Alysanne

The delightful call of her name invoked an immediate response from Alysanne and Hemlock. The mare broke into a huge smile, stepping forward to greet Kahlua and laughing with unrestrained delight as they hugged each other in greeting. Hemlock, guarding the flowers as he was, took some exception to this sudden jostling about and managed a disgruntled hoot towards Kahlua. He was actually rather fond of the queen, as fond as he could be of his bonded’s friends, but she was disrupting the job he had been given and he wasn’t one to take such disruptions very lightly.

And then, of course, he spotted the dragon.

Dark eyes narrowed into slits as he clung all the tighter to the feathers keeping him rooted, restraining himself from charging head on to this creature and teaching him a lesson or two. Oh those teeth didn’t scare him. Hemlock might be only slightly larger than an adult hamster but he was a Great Horned Owl in his mind and had no intentions of being a snack today or any other day. A low, threatening hoot escaped him as the dragon settled down to the ground after a word from Kahlua – eyes remaining narrowed and not breaking from the pale form.

Alysanne, mentally chiding Hemlock for being so unfriendly, greeted the presence of the dragon much more favorably. “A dragon! Kahlua he’s beautiful. What’s his name?”

Attention distracted by the movement of her friend as Kahlua stood back, breaking apart the embrace. “Oh!” A fresh wave of guilt hit her as she realized how her absence could have been attributed. “Oh my sweet Kahlua of course not! I am so sorry if I led you to think that. You cannot chase me away that easily.” A smile there, appearing easy and quick despite the guilt. After all, at their last meeting she had been significantly more concerned with the painted queen’s wellbeing and state of mind than her own. “How are you, by the way?” The enthusiastic greeting at least meant there was some progress – she wasn’t being told to keep her distance. She doubted that Kahlua had overcome all of the guilt over the little companion’s death, her heart was far too sweet for that, but there was hope that she was at least beginning to view it as an accident – not some sort of intentional malicious attack.

Once that question was answered, she explained herself. Her smile fading as she returned to her own guilty conscience. No, she had not handled things very well lately at all. “It was… a couple days after that, I went to find Mikey – Miykael, remember him? – and found him in the caves. He told me… he had taken some memories from me and he told me what they were. I got them back… I am so sorry about my absence but I had to go home. I needed to see my sister.” A dark look clouded over her green eyes but she refused to slip back into that world.

You belong to me that thing, that demon, had whispered to her as he broke her sister’s wings and feasted on their flesh. Forever.

Only if she let herself dwell, only if she gave in.

“I didn’t want to go but…” Alysanne shook her head, not sure if she could find the right words to explain why she needed to go. It was more than the need to see her son again, like her last visit to that delightful little family. The pain of the demon attack was something she shared with Iona alone.

Green eyes, soft in their sadness, watched her beloved friend carefully. Reproach was not something she would expect from Kahlua but still – this was more than a friend whisked away for a vacation. Alysanne was one of the Edge’s Moon Doctors and she had abandoned her post. “Will you forgive me for leaving, dear friend?” And it was then that she remembered the flowers she had brought back. “I uh, brought some herbs for the garden.” She mentioned lamely, as though that might make up for how terrible of a herd member – and friend – she had been lately.