Even with the adrenaline of their escape coursing through her veins, Siobhan couldn't help but be estatic that she had Ailill again. Each time a lull existed, her gaze rose back to him and adoration once again filled her gaze. She had last left him on the shores of the Ridge, her heart still bruised and uncertain in her choice as it wavered between the two men that she loved, but those long hard months alone in the Inlet had left her plenty of time to think.
Plenty of time for her to realize that the gentle side she had once loved in Bjorn had either been a lie from the beginning or only a weak flame quickly extinguished by Nyimara. It had been bad enough that he had chosen the Inlet over her and her daughters, and a slap in the face that he would all the silver-maned witch to take her away from the Ridge, but the long months spent without his intervention were a crystal clear message that he no longer cared. Where once warmth may have existed, only icy indifference reigned.
Realizing that her choice of lover was sound had not made their separation any easier. Siobhan had not realized how much she had looked forward to sharing the milestones of her pregnancy with Ailill until such things were no longer an option. When her babies first began to move she had wanted nothing so desperately as to be able to beg Ailill to place his lips there so he might also be comforted by such strong evidence of their life. When they carried far to the side and made her look and feel lopsided, she wanted him to laugh with her, if only to stem the annoyance she felt from the double kicks to her bladder. When they made her crave pine needles over grass of all the absurd things, she wanted him to help her find the greenest ones. She wanted him there for every part of it... and yet she hadn't had him.
When the girls had taken their first wobbly breaths and crashed into each other on the open shores of the Bay, she had wanted him there so that he could share in that breath of joy. That brief, beautiful moment where the worry of the birth didn't exist, and the fear for the future had not set in. That one blissful moment where all that existed was you and the foal. That too, had been robbed from her. She knew she would never forgive Bjorn or Nyimara, but she had tried to push it to the side.
What had been was history. What she had in her grasp now was the future, and it was glorious.
The only thing that was missing now was Sigurdr. She had tried to tell him to come with, right before they left, but she wasn't sure if he had been close enough when she called it out. Siobhan couldn't risk Nyimara hearing, but she knew that a piece of her heart would always remain with the patchwork colt.
Together the trio slid ashore on the beaches of the Ridge and Siobhan couldn't help that happy tears that gathered on her lids as Ailill welcomed them home again. Eagerly she brushed her lips over his shoulder in thanks before turning her gaze to the girls with relief. Each inch of the journey had forced her heart further into her throat as the girls grew tired, but they had made it. All of them were home and together again and she couldn't wait to wrap her neck around Roisin and Akadi again. It had been torture to be separated from them and as their hooves landed on the shore and she was reassured that the twins were stable, she turned her gaze up the beach to where the pale filly waited.
A grin broke across her face, even as the tears that had gathered began to fall. Eagerly, although not entirely gracefully given how tired she was, she rushed toward Akadi and pulled her - willing or not - into an embrace. Given months to fill out, Akadi had begun to lose the babyish look of a weanling and was morphing into the awkward angles of a teenager. Her coat too had begun to pale and flecks of grey had begun to invade her coat in a beautiful speckled pattern. Laugh-sobbing, Siobhan ruffled the strands of her mane before pulling back so that she could look into her daughters eyes. "Look at you sweetheart, you're so beautiful. I've missed you so much."
Again she pulled the girl close for another quick embrace before stepping back, mindful of the way she had just pressed her soaking wet figure and tear-stained face against the young girl. "Look at me, getting you all wet. I'm so sorry."
Roisin had heard his call but had not turned immediately. Her heart was still a tangled mess of emotions and sometimes it was just easier to sort out when she was alone.
She loved Ailill, really. He had been there for here since she was scarcely a week old, and in the wake of Siobhan's capture, had been the only creature (Akadi excepted of course) that she could turn to. She loved him like a father, because he all but was one to her.
But she also resented him. He had let her mother be taken from them, and while she knew that he had not done so willingly, he had served as the outlet to these negative emotions whether he liked it or not. He was the only target that was "safe" for her to be unhappy with, and so her frustration had largely emerged as sullen behavior and subtle tantrums. For a long time she had not been able to understand why she could not live with her mom and dad together. Why they couldn't all just go to the Inlet.
But as the months passed and Bjorn didn't come for her, she had begun to doubt everything.
She would have given everything to be with her mom and dad... but the cost of losing Ailill and Akadi was too steep. They were family too and she could no more leave them behind than she could her blood parents.
So when Ailill called, she didn't immediately move. It is only when she hears Akadi's explosive movement that her curiosity becomes too strong and she saunters in their direction. In truth, she has every intention of walking out of the dense jungle with the poised aloofness of a queen, if only to punish her mother for not taking her, but this plan is abandoned the moment she sees her mother. Her figure jigs in place for a step before she rushes across the beach to sidle alongside Akadi, and then against Siobhan as the mare finally pulls away from her sister.
"Momma," she says as she buries her face in her mother's neck. Underneath the spice of pine trees and the thick ocean salt, she smells just like home and a part of Roisin finally relaxes. Home was back.
Saoirse was tired. More tired than she had ever been in her entire life, and yet she didn't want to sleep. As the group finally waded out of the strong grasp of the waves, the pale filly pressed close to her twin as their mother rushed off. So many new things had happened today that she was quite over the surprises and really just wanted the familiar embraces of Naenia and Siobhan so that she could fall asleep.
Curiously she watched as Siobhan raced off toward two small horses, and turned her gaze to Naenia in question. Did she have any idea what was going on?
Beside them stood the tall figure of Ailill, and while he was also relatively new, Saoirse felt like she had known him all of her short life. Shyly, wary of the two strangers on the beach that had not been introduced, she wormed her way between her sister and her father and watched the going's on with a lowered head, taking comfort in the twin presses of their skin.
There was no words to express the joy that she felt as Roisin joined the group and made her family whole (or as whole as it would be without Sigurdr). Eagerly she curled around Roisin's embrace, laugh-crying the whole time. A part of her knew that she should be introducing the babies to their sisters, but she had waited so long for the chance to hold her girls again that she simply couldn't tear herself away.
"Roi," she breathes into her daughter's mane, desperately sucking in the familiar scent of her girls. Roi still wore flowers in her mane, and like Akadi had begun to fill out. Her thick tail draped below her hocks now and the unruly mess of her forelock nearly draped over her eyes.
"The two of you have gotten so big," she sputtered happily, drawing back slightly to get a good look at them. "Soon you'll be taller than me."