Falls

A movement amongst the trees drew her attention, and instantly Lavender was alert. But as quickly as she had turned to face the approaching horse, so was she quick to relax, recognition clear in her posture, even before she murmured the stallion’s name. “Khyber.”

She didn’t know what to make of the turmoil of emotions that his presence stirred up in her, nor the way that her heart stuttered at what he said to her by way of greeting. If not for the way she felt her stomach flip, Lavender might have convinced herself that it was merely the sound of his voice that had such an affect on her, and not any other reason.

“Okay, I won’t,” she said gently in reply. “But what if…What if I did?” A moment later, she offered clarity, and confirmation - it was evident in her tone, in the way her posture softened, so that even though she framed it as a question reflected back at him, in the answering, Lavender gave herself away. “Miss you?”

Because despite everything, she had missed him. Ever since the moment she’d last laid her blue eyes on him in the Lagoon, before Lir had made good on the vow he had made when they’d first met in the Commons, just a little farther south, beyond the Meadow.

And when he extended his muzzle, Lavender stepped toward him without hesitation, stretching forward to skim her velvety lips down the curve of his cheek. A breath came, carrying the softest of sighs, like the solidness of him, the fact that he was really standing before her, that she was drinking in his scent, had put right something she hadn’t realised had been wrong. That something she could not name was no longer lacking in her life.

Lavender didn’t understand any of it, and her thoughts were far too scattered to begin making sense of any of this,

Her chest ached with the effort it took to hold back the questions that sat, burning, on the tip of her tongue. Did you miss me? Did you think of me at all? Why didn’t you come, to check on your son, to meet our other children, to see me? And the most pressing question of all, that would fall from her lips like a desperate plea –

Is Kythri with you? Is he in the Lagoon? Is he safe?

The former questions went unspoken, because Lavender did not want to come across as some pining, needy creature. She had survived trials before she’d met him, and she had raised two young at once while working through her own struggles. Beyond that, she knew that Khyber had chosen to make the Lagoon his home instead of one of the territories on the smaller islands. As for the latter…

The not knowing had been a crushing weight on her for so long, ever since Kythri had first vanished, but now that she was closer to finding out the truth than she ever had been while watching over her younger two in the Prairie, she balked, too afraid to ask in case the answer would only leave her feeling worse.

Instead, Lavender withdrew from him after some moments, shifting her weight back ever so slightly so that contact between them was broken. But she did not pull away, her small hooves grounding her where she stood, so that, if Khyber so desired, he could reach out and touch her again.

“What are you doing here?” she said instead, feeling that it was as safe a thing to ask as anything, a fairly neutral, open ended question. Lavender did not expect anything from the brown overo, nor did she think him the sort to simply say what it was he thought she might want him to. There was no hint suspicion in her tone, despite the fact that they were quite close to the border of the Peak, as though the palomino mare did not have it in her to think ill of him. Or that she chose not to.

The simple truth was she had asked in order to receive an answer - any answer - so that she might hear his voice again.