“Poppy, you’ve gotten so big since the last time I saw you!”
“Luekos?”
“Yeah, it’s me! Where’s mom?”
“Mother is dead.”
She had never thought herself one to leave Atlantis. The tropical air was the first she’d breathed; the soft sand warmed by the sun was one of her favorite places to curl up and sleep. Her mother had taught her how to avoid the herds if she wanted to, and for the most part, Poppy wanted to. Raised nomadic as she was, the thought of finding herself anchored to one place felt foreign. Yet, after she and Leukos had crossed paths, Poppy’s white-splattered legs had pushed her quickly through the ferns and out to the shoreline, into the water far enough that Atlantis became a small thing behind her.
Mother had done everything she could to explain the chain of islands beyond Atlantis to Poppy, but they were only names to the girl. Her mind didn’t really feel like her own as she swam anyways, but more like she was in a dream, and that the cool waters that she fought to keep herself above were imagined. Surely she would wake up soon, dazed by how long she’d been sleeping under the warm sun - for even in autumn, Atlantis was warm - and find herself amused by how realistic her dream had been.
She clambored ashore and saltwater ran in rivers down her body, splattering the ground and making a dark trail left in her wake. Shortly after she found herself shivering, her coat far too smooth for the likes of autumn on this island. She blinked a few times as she came to a slow stop, the scent of many horses almost overwhelming. A brief panic touched her heart, but Poppy kept her hooves planted firmly where she was and kept forcing herself to look around her.
Maybe this was Luthien? The wide open clearing of grasses framed by thick groves of trees certainly made her think of how her mother had described the Prairie. Unfortunately, Poppy had not understood when her mother said the Prairie grasses went on forever, it was a much larger space than what was laid out before her now. She was so used to the tightly grown jungles that this open space seemed impossibly large to her. She started to take a step forward, but stopped, still lurking on the edge of the clearing.
She did not want to go to where it was open; it made her feel vulnerable. She feared this dream was slowly turning into a nightmare.
ooc: just an fyi for anyone thinking of claiming her, poppy has relations to zevulun, freya, and rougaru!
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