The moment Raegar’s call is answered by her golden daughter, Ayiana knows that she needed to get away. It was one thing spending the last few years as Raegar’s meek plaything, and quite another to see the now grown stallion and her own now grown daughter together. It was not unnatural nor was it unheard of, Amaris had spent her entire life with Raegar to protect and guard her. Truthfully, Ayiana knew the girl could have settled for worse. However, knowing and seeing are two completely different things. Some things a mother just did not need to know, at least that was her opinion anyway.

With Raegar properly distracted, this would be the perfect opportunity for her to return home. Why it was that her thoughts suddenly drifted towards her own mother and the fate of the Prairie herd as of late, she could not rightly place but it is there nonetheless. Had Shamwari ever returned? Was Larka even still alive? What of her other nursemother, of Darshan? Did they all still remain with the same painted stallion? She needed to know.

WIthout the scream of Raegar burning in her ears, she lept into the ocean surf and focused her azure eyes on the distant island of Luthien. After so long on Salem, the swim was far less daunting than she last remembered but even so, as she drew herself ashore of the long forgotten Prairie grasses, she is thoroughly winded. ”Not nearly as easy as it used to be.” she huffs to herself, pausing on the sandy dunes to give her creamy coat a quick shake. Water logged tendrils of her alabaster mane plaster against the sides of her curved throat as cautiously she lifts her muzzle to greet the billowing zephyrs. Even with the years that she has spent away, the scent of prairie grass is a welcome greeting. A soft smile curves across her ash dusted lips as Ayiana draws away from the sands and onto firmer ground, savoring the feel of the deep grasses that tickle her heels in passing. Life in Salem has not always been kind to her. Before Raegar found her and (less than ceremoniously) herded the heavily pregnant mare back to his home in the Badlands, Ayiana had been miserable. Raegar taught her much about life in the desert, where to find water when summer’s harsh sun turned the deepest of watering holes into mud, where the best grazing could be found and even places to hide from the midday sun. Perhaps that is why she never tried to escape the once-colt’s claim over her. She had little doubt that he had indeed saved her life.

Yet with the warm wind twining its invisible fingers through her mane and the feel of the soft Luthien earth beneath her hooves, Ayiana wonders not for the first time, what had ever possessed her to flee from this place.

Pale lashes blink as she crests a rise in the land. Bright, blue eyes cast a roaming gaze over the place of her birth. Trees. Tall, shading trees, their leaves just beginning to turn yellow with the settling autumn season catch her eye and cause the smile to widen across her lips. Joy and sadness intermingle as she remembers that very same stand of trees where her mother first welcomed her younger siblings into the world and where she last said her goodbyes to her father. Unbidden, her hooves find themselves on the familiar path, crunching over fallen acorns and fresh leaf litter from seasons past. She dips her head now, sifting through the scents of the land. Mother. Larka remains. Though the scent is faint, as though the silver mare had not ventured to this part of the Prairie in many weeks, still the familiar warmth of her own dam’s scent is enough to ensure her that her trip home has not been in vain.

She would have liked to see her mother grazing here in the shade of the trees, would loved to have assured Larka that she was well and not entirely unhappy. She would have liked to tell the mare of her own child and the life she has lived in Salem and her adventures since departing Luthien. More than anything, she wanted to see for herself that her mother was well and that life in the Prairie was the same as it should be. Yet even with the unknowns, Ayiana is content to let her mind drift far from Salem and its shores, if only for a time.