The news of Solomon's death had come as a shock to much of the islands, Úna included. Though she had not been to Tinuvel in some time, having adapted to the harshness of Salem, she still considered it her home. The sun had reddened her once inky black coat in tones of brown and red, to match her eyes and she had lost her thick coat. She didn't know why she'd stepped into the water that morning, and she knew even less why she'd headed for the Bay. When she'd finally pulled herself onto the shore of her childhood home she didn't even realize where she was at first. It looked different, it smelled different. She had little interest in pursuing her father's whereabouts, the bitterness of the revelations Rafe claiming her had brought forward still stung. He'd been her best friend once.
Now she had nothing to say to him.
Not seeing her mother when they had both been on Salem had stung in a different way. She was grown now and she understood enough that Kohelet perhaps did not want to be seen. Úna had not been a terrified child when she'd been claimed, but she was still a young girl that would have felt an immeasurable amount of comfort with one hug from her mother.
As she walks deeper into the Bay, snow crunching beneath her hooves and skin twitching in the cold, the song of a blue bird grabs her attention. She watches it flutter from tree to tree, her eyes growing distant. There'd been a time when she'd have laughed and given chase, dancing in the flurries and song. Úna turns from that patch of trees, her gaze falling on a lone figure in the distance. Even from here she knows who it is.
Úna draws closer, halting a few yards away. She is surprised to see Kohelet, but she hides it on her face. She had considered her mother would return to Tinuvel, but not to the Bay. "Mother," she says, and despite any negative feelings she has bottled up, Úna's voice is a soft, comforting murmur, the hug she'd wish her mother had once given her.
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