i am a leaf on the wind

She’s been making it a habit to stay in the Edge more. Wandering was nothing but an excuse to keep feeling sad and miserable and like an outcast. Of course she felt like an outcast. She’d out-casted herself, leaving every day like she was in exile during the waking hours. It was easier though, to keep feeling sad and miserable and pathetic. It was easier than trying. It was easier than admitting this was really her life now. Corbin and Adelene and her parents were gone, and with the exception of perhaps Adelene, they were not coming back. And she sort of doubted her sister would come back either.

She had to live. She had to try. Corbin was probably rolling over in his grave with her attitude. No, scratch that. No one was left to dig him a grave. Unless there were a few remaining supporters for her family, a few brave souls that might have buried him in the middle of the night. It would be treason now to bury the dead members of her family. Maybe they were burned, but they were not buried.

Corbin was probably yelling at her from the Other Side. Yes, that works. Except no, not yelling. He didn’t yell. He got really quiet and disappointed and that was endlessly worse. She could always see it in his eyes; teal like hers though tinged with a hint of gray. He never needed to talk – she always knew when she saw those eyes.

So today, because those damn eyes haunt her even still, she’s in the Edge when Hemlock comes to find her. Like usual, she’s wandering the forest, the one place she has spent some time in here. She knows it reasonably well, for having spent only a few seasons calling it home. But of course, she’s always loved forests, no matter how oxymoronic it is that she loves both flying and tight, claustrophobic, tree-covered spaced.

A soft hoot draws her attention up, and she smiles as she sees the now familiar owl. “Hemlock,” she says with a smile and a nod by way of greeting. He seems pleased to see her and swoops lower, circling around her once until she gets the picture. “Ah, I should follow?” She assumes this means Alysanne is looking for her, though for what reason exactly, Lyanna isn’t sure.

Their recent encounter flits into her mind, and she can’t help the pang of worry that hits her gut. Was Alysanne upset that Lyanna had intruded on a private moment? But no, she didn’t seem like that type of mare really. Stop worrying, she chides in her own head, wondering what it might be like to have a companion doing the chiding for her. Not that she needed more – she did it plenty herself – but the thought amuses her.

She follows Hemlock until they find Alysanne, not all that far away. “Alysanne,” she says, again smiling and nodding as a greeting. Ah, such a Princess Lyanna. Some habits die hard. “Were you looking for me?” Her grin is a bit more playful as she casts a glance up at Hemlock. “I think he’d be good at hide-and-seek.”

watch how i soar.

lyanna