She flies.

An iridescent angel in the pre-dawn light, she was ivory wings spread to catch the breezes, flowing banner stark against the dark sky. She was bi-colored eyes and a delicate bodice, suffering-turned-strength shining from within and making her outward beauty somehow more wild. She was the sky, and she was the wind, but above all, she was the sun. As the golden orb rose behind her, shimmering softly over the dunes of sand below, she could not be happier. Despite all that she had been through, despite all that she had seen and heard and felt and known, she was happy here, now, floating high above it all. In the clouds, no one could see her, nothing could touch her; if only she never had to come down. But alas, even a dove cannot fly forever, and so down she came in lazy spirals, scanning the ground below out of some instinctual habit that existed to save her from danger.

A trill from above caught her attention; she smiled as she recognized the call of her companion, Astraeus. The zephyr had found something on the edges of their land, a small speck that he couldn't quite make out. Though he could not speak to her in her own tongue, Sohalia found that she rarely had trouble understanding him, his emotions were so closely linked to hers. Right then, his metaphorical hackles were raised, protection the primary thought in his mind. He was quite possessive of Sohalia, and everything she deemed hers, and so an intruder on their lands - well, he wasn't about to have that.

The fae found the speck at about the same time that her dainty hooves touched the dirt, and then she was trotting forward, continuing the momentum that had brought her safely from the sky. She fluttered her wings, shaking the disarray of her feathers back into comfortable places, and then she pulled the appendages closely to her sides. She slowed, stopped, paused, looking from the speck back toward the herd, wandering if she ought to find Africa - or, gods, forbid, Ampere. The blue's ascent to leadership had not sweetened the dove's feelings towards her; if anything, Sohalia held more dislike for the mare now that Ampere held power over her. But the Dragon's Throat was her home - hers, not that outsiders - and so she stubbornly remained, holding her tongue and biding her time until, one day, perhaps, when Ampere's temper got the better of her and she proved just how terrible a leader she was.

Jealousy is a bitch, isn't it?

And so she started forward again, purposeful and determined to deal with whatever the speck may be on her own. For a moment, she remembered the darkness, and she dithered, afraid - but then she shoved the fear to a deep, dark place in her heart where all her secret pains lay and moved on. There was no more time to be frightened, no more time to wait around for a stallion to save her. This was the only life she had to live, and, by the gods, she was not going to live it for those idiotic males anymore. She was going to live it for herself. Astraeus trilled again, soaring above her; And for you, my love, she agreed, her pleasure mingling with his. If she was to lose everything else in this life - mates, children, parents - she was not about to lose her bonded. He had shown her there was more to live for, and she felt more herself than she had in years. Or perhaps she was simply discovering herself for the first time.

At any rate, she had grown near to the newcomer and was pleased to find that she was the first. She halted several lengths from the dark mare and nodded a greeting. "Hello," she said with a smile. "My name is Sohalia. May I help you?"

"talk talk talk"
@[name]

Live... I want to live on fire
Die... I want to burn out brighter
Brighter than the northern lights
Want to live to feel the daylight