Leaving?

Pregnancy?

Amaris had heard too much, she knew. She had heard that which she had no right to, and she felt a flood of emotions that she knew she should not.

But she couldn't stop them.

The words of the Moon Goddess advising them to use their brains were forgotten, as the waves of emotions rolled through her, as the tsunami peaked and then crashed through any rational thoughts that tried to form, washing them away and leaving nothing in its wake.

Nothing.

She was numb, then.
Then she was cold.

It was a foreign feeling, to be cold, for the dragonmare. Always warm, mostly impervious to cold, she could not deny the shivers that rattled her frame, as she stood, silent and shocked, behind the clump of trees.

Was this how her mother felt whenever a 'loyal' member of the Qian chose to reside elsewhere? Was this how Tandavi felt whenever she left to wander away?

Why did she feel this way?

Why?!

..because you love.

Slowly, she felt herself begin to thaw. She felt the love and concern and defiant warm presence of her companion fill her, raise her up from her dark thoughts, stir her from her emotional immobility and wake her up again.

Love? she questioned, thinking it curious that he would identify that as the feeling she associated with her Seer, her mentor. Love, he said with surety, somehow impressing in that one thought that it wasn't necessarily romantic love she felt, but love all the same. You feel deeply about all, he added, referring to the other mares who had gathered with Isopia.

Isopia, she thought absently, clutching to the name that she had not heard before, only ever knowing her as the Mountain that Knows - it was what she had introduced herself as, and so it was what Amaris would always call her.

After an age, she pulled herself from the darkness, her golden tones muted to silver in the moonlight, her dragon hanging back in the trees, watching from a high perch, the happenings below.

"Me too," she tailed on Alysanne's comment, her smile exuding warmth and happiness, despite the fresh turmoil her insides were going through. "If the Indomitable doesn't already know, tell him he has gained one of the finest mares in Helovia."

She wanted to say more, to ask more, to know more - but she held her tongue, knowing that even if she had a deep affection for this great bronze dragonmare, it was probably not returned, probably not considered the type of friendship where one could ask all of those questions and not be considered out of line.

"I will miss you, Mountain that Knows," she offered instead, at barely a whisper, because she was scared to voice it, scared to make it real.

Amaris