I DON'T WORRY,
WORRYING DON'T AGREE
THINGS THAT BOTHER YOU, NEVER BOTHER ME!

Greetings.

Both Talya and Kestrel turned to take in the sight of the stranger who’d approached them. Kestrel felt a knot of dread tighten in the pit of his stomach. There was absolutely no way he had any hope of physically matching up against this stallion. If things got ugly, their best shot was going to be to run for the southeast shoreline and swim for Crossing Isle, hoping they might at least outrun him.

I am Rilke, the new lead in this land. What are your names?

Kestrel’s ears flicked but, before he could talk, Talya’s bubbly voice was out in the open between them. “I’m Talya! This is Kestrel.” She affectionately bumped at her young son’s neck and, despite the worries circling in his head, he couldn’t help but share a small bashful, loving smile at her. He swallowed and his attention returned quickly to the large stallion standing with them. The new leader of the Forest.

“Do you… need us to leave?” Kestrel asked carefully, making certain to stress it was an us situation and he wouldn’t be leaving without his mother.

“I don’t want to leave.” Talya stated, looking at her son, then at Rilke. “The Forest is safe. I like it here.”

Kestrel’s ears flicked as his brown eyes regarded his pregnant mother for a second, but he swallowed his argument and paid attention to Rilke rather than get into it with her again. Kestrel did not know why his mother was so afraid to live somewhere rather than Luthien. She had no problem visiting Crossing Isle or even telling him of all the adventures to other islands they could go to once she wasn’t pregnant and his new sibling was big enough to come too. So… if she could travel away from the islands, why was she clinging tightly to the Forest? With Persephone gone, wasn’t the protection she gave gone with her?

Questions that would likely never be answered and, truly it was for the best. If Kestrel knew the reasons why his mother was the way she was, his heart would break again and again for her.

“We can leave if you want us to,” Kestrel decided to speak up and assure Rilke, not wanting the lead stallion to think there would be any fight to drive them out. I can make up a game and trick her into coming with me if I have to…