The rain laughed as it came down.

It made the night black enough for a hole to be punched through. Humidity, rain, and fog all wrapped up tight together on this warm Orangemoon night. It was a time for redemption, it was a time for every soul to bathe away the dried blood from the sun's scorching arms and his explosive heart. It was time for everyone's worlds to change and grow up finally. Like Aylin and Cyrus. A year had passed so quickly, too quickly, and all Validino could think about was how he would make their worlds change. How would he give them something to be proud of, to think back on their lives and say, "He was always the mightiest hero..." Validino knew himself, that he'd never be what he was once capable of, but thinking back on those thoughts drove them away from the dripping security of the trees. His pace is light, like the layered rain. He feels only a couple drops at a time, but out in the silver night he sees a wall of glorious rain.

The stallion knew that he'd be back by early morning to bring kisses to his children. He knew what sort of growing up these kids were getting into and he knew that in a couple weeks the urge to be off and alone exploring was high in their hormones. He'd reasoned with himself about this, but found only one thing ticking in his mind and it was his old self. He shook his thick neck because he knew that Aylin and Cyrus would never be like him. He knew that his innocent sun child would not become a vicious warlord. He knew that his beautiful daughter would never become a victim of circumstance, she could easily hold herself, even now. He knew Evangeline must have thought this way too. Dino couldn't help but assume.

Through all of this heavy moisture, Validino found something else hiding in the enveloping mists and absent moonlight, he found self-commitment dribbling over his skin, tracing like warm fingertips. The rain slid down his face and dripped from his whiskers. Entirely drenched in the rain was he drenched in himself. The stallion knew that the day had finally come to answer his questions.

[ Open ]

A Ghost appeared this night, a shadow of what she should be and ignorant to what she could be. She would be almost invisible through the fog if it wasn't for a flash of red feathers, a gift from her mother and late father. Exiled from the place she was birthed for an appearance she didn't quite care for. Both unicorn and pegasus but that didn't matter to the vacant filly, she never understood 'what' she actually was. Just a Ghost, who now watched the cherry steed with confusion.

The rain pelted down from the sky and ran in rivulets down her dainty face, the filly did not know what rain was either. It soaked into her rough baby fur and made the wings she carried heavy. Although the girl never saw it as just water. To Ghost, it was the sky weeping but she had yet to figure out why it was so sad. Like this stallion in front of her, why did he weep like the sky? There were no tears on his face, just the skies own tears yet he looked so distant. Her mother had always said that emotion was weakness and her daughter should know nothing of it.

The little Ghost edged out towards the horned steed, whose appearance was marred by the fog and rain. Just like her obsidian pelt as she stopped and looked at him. Unaware that she was on another herd's territory. The barriers of the land were nothing to this mere sapling, too young to know diplomacy or even understand the consequences. No, Ghost came here because she had wanted to go home. But as she had reached the border to the Worlds Edge the filly had stopped. An invisible barrier blocked her from that place, it wasn't physical but she knew its presence. Ghost could not go back without consent. Instead, she had turned back on herself and wandered aimlessly until finding herself here. Standing in front of this unicorn.

She had no words for him just the need to look closer, not satisfied in watching him from a distance. No anxiety was felt nor was there excitement. Just a soul who wanted to know why the stallion looked so sad.

Morning was something that slid over Loorien unnoticed. Mornings usually started with hot streaks of molten orange and pink but on this day the sky was unresponsive. It was simply scratched dark and delirious by slate pencils or by some sort of magic that sucked the color from everything. The sky did lighten, but with such subtlety that the world was only more blue. His electric eyes drank in the cool morning and his brain interpreted the day to be extra. He'd wished for a day of forgiveness long ago, and it seemed that this day was for him. He knew what he would do, and it seemed instinct to him.

Out in the veiling downpour his bright eyes caught a flicker of red, red like crimson. There was a black hole in the night where he saw the flicker and one name raced through his head. "Paladin," his dark legs moved closer and the red flash ran across his eyes again. "my brother!" He remembered the first days of Anarore and how they pulled such emotion out of the world for redemption and how the Valiant was there to create it all. 'And how I betrayed him...' He thought surely Paladin could forgive him for running off to be with the one he loved most for even he had a love and a multitude of children to care for.

But as Validino neared briskly, his eyes did not see the the tall, muscular hide of Paladin. He saw a child, balled up in the night's rain, thick pelt absorbing all of the water it could. This child was shocked to the bone, dull and nearly malnourished. His head craned and his legs stopped. This child smelt of loneliness and rain. She was young - three months at the most and without a guardian. Her wings looked to case her body from the chilly morning and the rain just ate through the warmth of her coat. A gasp formed in the steed's throat. "What are you doing out here all alone, child?" He claimed her now as a child of his own. His uselessly neared her with his long neck, an attempt to shield off some of the frigid downpour. She was already soaked. Validino knew with his all that if his children were out at this hour he'd be most grateful for someone to find them. "Where are your parents? Do they know you're out?" He let himself lecture. "You could be killed so easily all alone!" He sounded like Evangeline.