The questions came. She still had questions, truthfully, and she’d lived here for a long time. Questions about the history of this place, about the way everything worked, but it had gotten easier. Things started to make sense. She found, in a strange way, she was used to not having her old magic anymore and though she sometimes missed it, she had learned who she was without it. Learned who she was when stripped of everything and just left with herself. It was overwhelming and tiring and beautiful and freeing all at once.

The herds were unlikely to turn away newcomers though. Each one looked for more numbers, for active members that wanted to serve their homes. She didn’t know about the other herds, but she knew the Edge was also happy just to have those that needed a place to stay and they did not demand that their residents take up a job or do anything but what they wanted. And sometimes, that was all someone needed when they were new, because it is all a lot to take in at once. How do you choose a place to live when you don’t know more than the names of some of them? You start somewhere, you learn, and then you decide.

The mare offers some information about where she’s from, though no name, and Lyanna doesn’t press. Likely she hadn’t heard of it anyway, and even if she had, she’s never been one to pry. “Was your journey here long?” She’s rather tightlipped when it comes to her own past, so she can understand preferring not to talk about things. Helovia had been, mostly, a clean slate for her, and sometimes she just wanted to keep it that way. Sometimes, it just still hurt too much to voice aloud the things she had run from.

Lyanna hears the branch snapping, eyes turning instead as the other mare skitters away afraid. She smiles lightly when the squirrel comes into view. Lyanna has, admittedly, spent so much of her life in forests that the sounds are normal to her now, and she doesn’t flee when perhaps she should. “I would love to have you come live with me,” she says warmly, meaning it. “I don’t know very many horses that like being alone.” It wasn’t natural, though some did prefer to live as outcasts.

Lyanna nods again, encouraging the mare to follow. Through the remains of the Hidden Falls, the land still beautiful of course, just wrong without the members of its herd. And then onward, to the Edge. “It’s beautiful, really. I’ll show you the view from the cliffs when we get there.”