Falls

Iscariot listened to his companion's response, heart lightening with the insight that he was not the only one to have left his birthplace behind him gladly. It might not have been something that came naturally to the pale stallion, but there was something liberating about the act of revealing his thoughts and emotions to a stranger. Sharing confidences with someone that he knew almost as well as himself - such as his sister Rivaini - wasn't quite the same, as he could often guess what her response would be before it was given. And after spending the entirety of their lives together, it had become difficult for the perlino to seperate what he truly felt from the empathic bond that the two siblings shared.

In that way, the solitary days he had experienced - while lonely and sometimes terrifying - had helped Iscariot to discover more about himself than he'd thought possible. Such as the heels-dug-deep determination that he'd found within himself; such refusal to give in was a quality he'd always associated with Rivaini, not himself. But perhaps the silver bay had shared more than secrets and sympathy with him over the years. Perhaps she had shared a measure of her strength with him as well.

Rhadra's question pulled the creamy stallion from his reflections with an abrupt jolt. Pale eyes were filled with both consternation and wonder as he regarded the black mare. For all his focus on the present - on surviving, on reuniting with his sibling - Iscariot had never once paused to consider the future or his freedom to choose it. "I- I hadn't thought ahead that far," he admitted with an abashed tone. Rivaini's plan had been simple: leave home. And after they had succeeded in that... there was nothing but the grey void of uncertainty to fill the remainder of their lives. "But you stayed, after leaving home," Iscariot spoke after a moment of silence, his creamy figure leaning unconsciously towards the mare. "Why - I mean, how did you know that this was the right place? How do you choose a home, after leaving the one that was chosen for you?"

It was a question he might never have asked, had circumstances not turned out as they did. Before he had always been content to follow wherever Rivaini led him - now, he found that he was no longer content to drift passively along with the current of life. Iscariot was determined to begin making his own decisions, and faced the possibility that he would err along the way without the fear that had once restrained him. At least the mistakes - and the course they led him down - would belong to him.