i am a leaf on the wind

She notices as his eyes catch sight of the ruby chained to her breast, kept close because it meant more than he could know to her. Because when everything was dark and bleak and miserable, he’d given her this. Perhaps it was small, perhaps it was silly, but it was something when she’d had absolutely nothing at all. And every day the ruby reminded her that maybe there was something worth living for. There were too many days when she was tempted to forget. Too many times when following her sister into oblivion seemed like the best option she had.

And then she remembered the ruby. And the stallion that gave it to her when no one else spared her a passing glance.
 
Slowly, things had begun to change in her life. Her herd finds her useful, she’s got a few mares that she might even consider friends. And Apollo was quickly becoming a memory. Not because she didn’t want him in her life, but simply because she wasn’t sure she’d ever be so lucky as to find him again. But even the memory of him was a powerful thing.
 
It’s amazing what one small gesture can do.
 
He doesn’t speak at first, but Zola does. Well, in her way. She leaps down from Apollo’s back, crossing the distance to Lyanna and wrapping around her leg. Lyanna smiles, a smile both soft and ecstatic. Lyanna dips her head toward Zola, offering her muzzle in greeting to the feline as best she can. “I’m glad to see you as well, Zola,” she says, a light laugh escaping her lips.
 
Apollo’s movement pulls her attention back up, and the smile on his face is enough to lift her spirits completely. She feels light in a way she hasn’t since her family was killed. Since she’d left Morham. For a moment, she can completely forget them. She returns the gesture of greeting, touching his muzzle with her own, finding the heat of the contact strangely enjoyable. In a way she might not have expected.
 
“I’ve been doing well. Better, certainly, than when I first arrived here.” she says, wondering just how much to admit. Would he run in the other direction if he knew just how much she’d changed her life? That she joined the healers in the Edge, been promoted, and hoped one day to earn healing magic of her own (something she once could have done, but never really took advantage of)?
 
But the truth is, she wants to tell him everything.
 
“I’ve settled in well. I joined the healers there, and was recently promoted to Apothecary in their ranks.” She thinks of that conversation only briefly, not wanting the memory of it to bring down her mood. She’d almost broken in front of Alysanne. Almost told the Doctor everything that had brought her to Helovia in the first place. But still, the story remained hers. Well, hers and Auriel’s, but she’d only told the girl because she’d been the only one to ask. And there were no details to that version of the story. Just the bare bones, enough to answer the question and no more.
 
“How have you been?” she asks, turning her attention away from the past. Turning her attention to the only future that matters. 

watch how i soar.

lyanna