The squeal from her daughter causes Mae to abruptly raise her head, the last few stems she had plucked from the earth falling from her lips to float back down to the ground. A low nicker escapes the pale woman, a few quick strides taking her to the top of the embankment that the stream had carved down. Almost instantly her daughter is a tumble of legs and tail at her hooves where she had been rushing back, allowing Mae to release a heavy breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.


“You scared me, Kæja.” She tells her daughter; half in scolding, half in relief. Lowering her crown, she brushes her pink lips across the girl’s darker body. Checking to make sure she is still whole, even if her scent had not changed from the last time she had seen her, which was only minutes ago. “What did you squeal at?” Mae asks as she lifts her head, but her eyes do not stay upon the girl then. Rather, they look passed her, in the direction that Kæja had come from. Fell’s scent was strong upon the air, so she does not doubt that he was the one that caused her daughter’s display.


After Kæja gains her hoofs and is up again, Mae reaches back down to her child, nudging at her hip gently. “How about we go a little further down-stream?” the pale woman asks. “There is a place where the trees part with a small rise; a perfect spot where you can see the Peak off in the distance.” Mae smiles then, her eyes bright as she looks at Kæja’s young face. “Have I told you of the Valkyries that live there?” she asks.