As the large, handsome stallion of pale golden creams spoke, Poppy let her gaze briefly trace the lines that made his figure and admired the loveliness of his coat while he stood so close. Poppy’s mother had been cool tones of soft gray-blues and gray-purples with thick, charcoal hair streaked in silver. Poppy’s brother was a soft white with specks of contrasting black all over. Only she had any golds or yellows in her coat and, one time, she’d asked her mother if her father was yellow and that’s why she was, but her mother hadn’t answered her.
When he mentioned the Lagoon by name, her gaze was instantly pulled back to his face and she paid close attention to his expressions with increased curiosity. The Lagoon was a place she knew by name and vague descriptions; it’d definitely been accompanied by words of warning to the point Poppy understood it was no place for her to find herself in. The way his voice changed when he spoke of it and then the growled words ”They are cruel.” only solidified her fear of it.
He apologized and Poppy only shook her head ever so slightly, wordlessly dismissing his need to apologize. She might’ve spoken about her limited history of it, or even pried further into his relationship with his mother, but when he introduced himself her thoughts were whisked away. Gavriel, first, a sturdy name, and fitting. “I’m Poppy,” she replied, but it was his home, when he spoke of Luthien’s Forest that her citrine gaze brightened considerably.
“I know Luthien,” she said, almost relieved to finally know something, “my grandfather leads the Prairie.” She blinked as he asked her what had brought her to the Commons. This was the Commons? Poppy flicked her ears and looked briefly away from him to survey their surroundings once again. It didn’t look like a particularly dangerous place, but she’d been warned enough about it and Gavriel’s earlier explanation - she could be taken somewhere she didn’t wish to go - reminded her not to be so careless about the land she was in.
Maybe being taken somewhere she didn’t want to go wouldn’t be so bad, though. Poppy didn’t know where she wanted to go.
“I don’t know,” she admitted softly, answering Gavriel’s question as to what had brought her here today. “I did not feel like my body was my own when I started swimming,” she trailed off and smiled, “like I was in a dream.” The softness that touched her voice was a mixture of joy and relief - even if she had come somewhere she hadn’t meant to, those moments of just swimming and not thinking had been the happiest she’d felt since her mother’s death.
Poppy tilted her head as she glanced from him and to the sky above. “How long do you think it will take for the stars to come out?” And, shortly after she asked, she looked down at the shrubs and trees dotting the land here and there, deciding immediately she would turn her way back for the shoreline and make sure she was on the sands as they began to shine throughout the sky. It was always better to watch the night sky begin to twinkle over the water and listen to the roar of the waves as the moon pulled the tide higher. “Would you like to watch them come out with me, Gavriel?” She began to turn away as she asked, but then paused and looked past her shoulder at him, wondering if he might join her on the beach.
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