As they move deeper into Lena’s homeland, Alysanne found herself too distracted by their surroundings to help look for the plants that they were both searching for. It was all just so beautiful! She imagined that it would be even more so at night, when all the stars and the northern lights came out to dance across the dark sky. With her attention drifting near and far, she almost missed the chirp of Imogen and the point of a nose that highlighted the little bearberry plants. “Thank you, Imogen.” She spoke softly to the little fox before Hemlock leapt from her back and, gracefully as he could, glided to the ground and worked at uprooting one of the small plants, his small talons better at the delicate action than Alysanne would have been.

As he gathered up two of the little plants, with as much of their roots as he could gather, and made his way back to the folds of her wings, Alysanne’s attention remained fixed in closer vicinities with a question from Lena about her father. Her smile softened and she willingly answered it. “He was wonderful, I learned so much from him. Even if I’ve forgotten most of it! He was… well, not quite on par with the Gods of Helovia but he was a spirit of the forest, something of a dryad.” They had called her dryad in Nocturne but she was only half, and here in Helovia that part of her had faded further - the vines that once grew amongst her mane and tail falling out and her natural growing and healing magics dissipated. A small price to pay. She remembered where she had come from - that time she had with her father was priceless and no matter what she looked like or what magic flowed through her veins, nothing could take away those memories from her. Not even misguided friends looking to protect her.

Along with the birth of her son, they were some of the most precious memories to her. Moving on now, bright green eyes flashed about to find one of the other plants on their list as she continued to speak. Hemlock nearly lost his bounty while trying to show off a little for Imogen - hopping around in a little dance and popping out of feathers here and there. “He was my dearest mentor - while my sister was off learning to fly from our mother, he taught me about the earth: the plants and features that compose it, and how everything is connected and lives in harmony... even if it doesn’t always seem harmonious.”

She needed to believe that, needed to think that there was some sort of reason for all the darkness and hatred. A balance.

But there was no darkness and hatred today.

Some periwinkle coloured flowers caught her attention as they walked and she stopped both her movements and her story as confusion descended. “Is that flax? I’ve never seen it in bloom before.”