Interesting that the purple pony should find the idea of unicorns and other such mythical beasts odd. But then, as Kahlua was not privy to her words, she could not comment on the oddity of the moment. Of course, the whole situation was odd, with Jay having imaginary friends and Kahlua accepting them as rightly as they were visible before her. But odd was just her style, she supposed. And didn’t she have a few or seven odd friends? And what of herself, hadn’t she been taken in by magic and changed and warped until she hardly recognized herself. Yes, if Jay was odd then Kahlua was too, but that was just how life went here in Helovia. Even Kahlua had grown to love the magic of it all.

So laughing as Jay chastised her imagined boggart, Kahlua proceeded to shake her head about ‘proper respects’ and all that nonsense. “No, please, pretend I’m not. I’d rather be thought of as a friend.” Then she laughed again, that brilliant chirping soprano that brought so much life to the forest around her. But at least Jay and Lily seemed to be thinking about the Edge as a home. The more time she spent with this mare, the more she was certain that she’d fit right in with the merry bunch that lived in her draconian forest. Luckily for Lily (or perhaps for Kahlua that she did not walk straight through the purple pony), the Sunshower stopped to turn and look at Jay as she accepted a home within the herd. “Fantastic! They’re all gonna love you!” And with her promise she tossed her head and continued on, indicating that Jay should follow.

---

As they walked across the land, Kahlua had entertained herself and her companion with chatter on the functioning of the Edge herd. There were the healers, the crafters, the warriors, the spies, and the philosophers. And of course her and Kaj- the king. So whatever Jay’s heart desired, she could surely find a position to fit into. Or, if she didn’t want a position at all, she could just live there and decide later on. “Whatever makes you happy,” the queen insisted. And of course, though all of her talking, she left room for Jay to respond as she saw fit. Over a meadow and through a few more patches of wood, the pair finally made it to the glass wall that marked the border of the Edge.

“Well, here we are,” she said decidedly as she stepped over broken shards of the glass wall, the remnants of a creation that had once been beautiful but was not just a ruin. “Sorry about the glass, we’re going to get it cleaned up.” And so she turned to smile as she walked down a well-worn path, wondering what Jay would have to say about the place that she could now call home. All the while, she smiled to feel the familiar mists curling back about her hooves and hear the soft hum of the forest, alive with woodland creatures.

@[Jahzara]