Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.

The full moon was high in the sky, it lit up the forest in a brilliant display of the true power it held. There was not much her eyes could not see in this light however the colours were dull. The doe's crowned head was tilted back, golden orbs glittered as they studied slightly obscured the moon, her thoughts on if souls really were good or bad. Arah herself would mostly be considered as a decent soul; she cared, was kind, thoughtful and loyal. When it came to her family she would do anything to defend them. All of her morals she held in high regard, aiming to never let herself down.
The doe believed that same things as others; blatant cruelty was inexcusable, blaming children for mistakes of their parents was wrong and you should always treat others how you wished to be treated...the usual.

Yet there was always her bad days, days where small things like others repeating the same damn mistakes made Arah want to rip her hair out. The days when she was snarly, vicious with her words even, those times when her patience had run out and the doe was prepared to lie, deceive and flee just to be left alone.
Perhaps everyone had light and dark inside them but it was your choices that ruled you as virtuous or evil. Most days Arah didn't believe she fell into either category.

A quiet sigh fell from her lips as Arah returned her gaze to the forest around her. The trees and bushes rustled in the gentle breeze, her own stray hairs danced across her nose before settling draped just below her eyes. She had only been to the Deep Forest a few times, yet this forest held a special meaning for her. Here was where the rook had revealed himself to her, showing her that with riddles and one very innocent box you could change someone's life. Mind control was gifted to her and now, whenever she willed it, anyone would fall under her control. Not exactly an ability that decent people would chose to have. Chuckling bitterly she closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath before she opened them again.

Wynter swooped down to land beside her, excitedly the griffin clicked her break before taking off again. Frowning slightly the doe followed her companion's lead. Ducking under branches so she did not become tangled up in them, her hurried footsteps cracked twigs and crunched leaves. Finally she emerged in a small opening. The trees around her formed an almost perfect circle, while the moon beamed down upon her pale ivory form. Wynter flew around the circle in delight and it wasn't long before Arah was laughing. Moving to stand in the centre of the opening, the doe grinned at Wynter before once again tipping her head backwards to gaze at the moon. A smile still danced along her chops as she watched the moon glowing. "Tá sé go hálainn." As the moon lovingly gazed back down at her, Arah found herself thinking of an old nursery rhyme her mother would sing to her. Perhaps when she returned to The Basin she would sing it to her girls.

As she continued to watch the moon Arah decided on only one thing. It did not matter what the categories where. She was an individual.

After all, the moon would not shine so bright if it was not surrounded by complete darkness.

He had fled.

From the misted woods and cavernous springs, he had escaped. The borders had vanished beneath him, miles eaten up with every beat of his wings. Days and nights that bled together, punctuated only by the times when he was grounded with the necessity of sleep hounding his heels. Hours spent bleary eyed and staggering in the skies, only to crash carelessly to the earth on aching knees, stumbling to the nearest spot and collapsing into an exhausted slumber. There was nowhere to go, nowhere to run to for more than a few fortnights. Archibald and Kahlua could handle the Edge for that long. They were his safety net, in the political sense, for Kahlua had done nothing but ruin what was left of his little world of peace.

The forest greeted him like an old friend, for what little he'd seen of the place. Dark, comforting in its vastness, insidious but in an inviting manner. He sank into its shadows like a drowning man, awash on a distant shore. Hours spent beneath its boughs, a canopy of understanding. Silence and comfort. He didn't owe anyone anything, not in a nameless part of a shadowed forest, the moon his only guiding light. And that, too, was bathed in the blood of the innocents she had slaughtered beneath the guise of Gaucho's skin. Was nowhere safe? Was he doomed to the corners of his mind forever, trapped in a steel cage of despair and desperation? He had to get his family out. But how?

"Tá sé go hálainn."

A soft voice cut through the cloud of his mind, sharp and clear, but gentle in its deliverance. Kaj paused midstep, turning with pricked ears towards the source. For a moment he considered turning and running, away from the company it presented. Yet, he recalled Azaneen in that moment. If he had run from her then, would she still be safe, still be alive? He couldn't walk away, not with that memory so fresh in his mind. Even though the memory of Kahlua's betrayal was fresher, it did nothing to impede his progress, slow and deliberate though it was, towards the unknown speaker.

Shouldering a low-hanging evergreen branch aside, summer sky eyes fell upon a maiden staring up at the moon, illuminated by the light that shone deep into her pores and came back out in threads of silver and ivory. She was beautiful, but he couldn't allow himself to think that. Not when his heart was too weak, too shredded, to survive yet another failure incited by his own shortcomings. Yet she drew him in nonetheless, with a winged companion and wistful eyes.

A soft nicker hoped to draw her from her musings.

Stepping closer from the brush, the beast ensured she retained her space. Perhaps she was in a better mood than he, but if not, he didn't want to be chased off by those branched antlers.

"Allo, m'lady. May I join you?" Though he attempted to make his voice firmer, it was clear that he was weak, pitiful. Seeking the company of another, yet desiring in equal turn eternal solitude for the foreseeable future. Perhaps she could pull him back from such a brink, were she kindly enough to care.

Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.

His nicker startles her; a gasps sound from her lips and Wynter screams at her mistress' sudden shock. Whipping her head around to stare at the new comer, she takes a few steps back. When her heart finally calms, after he steps through the brush, her breath catches for a moment. Sadness seems to cling to his coat, decorating him in broken shards of hope, love and memories. Perhaps it's his eyes, the way they are watching her, the fae princess feels as if she can see the sadness pooling in their depths. Her own golden orbs are bright and full of love and laughter, she can see his pain. In this very moment she knows, Arah is here for him.The doe turns to face him directly, caution decorating her pretty face. Clearly he is strong, muscles ripple over his lightly shaded buckskin coat, his magnificent form demands the light. Her golden eyes wonder over his body, watching how the buckskin colour bleeds into a much darker brown which sports the top of his wings before the feathers blend into a white tinted gold colour. His bleached hair tumbles down, lightly coloured locks that gives her own mane a run for it's money.

Asking if he could join her causes a sad smile to lit up her chops. It is strange to hear weakness in the voice of one with such a powerful presence. Having been at rock bottom herself Arah takes a single step closer, compassion and the desire to reach out to him taking over completely. "Of course. Please." Her voice drifts over as light as the wind, inviting, calm and caring. Tilting her head to the side Arah studies him for one last moment before politely diverting her eyes. Now she turns to watch Wynter gliding; her bonded is clearly weary of the stag. Torn between wanting to protect her mistress and keep out of the way it is only until the doe's gentle command through the bond that the griffin finds a resting place. 'Réiteach.' Wynter lands on a branch high up in the closet tree, staring down at the newcomer with distrustful eyes.

Shaking her head the doe turns back to the stalling, her golden eyes alight with curiosity, yet she will not press him to bear his pains to her. If he wishes to speak she will listen, if it is only company he seeks Arah will happily stay by his side for as long as he needs. "I am Arah and that's Wynter." Wanting to reach out and offer him comfort she yearns to close any space that may be between them, yet she does not. While she does trust that this is not all an act to gain her trust, the fae princess does not wish to scare him off. Swishing her tail, Arah pauses for a moment and then tilts her head back to stare at the moon. A brighter smile curves her chops, it was the darkness of light that tended to scare others. The fear of the unknown, what was lurking, what can't they see? But it was the morning's glow breaking over the horizons that calmed them, showed them the brighter side of things. That's what Arah wanted to be.

She wanted to be the light of dawn.

Ashamed to have frightened the gentle maiden, Kaj's eyes dropped from her visage to the earth beneath his hooves, shoulders tense with the sound of her griffin's scream. His mane was still cropped short, a reminder of Valiance's attempt to blind and disfigure him. A lingering instinct, one that made him tense and tremble beneath her companion, magic lingering beneath the surface of his skin in a panic. When nothing comes, he tentatively lifted his eyes, shoulders still hunched defensively with the memory of fire and pain. Still, all he found were gentle golden coins that gazed back at him, full of a kindness and gentleness he had not experienced in far too long. Kaj was a creature of touch and tenderness, kinship and love. It radiated out to him like a warm embrace to a streetrat orphan. Tentatively he stepped closer, wondering if her light was strong enough to withstand the force of his taint. Few had, after all.

Her smile is sad, too sad for her pretty face, a contrast to her joyous countenance before he'd so cruelly intruded. It was testament to the powers of his own disruption, destruction. Clearly it was already in effect, spreading out to latch onto her, prepared to drain her and leave him dealing with her corpse. His heart was weary, Kaj did not believe he could survive that another time.

Yet she beckoned him forth regardless. Not merely an allowance, but a plea. It was odd to him, that she would want him near, with the state he was in. A broken man at the feet of a saintly goddess, afraid to touch even the hem of her robes for sake of staining it with his soiled hands. But he was a desperate, broken man. A weak man. And so he yielded to her beckoning, falling into her light with a sort of fumbled relief that betrayed his shattered state.

Eyes flicker between her and the ground, not daring to gaze more than once upon the narrowed eyes of her bonded for fear it would bring his magic surging up to hurt her accidentally. Or worse, cause him to flee, the coward that he is.

Her name is bestowed upon him, and he cradles it like something precious, priceless, in his calloused hands. "My name is Kaj," he offered quietly, wincing when he realized that it would be painfully obvious who he was the moment his name was mentioned. Herd lead names were known far and wide, and though he cared not for what she thought of him, it was his herd that he feared for. But he was so weary of being fearful, of being careful, that he did not care to sustain the emotion for long. Instead, he moved closer.

He remained silent, merely watching her gaze up into the moonlight for a long while before any words deigned to fit a pattern on his lips. Was this his confessional? "My heart is weary, miss Arah," he began, turning to gaze out at the betrayer in the sky. "I have lost my sister too young, forced beneath a mask of quiet control by my father. And when I came here, when I saw how this land flourished in their excitability, in their raw emotion..." there is something akin to awe in his voice for a moment. For Helovians never did anything in halves. It was something Kaj respected as equally as he feared.

"I fell in love. I killed to protect her, without a second thought. I served her faithfully, even more when we were promoted to lead together. I took upon myself her burdens, for she wanted freedom, not the chain of leadership." Was he revealing too much? Ah, but perhaps it was best to suffer the consequences than hold all if it within him. Who else could he turn to? He had lost them all. Quilyan, Destrier, Ink. Evangeline, especially. Who else could he seek to cry upon their shoulder? He was alone, lost at sea on the endless waters of his own sorrow.

"I loved her without boundaries, without qualm or question. And when the day was done, she took all I had ever given her and shattered it at her feet." Agony was raw in his voice, but he spoke it so simply that it had to be obvious to Arah that he had reached an odd state of numbness. "So I turned to another. A stronger soul, beautiful, like fire and ice waging in a singular form. But she left me, too, for a stag I held dear." A weak smile lifted at his lips, pathetic.

"It continues on and on...I give and give, and they take. Until there is nothing left of me." Cold, fractured irises turned to gaze upon Arah's face. "I suppose this isn't what you were expecting, or you would have never invited me to stand with you," Kaj chuckled bitterly. "I tend to speak too much, too freely, when I am at the edge..." the edge of what he would not say. He did not want to frighten her, nor force her pity. He was an empty shell with a thousand words bound up in his chest. It was simply her own bad luck that he had been drawn to her.

Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.

Kaj, she knew that name. That name, it was locked away in the back of her memories, it had been mentioned perhaps by her leaders. The King of The Edge was currently speaking with her. Golden orbs grew a little wider, perhaps he would take this as a sign that she had indeed knew exactly who he was. Not that this changed anything, their herds were and peace and she held no personal grudge against him or his family. She figured a little too late that she probably should not have given him even this slight indication of her knowledge for fear of pushing him away. Instead, he moved closer. Relief flooded her.

He remained silent, though she could feel his eyes on her as she had returned to gazing up into the moonlight. Under his eyes she felt more...alive, it had been so long since she felt the keen sting of someone else's warmth. At this point his intentions still remained unknown to her and the one thing he truly wanted was to share her warmth on this night. Yet as he spun his words to her it quickly became apparent that he had many things and perhaps nothing on his mind all at once. The tale begins, a lost sister- Arah who had lost her own knew much of this pain but for the moment remained silents sensing his need to unburden his soul. Controlled by a father and of course the hope one felt when they finally came to this land and saw the beauty, the promise and the magic. She can hear awe in his tones as the king speaks. Indeed it is a story she knew well, so similar to her own. Arah understood. A sad smile now pulled at the corner of her lips, their positions had changed, now she watched him as he gazed into the distance.

Love. The blissful, unforgettable and irreplaceable feeling. Then if it's snatched away from you, or if it fades or if it's simply just lost all you're left with is the memories. They way they smiled, the way their voice sounded, how they laughed and their scent. Even the smaller details remain with you. But life continued around you and you just floated with the current until eventually it hurts a little less and you wake up. Continue on with your life and do your very best to lock away the painful memories about the other one, hoping that you'll lose the key and never have to look upon them again.

Arah could hear the absolute raw agony in his voice, yet his eyes and voice, they had reached a complete state of numbness. It seemed that he had just been pummelled over and over again. No one had stopped to think about Kaj and what he may or may not have done for them.

Selfish.
Love could just be selfish.

Finally her cold and empty eyes turn and look upon her. She simply stares back, her expression troubled and confused for him. Her lighter was lighter than his, although it was was to hear sadness laced within the sounds. "I used to think that love was the only thing someone needed to survive." Reaching over she gently nudged his shoulder with her nose. "I see now it's actually requited love that we need." Laughing again Arah sighs before thinking about everything he had just said, wondering how to make him feel somewhat better about the entire situation that he found himself. Wearing your heart on your sleeve was risky business and Kaj seemed to be a professional at this now. "I can promise you one thing, you won't fade away. Only love does." Such a formidable creature to behold it was hard to see him struggling so badly. "You've been mistreated terribly, it seems to me you have two choices." Smiling Arah turned to stare as Kaj and make sure he understood everything she was about to tell him.

"Life is this unfortunate, painful and giant mess." Narrowing her eyes the doe's voice picked up as she looked over him. "But that's also the beauty of it!" Chuckling and rolling her eyes, the fae princess turns and looks out into the forest again. "You can either go home and speak to this lady love of yours and fight for her." Smiles and humour gone, Arah was deadly serious, her eyes set upon an unseen future that may be Kaj's. "Or." Golden orbs snapped back to Kaj's face. "Find some one new who returns the flame. Wear your heart on your sleeve." Leaning forward she presses into him again, gently, offering him support and her friendship. "You never know who you're going to meet." With that she pulls back to wink at him before turning her gaze towards the moon and stars once again.

"Beautiful night isn't it? Perfect for mending broken hearts."