It always came back to the island. It was where the first death had been, where they all had thought peace reigned. Of course it seemed the gods no longer thought they were deserving, or perhaps they had somehow broken their trust and good graces. Hotaru followed the call of her quest, dreading what lay at the end of a broken road. What always lay at the end of that same, old, broken road. At times she hated to Goddess, but she also respected the fact that her desire for a destructive magic led to her having to face the destruction of other things. At least it had forced her to be aware of what was transpiring in Helovia.

What she hadn't anticipated finding was another orphan.

Hotaru had always had a bad habit of taking in strays. It had started with herself, truly, then expanded to Tingal. It was why she only had one blood daughter and yet three daughters relying upon her in the northern reaches of her home. So as she came upon the scene and found a dead mother and a newly born child...her heart tore and she wanted to cry. Raeru was hard enough to find, coated in blood and half-dead. How was she to desecrate the babe's mother and comfort her at the same time? The similarities were far too strong.

Hiding from the little one's view she stepped closer to Circe, a mare she'd known only by name when they'd lived in the Foothills together. A few threads of mane later, and she bit hard into the snake bite she found, disrupting the pattern with the bluntness of her own teeth, tearing away at the tiny punctures. Tucking away the locks she moved towards the babe, a coo rising in her throat towards the little one. It stills abruptly as she smelled something on the downwind, something far too close to the mother's scent. Perhaps it was the father? She does not want to have him challenge her, try to kill her as Gaucho had, just out of a misunderstanding. Why was it always her, damn it? She didn't want the newcomer to believe that she was the murderer, but her job was already done. A brief wave of bitter joy rushed through her, wanting to shove it in the stupid stallion's face that had come up to her after she'd found Psyche dead.

"Hush, child," she murmured. "It will all be alright. Someone is coming for you." Could she even understand? Why did Helovia always take away those that were required to heal, to help? Why were so many orphans being made? Why had she been made an orphan? It was beyond fair, and she couldn't help her indignation, her pain. The little one didn't even know all that she'd lost. She wouldn't for a while, or even at all if her newborn memories washed away as they so often did. Yet another cruelty placed upon the babe that she'd never understand.

Hotaru backed away swiftly, the sand leaving her hoofprints to mingle with those of the killer. She wanted so badly to comfort the babe further, to feed her as she had Raeru, but she valued her life. Telling herself the child would be okay, she slipped away into the shadows and disappeared.