Meadow

Sleia didn't have to wait long to draw the attention of an onlooker. At first she couldn't quite see him in the shadow of a sleepy oak, trying as a point of principle not to gawk openly at the unfamiliar landscape like some tourist ripe for abuse, but she felt his regard all the same. When the rustle of the stranger's footsteps drew near enough to dispel any doubts about his intent, she paused, neck arched to study him with bright-eyed interest.

He cut a stately figure, carrying himself with assurance born from the hard experience writ large across the map of his flesh. Wisdom has a way of making its presence known (and especially to Sleia, who had never acquired the poor habit of mistaking her boldness for competency). His words accentuated as much, as cool as they were grand and unfamiliar to her ears.

I have never seen you around here, the dusty stallion said, and a chuckle bubbled out before she could muster the fortitude to match his comparably effortless composure. "It's nice to meet you, Björn. I can't say I've ever seen you around here, either." Ah, yes, a terrible joke. She was absolutely in her element now.

Her tail lashed her speckled flanks as she affected a more polite expression for his sake, uncertain what sort of sense of humor this Björn would bring to bear; against her best judgment, she still wanted to make a good impression. Not everyone appreciates drollery. "I'm Sleia, of - er - somewhere thattaway," she replied warmly with a flourish of her head toward the distant mainland. Where she was from had never much mattered. Her kind did not own the land upon which she'd been born, and she wasn't exactly brushing shoulders with her kind anymore to even justify identifying with them in the first place. To her, that had simply been big sky country, and anywhere could be big sky country with enough time and enough love. Perhaps even these Lost Isles.

The copper mare scanned the horizons with open appreciation, indulging for a moment in the fantasy that every surprise waiting around each new corner would be a good one despite knowing full well that wasn't likely to be the case. "Did fate lead you here, too?"

Sleia did not particularly believe in predestination, but a lot could be said for the subtle magnetism that drew one's feet one way instead of another, and how even those small moves could carry you leagues into the bewildering unknown.