting into.” It was mostly a joke, of course, but there was plenty of truth there. If the opportunity was before Oswin, there was no doubt she would do as she always had done: swing first, ask questions later.

Her gaze fell away and the thoughtful expression returned. “Most days the only regret I have is leaving the islands after my brother’s death.” Guilt filled her. It often did when she thought of Nephilim; life had been unkind to him, and Oswin took that guilt and let it derail her own life. She doubted she would do anything differently, but the truth was the truth. “I left my sisters, the ones who believed in me and in my vision for the Peak, to die in a war I should have been leading the charge into.”

Their story though - hers and Tyr’s - would have likely been so much different. Life had such a funny way of working itself out.

“I don’t think it’s something I will ever forgive myself for, even if I couldn’t change it happening.” She admitted, voice gone a little more quiet.

Oswin looked to Tyr again. “What of you, my love? Do you miss your Lagoon and your brotherhood?” She would not be surprised if he did; out of everyone in this world she felt they understood each other more than most.

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.