She should have been long gone by now, having told Arkana she would take her daughter as her own and bring her back to the badlands but as soon as both of the girls were stronger and able, Feray found herself standing on the beach unable to take the plunge into the water. Too many things run through her head, so many what if’s?

Worried eyes look to the sleeping forms of the girls, curled up together at her feet as if they’d always been that way and not born separately and to two different moms. Aysu didn’t seem to have any lasting effects from being rejected from her mother, the bond she now has with Feray and Esme was stronger than ever, and for that she is very much grateful for. She had planned to take them both home to Roheryn and present the pair of them to him, but which would she actually claim as her own flesh and blood? She couldn’t bring herself to do so, to lie for the sake of covering up her mistakes. Esmeray was her daughter, and Solomon her father; this she knew to be true after hours of staring at the girl wishing it wasn’t, but the very miniature of him was right before her in every way possible. It was hard to deny. Aysu however could pass for a Roheryn foal, but again, so many what if’s pop into her head. She stares hopelessly through the trees that surround her. Tucked away the trio are, away from the forest herd, and away from Arkana or else the girl may have another fright at the sight of the filly she’d borne.

“Oh my loves,” whispered words, leaning down to brush comforting and nuzzling lips against each of their sides, “what are we to do then?”. She had vowed to herself at Esmeray’s birth she would do anything for her dark little moon, even if it meant standing against the very one she had come to love as her own, and maybe just maybe, this was what the fates wanted. Perhaps they sought that her home life in Salem was no longer stable, no longer what she wanted now that her suspicions of her father and brother had been confirmed. They knew and they pushed, forcing her to leave and do something she never thought she would. Ever since coming to the badlands, her Roh had lost mares and killed an invading stallion; the latter so unlike his usual behaviour but she stood beside him and comforted his woos. Were they ever really supposed to be there then or were the very beings Feray prayed to trying to move them out?

In her heavily burdened thoughts she has moved from the sleeping bundle of foals, wandering aimlessly through the trees. They whisper to her even now, teasing voices in her ears that have her searching the heavy foliage that surrounds her, a gentle breeze following and tugging at the dark strands of her mane with as much patience as one of her girl’s. “Alright,” she breathes, uncertainty lacing the words yet she follows the path they pull her along, and it is there in the quiet of the morning that she hears his voice among the very ones that tease her ears.

There is no pause to her steps at hearing this voice, her leg’s moving her faster until she is slipping out onto his very path. “Solomon,” the fire and annoyance she once had for him is gone from her voice, instead her voice is filled with unshed emotion at seeing him, and the images of the time they had spent together replay through her mind without a care. Oh fates, how terribly cruel you are. “I-,” she shakes her head, blowing a heavy breath through her nose and looking anywhere but at him for his very presence has muddled her thoughts again.

“We ha-,” again she bites her tongue, as if still unable to speak her truths in the face of the man who gave her the green eyed child just beyond where she stands. She should be able to do this, he was not Roheryn and would not judge her for the very thing they each had an equal part in bringing into this world. Feray is a silent whirlwind of emotions, lowering her head and letting the tears she kept back for so long finally fall free and wet the forest floor beneath her.