until the lion learns how to write

Her visit to the Shore all those months ago had left her with more questions than answers, and had ultimately led to her abandoning both Shore and Forest for a short time. She'd wandered along the Crossing aimlessly for months, searching her heart for what it meant now that her father was dead, and with him any hope of restoring the glory of Warsaw's bloodline. Lakota had always admired her grandsire, although she'd never interacted with him much. He'd been a fearsome figure in her youth, and a legend by the time he passed. She knew enough not to upset him, but that had never truly been a worry.

She'd always had Ironclad to look out for her. To protect her. All it had ever cost her was her obedience and loyalty, and those she had freely given to him. Even when they'd all abandoned the Inlet and sought their futures elsewhere, he had always kept her safe.

But they'd broken somewhere along the way. Somewhere between Kvothe and Arael, her sire had lost that edge of softness he'd always reserved for her. His neutral greeting when she'd finally found him again had hurt her heart in ways she neither wanted to explain nor to explore. She hadn't stayed long after, just enough to see where he was and to reassure herself that he was doing okay. Lakota had felt conflicted enough she hadn't gone home right away, but had lingered on the Crossing, trying to sort out how she felt about where she was in life. Bacardi was sweet, but not forward. Soft where she was used to hard. He didn't demand anything from anyone, much less from her, and she wasn't sure what to do with his attention.

And then Ironclad had died, and some void had opened inside of her and stolen her heart. He had been the only family she had left on the islands and now he, too, was gone. There was no one, anymore.

Only her.

She went to the Shore first, to see him. Had forced herself to touch her remains, to feel that loss and that reality, and then had turned away. The Shore residents that remained meant nothing to her. Not the stallion that had been there during her last visit and his brood, nor the dun that lived there now. She had spiraled further and further outward until her hooves stumbled across the shores of the Inlet without her ever making the conscious decision to come back home. Each breath inward felt laden with memory and feeling, and she drifted further inland. It wasn't until she found the cave where her grandsire had been lain to rest that she slowed to a halt, a frown carved deeply into her lips as she contemplated who she was now, and what she was supposed to do with that.

young mare // Mutt // gray // 15 hh