His concern for this near-stranger was genuine, so deep did her distress seem to go that he could not help but feel it himself and wish that he could do something to lessen it, if not completely take it away. She just seemed so sad. Mesec smiled encouragingly when she took him up on his offer to walk and talk, and they fell into an easy pace together. No need to run for either of them, not yet.
She began by stating that she was new here, and catching her glance he shrugged. They had newcomers from everywhere immigrate to Helovia practically every day, it was more of a surprise to find someone that had actually been born here. He supposed that Helovians were a little more used to the uprisings that seemed to come with every season - if it wasn’t a war, it was a terrible plague or a shifting of the continent, or a murderer possessed by a deity on the loose. Perhaps they should all run, far away from these lands, to somewhere that had a greater chance at peace.
Though he had offered to hear her story, he would not have been surprised if she declined - they had only just met, and they could have spoken of other things - but the words came tumbling out. They spun a tragic story, right from the very beginning, and offered such clarity to her desire to flee that Mesec was almost sorry that he had stopped her. “I’m so sorry that you had to come here during that time. The Falls usually was a more peaceful herd, I lived there for a time in my youth.” Sort of, anyway - he would not recognize the topography now, not since it had shifted and crumbled. “Don’t… beat yourself up about leaving, Najya. You had come to Helovia after great turmoil - only to find that what was supposed to be a sanctuary was not.” He did not want to tell her that it was out of the normal, that Helovia really was a great place to live and she would be happy here. What if he told her that and tomorrow something terrible happened? “It’s not always a peaceful place, where you have come, I won’t lie to you about that. But battles are rare… and it’s okay to run from them. The invasion in the Falls was not your fight. I am sure they understand that as well.” He did not know who had brought her back there but surely they would not have if they had known what was coming.
The topic turned to him and he almost missed his next step, silver eyes flashing to hers as he tried to figure out how they arrived here. “My story?” Mesec couldn’t help but smile, though it turned sour as he thought back. “I don’t think you’d like my story very much, Najya. It’s not a good… Helovia is better than the story I have lived in it, and I would hate to further ruin this land for you.” Sour smile turned sad there before he shook it off and forced it to be bright once more. He would not bring more shadows to this day, not more than he already did at any rate. “Besides, if I scare you off then you might not want to begin again - and I was even going to invite you back to my home.” Though it started off as a joke, his tone light and teasing, he realized that maybe, after she had just run away from one herd in Helovia, this might not be the time to be encouraging her to give another one a shot.
But he had already started… “Which, um, you’d be welcome to if you wanted - it’s safe, really actually safe. It’s an island now, but you can enter either by swimming or over a magical bridge.” Was this helping at all? Mesec shifted his wings uncomfortably, earning a sharp chirp from the little zephyr hidden there, before trying again. “I’m from Dragon’s Throat, a land to the south, and it’s been my sanctuary for the last few seasons. At least until you make up your mind about Helovia, it is a well-guarded place and would be safer for you to rest there than anywhere else.”
.svg/2000px-Google_Chrome_icon_(2011).svg.png){kind=icon}
