She hadn’t realized just how much she’d missed the feel of soft, shifting sand under her hooves.  She hadn’t recognized how her heart had ached for the brilliant desert sun beating down against her back.  Of course the Throat was different than the desert she was familiar with – she had never seen anything like the sea. The little flaxen mare was captivated by the waves that seemed to go on forever. She stood on a sandy knoll overlooking the sea undulating softly as far as she could see.
 
Najya had spent the past few weeks in the Throat familiarizing herself not only with the desert and its culture, but allowing herself the opportunity to heal.  She had sustained little in the way of physical injuries from the battles, but getting over the mental and emotional toll of the battles…and all that she had on her plate before the battles.  She had been utterly exhausted by the time she set foot in the desert.  It seemed her life had become an unfortunate pattern of war and blood and flight.  However, it seemed that the cycle had been broken.  She’d finally found the home that she’d been seeking since coming to Helovia.  Thankfully it was exactly as Mesec promised – a sanctuary.  Just what she needed to recover from her past.
 
Relaxation was a concept foreign to Najya.  She’d gone from curious historian, to queen consort, to refugee twice over, to warrior, to…well…whatever she was now.  Unfortunately, now the little mare found she had far too much time on her hands and tended to spend the days thinking which was more counterproductive than anything.  She knew it was long past time she get more involved in herd life, she just couldn’t seem to draw herself out of her own head.
 
She was drawn from her thoughts by a familiar face.  Lucius!  The little zephyr wasn’t so little anymore and Najya smiled as he circled around her throwing shadows across the sand. "Why hello there, stranger!” she cooed at the dark bird, before craning her head around and looking for his bonded who she knew wouldn’t be far behind.
 
She wasn’t disappointed.
 
“Mesec!” she offered with a smile and a polite little dip of her head.  “I’m well. I feel rested for the first time in what feels like years, and I suppose I have you to thank for that.”   Najya shifted her gaze out over the Throat – her eyes flicking over the now familiar sights before she looked back to Mesec.
 
“I trust you are well?” she added, sincerely hoping that all was well with perhaps her closest friend here in Helovia. That train of thought did lead her to think of another.  She let the silence linger for a moment before she looked back to him again, knowing that of the two of them she was the conversationalist.
 
“Ampere was very kind to allow me to stay.  I take it from our meeting that the two of you are close…” her voice tapered off, but the question was evident. Najya didn’t want to presume that the two were a mated pair, but that had been her assumption as her eyesight had begun to fail on the seashore not so long ago.