I am a quiet god
and my hunger
is cavernous

Though she had prepared mentally for the return to her birthland, it did little to stop the prickle of tension along her spine as the crackle of passing hooves upon leaves that blanketed the earth touched her ears. Safe. Gods here, mate here, our magic from here. Pups will be safe. Alice's mind soothed across hers, a primordial sort of vehemence to her words, as if simply saying them would make it so in reality. Still, the comfort washed across Hotaru like the receding tide. Alice was right. Hotaru knew these lands well, her Goddess was here, her friends and family were here, her magic had come from the veins of the land beneath her hooves. No matter the paranoia the lands outside of Helovia had imparted in her, the twins in her belly would be fine. Hotaru would make sure of it.

She needn't fear in the first place, for from the long shadows of a yawning morning sun comes a gilded frame she has not seen in years.

Illynx is apparent in his lineage, and it pangs a note of sorrow across her heartstrings to see her mentor and once-Lady upon the Blade's son. But it delights her to see Rikyn nonetheless, though she is temporarily stunned by how drastically he has grown since she'd last seen him gangly-limbed and eager at his mother's side. He's...well, a stallion. Larger than her in height and breadth, with a patient countenance that only came from the wisdom of passing years. It is only further proof of the time that had slipped by since she'd last crossed the Threshold with Thranduil.

Still, as he turns to her and titles her so sweetly, Hotaru can't help but smile beatifically at Rikyn. "Rikyn," she greets warmly, the glowing maiden at the Laurelin's side. It's all a part to play, though she extends his name sincerely in this rare moment of kinship and nostalgia. He is of the snow and ice just as she is, after all. Though she is as yet unaware of just how precisely they mirror one another, he having taken up a mantle she had held for years.

The boy-turned-man introduces the little one peeking out from his side, equal parts curious and tentative as young children are. Hotaru laughs softly and gazes upon Gwyn's sire with a lacing of fondness across her beautiful face. "Are you calling me old, Rikyn?" she teases. Though she did know Gwyn's grandparents, which certainly made the Valkyrie feel old. Especially considering she was pregnant herself. But she knew the way Helovia worked, and how quickly and carelessly it tore souls from the earth. There was no time for dawdling when it came to love or procreation. And those who lived into double digits were regarded as either masterful or impossibly lucky.

As the men converse - Hotaru rolls her eyes so soundly inside her head that Alice snorts at her side - she turns her attention to the miniature shadow that ventures forth to speak a shy hello. Her hips are coated in gold and frost, accenting the innocent baby blue of her eyes. Hotaru tilts her crown towards the young filly with a gleaming smile, reluctantly leaning her weight off Thranduil to engage the youth in conversation.

"Hello Gwyn, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." If Rikyn wanted to paint her so regally, well, the least she could do was play the part.

Before she could say anything else to try and bring the quiet child from her reverie, Alice's hackles swiftly rise and flares of color shoot across Hotaru's eyes in wordless panic. It's dizzying, disorienting, and she immediately steps closer to Thranduil, ready to protect and be protected, eyes casting sharply over her shoulder to Romina lingering silent in the shadows. Except by the time she faces the newcomer, the first words have already fallen from the woman's lips, and Hotaru's heart seizes painfully in her chest.

Beta, Alice growls and whines in Hotaru's head, throat seeming to convulse spasmodically around the word, unsure which emotion she wants to feel. Hotaru doesn't even have the time to sympathize, because Rexanna is right there, eyes glistening with a joy that wraps around Hotaru's throat like strangling vines, unstoppable and unwanted. It's instinctive. Their explosive last meeting could not break a bond that Hotaru had ached without in the solitude of her kingdom. She had poked and prodded the bruise of Rexanna's absence in the silence of the long nights in her cavern. No Ashamin, no Thranduil, no children, no best friend. The loss had hurt almost as badly as what she had perceived as Rexanna's ultimate betrayal. But the joy...

"Rexanna," she finally manages to strangle out of her throat, clinging to her peaceful mask with bleeding fingertips. "I'm so glad you're well," comes spilling out unbidden, truth escaping the weight of her confining teeth before Hotaru can shove them back into her throat. Alice shifts restlessly at her side, eyeing the growing crowd uncertainly. Pup is here too, she murmurs quietly to the Valkyrie, who turns and smiles at her niece radiantly. This she can handle. This is familiar territory. Though she can hear Romina's swift, careless departure just behind her at the arrival of the young mare who had been her sister in arms.

Go, she commands softly, and Alice turns in a blaze of toxic purple smoke to follow the mutated child into the wilds.

"You've grown so much, Kiada," Hotaru notes pleasantly, if only in hopes to distract the fire girl from the rude departure of her daughter. Then she glances across all of them, these people who represent the ghosts of her past and the welcoming hands of her future. "How is everything here? Falling to pieces again?" Because when wasn't Helovia in utter chaos of some kind? "Where do you all call home now?" Where would she call home, after all this time?