Delicately, each golden limb moved in perfect flow and sequence, disturbing the brittle leaves that covered the path with only the slightest rising of noise. She wanted to rebuild, and thus she would spend the next several weeks journeying to and from the high splendor of the Basin to the wilds that currently housed her future army. Many problems pressed in on her from all angles; their failures, the stolen members of her home, the fact that since the battles had been waged, she had seen neither hide nor hair of her dearest Psyche. Most of her problems could be resolved through gathering new units, but as to the issue of her missing and only friend, she had no answers, only worries. The black mare remained in the back of her mind through each passing day without her, adding more purpose to her journeys to the south than just recruiting; it was a peace of mind she sought. One could not fret over missing loves when travelling, at least not so much as she worried while sitting at home twiddling her proverbial thumbs, and she found that even the song of the birds trilling above were enough to keep her from slipping into the state of dismal pondering that she had been stuck in since limping home from the Edge.

The laughter of a creek met her ears, blending joyously with the sounds of birds and the hushed sway of branches, the lithe mynx slipping nearer the source of the water to refresh her dry throat. As the glimmering water arrived in her vision, so did a noise tickle her eager ears; a voice. She paused, turning her finely crafted features towards the source of the sound, intrigued by it's feminine tones and the possibility that the speaker wore a horn upon her crown. Disregarding her thirst for the moment, the woman set off along the water to the right, her steps more purposeful and less silent than they had been before.

She rounded a bend and slipped around a large boulder embedded in the creek bed, golden gaze finding, to her delight, that the one who had spoken was indeed a unicorn; her red horns gleamed in the light that streamed through the slits in the leaves, a glorious assemblage of death that made the golden backed mare nearly giggle with happiness at how simply beautiful the set of swords were. The femme's sleek, ivory pelt was a fine touch, and as the Lady drew nearer, she found that the woman's eyes matched her most precious attachments, filling the elitist bitch with a surge of enthusiasm that lit up her very feminine features with a glowing happiness. "Salutations, traveler!" she called out across the fifteen or so feet still separating them, increasing her pace to a lazy and bouncy trot until reaching three or four feet from the mare, coming to a regal halt, her tiara angled high upon a gracefully curving neck.

"I am the Lady Illynx, hailing from the northern Aurora Basin," she began, her smile friendly and welcoming as a naive child's, a tactic she had found to be rather useful in the past and frequently returned to, "and might I just say, my dear, that you wear such a glorious crown!"

The moment of staring, of gauging one another. It was always tense and never missed, the hesitation of two strangers come to accept one another's existence. Proudly, the Lady absorbed the blood-toned gaze of the wanderer, her neck arched gracefully as her golden eyes settled upon the other's pretty face with a calm collection that belied how rampantly her thoughts danced about in her head. Most prevalent, of course, were the things that she had left behind on the mountain, a massive pile of things-to-do and not-enough-time to do them in, but also present were ruminations upon the white mare's appearance, and the state of her soul. Illynx cared not for Heaven or goodness; those things were well out of her small mind's reach. What she was concerned with was whether or not the ruby horned mynx could be utilized in the greatest scheme of them all.

Did she know how very blessed she was? That by birth, she was destined to rule the earth alongside her most favorable kin? Or did this one, like so many others, wallow in the hopeless and shallow pool of acceptance, a unification of the species?

The femme absorbs her words, the names and titles of strangers and stranger places, and only the faintest glimmer behind the red pools of her gaze hint that she ponders them much at all before she replies in turn. Hungrily, the golden mare swallows the name of the five horned miss, smiling kindly in reply to the admission of being faced with new knowledge. The girl is wise, at least, she thinks to herself, hoping that, perhaps, the unicorn may know the name of the land upon which she has stumbled. "Do you know of Helovia, then?" her womanly tones simpered, hoping to better guide the stranger as to where she was upon the broad earth, "it is the calling of the entirety of this country. The Basin is only a state, of sorts."

The light catches the embers of her crown as she raises it to the treetops, the golden backed warrior watching with glimmering eyes their ascent. Her lips split in delight at her own sword's mention, a kindly nod of her head given in response to the compliment that sent several strands of her ebony forelock dripping over a golden orb. Caelia's words proceed forward near seamlessly from the discussion of their most prized possessions, drawing an even more wicked tint to the already devious features of the Gilded Blade the further they pressed on.

It would seem she had found herself another much needed wolf on this day.

Little concern was given to the fact that she smirked as one discussed the death of her entire family; the Lady was nearly entirely possessed by the notion that her people had been fortunate enough that the pale girl had survived to join their cause. The golden mistress gave a slow and thoughtful nod as Caelia's voice was enveloped once more in the near silence of the movement of the nearby water. "Speak quietly of such things," she began, her voice lowered to it's smallest decibels as she took another step nearer the white unicorn, a devious glimmer alighting in her gaze as she snaked her mouth closer to disallow others to hear her words, should they be hiding in the shadow to gather information against her knowledge, "but I can help you, Caelia. Know that there are many in this kingdom who would cut free your tongue for speaking of such things -" a pause filtered into her explanation, a wicked half smile finding purchase on her delicate features as her golden eyes narrowed amusedly, "but know, also, that I keep no such company. I, too, desire your... justice."

A lack of justice, more like, but Illynx could not be swayed from the path that she had been forced on from such a young age. The hornless would all fall, or she would die with their blood at her hooves; no matter the outcome, she was inseperable from her loathing of the inferior rats that roamed the grand kingdom of Helovia. She was much the same as the princess seeking her stolen crown. "The Aurora Basin is a shelter for our kin, and our kin alone," she further explained, "and many, my dear, feel as we do. I am saddened that you have lost your home, truly - but you have one alongside us, if you so chose."

There was a river once,
with many round stones
enchanted by shallow hopes
of embracing the ocean;
water is peculiar this way,
how its life is a line
that cannot bend or change
without the approval of its bed.