Age had perhaps not made her wise, but it made her nostalgic in the worst of ways. The fields had been the horizon on which plenty of her life had changed. Her past was etched into the soft earth, the bedrock, and remained far longer than the flowers and grasses that had existed when she'd first been changed on its soil. Once upon a time chimed in her head, and she snorted inelegantly, casting away the fantastical words that would never be applied to her life. Whispers caressed her ankles as she climbed, muscles warm with use and breaths fogging in the brisk dawn hours. Nostalgia had clung to her heart like a leech, sucking her dry of her presence of mind until the pull of memories had dragged her halfway across the peninsula. Once upon a time...oh, and how it hurt to use those words, but once upon a time she had been strong. Regal. And yet she had risen so high just to fall equally as far. A useless nurse in a herd she no longer seemed to desire, with a heart too conflicted to navigate. Lakota had never bothered to learn the ways of acknowledging her own emotions, so to be fair it was not something she likely could have done anyways.

It seemed her life revolved around the golden days of the Grey, of the group that had given her life when she was bitter and dead in the gateway of a new world. Memories of a mare too young for the protectiveness Lakota had felt for her, too young to be a queen in the making. Friendship, magic, triumph...she had run until her heart had pulsed, had fought until her blood had boiled with adrenaline, had burned and burned and burned for her patchwork family. Had burned to live again. She was like a phoenix, and the Grey had set match to her, allowing her to be reborn. Repurposed. The Lakota of the past would have sneered to see the mare that climbed the hill that evening, to see how far she'd fallen, how much she'd lost. Yet Lakota had also gained so much, even if it had cost her the position she'd loved, the usefulness she'd once had. Her family had leaned on her once. Now it was she who faded into the mists, who was lost in a shadow she'd once helped them cast.

There was no expectation for what she had found. Whatever had led her to the peak had not merely pulled at her alone. Lakota had anticipated a lonely night on the peak with only her prince at her side, mourning the loss of the land that had once been hers. The only place she'd ever really called home, even after the seasons she'd spent in the World's Edge. The hulking form that met her tired violet gaze was not what she'd expected. A name choked in her throat, but the silence was too tender, too raw. The emotion that permeated the area was like smog, and she aided it with her own despair, her own loss and nostalgia.

Instead, she quietly made her way to the figure on the crest, Aodaun quiet and complacent at her side. He knew there was nothing he could possibly do to comfort her, not when her failures were lain quite plainly at her feet. His heat washes over her as she moves to stand at his side, dwarfed in comparison, but both with mountains upon their shoulders. Similar in nature. She stands beside him in silence for a long time, merely gazing down at the unfamiliar land at their hooves. For a moment, tongue prepared to speak, she doesn't know what to say. It comes quietly, like the morning does at their backs.

"I miss it." Simple. Yet her voice is weary, ancient. Almost hurting. She wants to lean against him, let him hold her up, hold her together. It wasn't fair of her to, however, and so she remained complacently where she was. "I miss the Grey. I miss Circe. I miss...I miss being useful, Archibald," she whispered, as if throughout the time it had taken her to speak the words she had been forced smaller and smaller. It was the only way she could speak and not break apart, a thousand pieces scattered on a foreign wind. Turning, she let her violet eyes fall to his frame, to his rugged features and somber eyes. "Was it worth it?" And his answer held her world, her peace. One word could make or break the illusion she'd created for herself. Lakota trusted him to show her the truth, to tell her that maybe they couldn't have changed anything. Maybe they were destined to fail, all those years ago.