More screams fill the maze, bellows and echos and a haunting cry of Wrong! The girl looks back, but the monster is gone, vanished to torment some other adventurer. Black eyes narrow- why give them a choice if only to deem them wrong? Copper child is growing weary, tired and dizzy and unimpressed. Thus far her fear is unfounded (Told you so!) - nothing has leaped out to strike the youths down, nothing has oozed from the pores of her mind to contaminate her heart, drive her to despair. She look to the gold-kissed filly, a smile growing bolder on the moonlit face. She hopes it's a comfort, a promise they'll be safe- a promise the girl is beginning to believe. Tandavi feels secure, the fox at her feet growing bold and amused. He darts up ahead, following the black winged colt, eagerly attached to Rhoa's steps.

Back through the labyrinth, a bellow rings.

The girl darts forward, her black eyes ablaze. What could have happened to her youthful charge? Images are sent through the duo's bond, a picture of pausing, then running in fear. Don't know why, Natraj cries back. Seems safe. Will stay with him. Carefully the girl steps to the next bend, cautiously seeking what frightened the youth. At first, there is nothing, no sign of attack; and then something shimmers at the edge of her sight.

Three paths mark the way, each filled with a vision. To the right, there is family. Two sets of twins sit on the ground while Mirage spins a tale, and between them a spot remains open, one she knows is left only for her. Even her mother hovers on the edge of the scene, and she is soft, and happy, and beautiful and strong. The girl remembers this moment so well... but this moment is gone, never to return.

To the left, another memory. Small, newborn Tavi sits in front of an egg, watching it shatter and reveal its prize. From the depths of it crawls an infantile fox, three tails spilling haphazard on a minuscule form. Her mother watches over, her voice like night- "This is Natraj, your brother. You must look after him." She wants to respond, but the vision is just that, a lingering idea, and she knows that the memory will fizzle if touched.

And there, in the center, a last image appears. Full-grown and beautiful, it is her reflection from the pond, a perfect and glorious and mature and brave image who is everything and nothing like the waif-like girl. It is who she wishes that she was, and it frightens her greatly, for it is who she knows she can never be.

She swallows, and carefully backs away, only to see the dart through the center path.

Wait! she wants to cry. I don't want to go that way. But it is too late, and Natraj tells her the boy has gone down this path too, and she is left alone to decide her own fate. She does not wish to face the better her; she fears it, for it is the only one which could come to be, and the one she knows never shall. She could follow the memories, she reasons to herself, find the children on her next change in path... but she is not a coward, and she has sworn to protect, to defend the youths against what terrors may come. "I'm not afraid," she says, and it's true, and without another pause to blink she follows her reflection, unwittingly stepping closer to being the mare she so longs to be.

ooc | Right and left paths show memories, middle path shows her greatest desire. Follows the middle path even though she doesn't want to because she wants to keep Faeanne and Rhoa safe.
Seeks a white dragon with firebreathing | Wishlist

"Talking"

Tandavi