Common

His main goal on the Crossing is to check in on his mother in the Peak. He hasn’t seen her in a long while - not since the last time she’d visited the Badlands, back before his father lost it and his half-siblings took over. But to get to the Peak, he has to go through the Commons.

He hasn’t spent much time here – really only the hour or so when he met Vex, but never again. He’s just…still not sure of his place here. Hell, his place in the world, really. He’d never had grand ideas of wanting power and a herd and acclaim. Just a place with his family, somewhere good enough to convince Una to follow him to.

Still, he feels…unsettled, in himself. Hence the visit to his mother - they may have had a fraught relationship lately, but she was always a source of wisdom. Lucien doesn’t know what comes next for him, but she might. But he doesn’t make it that far - because he sees a very, very pretty mare among the last of the autumn wildflowers and he stops. She’s got the strangest, white-frosted coat he’s ever seen, with a lush black mane and tail.

He probably shouldn’t stop - he’s painfully awkward, cannot flirt to save his life. Surely a mare like this won’t have the time of day for him. But…but Vex had come to find him months after they met. So he can’t be entirely useless, right? And…it isn’t as if he will bully her back to the Hills with him. They could just talk, and then he could keep going, head to the peak.
Lucien slows his determined trot, slipping into a slow walk as he tries to psych himself up. She glances around, and he’s probably imaging it but Lucien thinks that she notices him. He snorts out an anxious little breath, and then changes directions. He stops a polite distance away from her and offers a tentative smile. “Hello,” he says brightly. “I’m Lucien. It’s nice to meet you.”