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She took comfort in the company of the babbling river. Its song was both tranquil and fresh, and her lips fondled affectionately beneath the rippling surface, drawing delicately the sweet flavour to quench the growing thirst and fill the empty space in her stomach. Africa was travelling south, guided only by the meandering water, enjoying the mild warmth of the day, while Silas wheeled through the vast blue arcing sky ahead, taking pleasure in the lightness of his sensitive bonded’s mood. The mare’s quiet tread was light and playful, skipping every now and again to dance between smiling flower-heads or scatter pebbles swept ashore by the constant sea-bound current. This is bliss! she presumed, declaring it vibrantly into the mind of her distant companion, and he was glad for her (though not quite as confident that all was as clear-cut as she seemed to think).

He’d watched her grow through their many months bonded, watched personalities waltz through her life, both in and then out just as rapidly, and there were only a few who had truly touched her. Silas knew she longed to believe that what she felt for the leather-winged stallion was love, but he could feel the raw reality of the situation. Such emotion and trust, the fulfilment she thought existed was merely an apparition forged by desire and by hope. Hers was a loneliness rooted aside from the companionship he offered; it had been growing for years, still longer than he’d even been alive, and though they lived for one another, he understood the pang in her heart- but for the right suitor. If that reckless tattooed creature was her destiny, much work was still to be done.

A shadow pulled him from thought suddenly, and Silas’s sharp lilac eyes narrowed on the mass of cloud wandering across the burning face of the sun. He blinked bewilderedly, and realised when his gaze fell that way again, that there was also a mass of land travelling through the air, the sky, above Africa’s cherished shrine.

Silas? the trailing mare probed his mind, nervous, aware all of a sudden that confusion had scattered like white fog through his mind. They had not the need to sit constantly in each other’s mind; there was a thoughtful respect shared between them, but such abrupt fluctuations in emotion drew quickly the attention of the other. The Starry-Eyed stood motionless, water lapping playfully about the solid obstruction of her hooves. Silas, tell me what you see...

She closed her pale, panicked eyes hurriedly, opening them again instantly as the Roc’s own gaze. Africa’s lingering body flinched, startled as the island floating above the Veins appeared to her and her concentration swayed uncertainly so that she fell back to the river with a jolt. Instantly her white capped knees broke into a canter, and she searched upwards for the roaming silhouette of the avian; of the island! It had been there the whole time, all the while she’d been trekking south; but now, as she neared its position (the bridge to the God’s temple), it grew into an absolutely enormous presence- suddenly it was unavoidably obvious!

She staggered further into the Veins, gazing up all the time, and even before she’d considered shape-shifting, white fluffy cloud was gathering beneath her step. It was lifting her! And Silas swept down, clinging with a fierce grip to the slippery silk of her worn green cloak. Africa stood splay-legged as she moved towards the island- towards a gushing, white waterfall; flying still as a Pegasus like she’d not been able to do in years. The unlikely boat carried her to where a valley stretched on the upper side beyond the spilling water, and with widening eyes the one-winged found herself staring down upon a little town, roads dividing, tents standing. It was there that she was deposited.

The cloud dissipated quickly...

"Where are we?" the young mare fairly stammered, fidgeting nervously beneath the wary growl of her friend. The area was a hive of activity, but that was little comfort- the caves had much the same atmosphere, all bodies crammed in together. But it was different. There was a peace through the valley, a merriment that Africa had not before felt. She stepped away from the place the cloud had left her, and found after some time wandering, Rei, causing her heart to flutter with wild relief. "Rei!" she called eagerly, covering the distance at a bouncing trot pace. The speckled desert mare was with another, and Africa chivalrously greeted her with a broad, thoughtful smile. "Hey there, I’m Africa," she offered, noting that the pair were breathing quite hard.


[Ooc: I hope this is alright! Africa couldn’t race with them D:]

Africa