Iona let her eyes slide shut as the salty breeze rushed up over the cliffs.  She allowed her wings to relax at her sides, enjoying the feel of the wind playing with the soft, well-cared for feathers.  The salt burned in her nostrils and the smell of the sea was heavy in the air, but overall, Iona had adjusted to this new life quite well.  She could certainly see the attraction to the place and could understand why Alysanne had chosen to stay for so long.  Her eyes shapped open at the sound of clattering hooves on smooth rock. Of everything Iona had been expecting to see today, this had not made the list of possibilities.   A filly, clearly testing the limits of her downy white wings.  It was hard for Iona not to think of her own twins at the sight.  It felt like only yesterday she had taught them how to use their own wings.  But both were now grown and gone – off with their father in a realm barred to her.  An unpleasant twinge tore through her chest at the thought, but she quickly pushed it away.  She let out a hard sigh, frustrated at herself for tainting the afternoon with such thoughts. However, her attention was again captured by the girl who had become her company on the cliffside.

Her head whipped around in time to see a small mass of white feathers tumbling towards the edge of the world.  Iona's heart crawled from somewhere in her chest up to somewhere nearer to the back of her throat as said mass of white issued a sound of pure fear.  The painted mare's blood ran cold at the youthful sound. Before Iona could properly process what was happening, before she could even think to herself, Too close, too close!, the girl was hooves over head and close to heading over the sheer cliff .  Iona reacted instinctively, but not without a stream of profanity exploding from her lips, and leapt over the edge, diving to create speed before opening her wings and turning sharply to come up from beneath where the child was struggling.  If Iona could catch her and stop her forward momentum from this angle, maybe it would be enough to keep them both on the right side of the cliff. However, if the girl was already too far over the edge, Iona doubted she'd have the momentum to get them both back over the side.  Then they'd both risk meeting the rocks and the sea. At least with the breeze at her back she would have the added advantage on her side

Iona, who took pride in being the observant sister, mentally berated herself for not seeing the girl before she had come so close to getting to know the rocks at the base of the cliffs on a personal level. She could empathize, on some level, with the girl. Iona had taught herself to fly at an extremely young age which resulted in multitude of scrapes, cuts, and bruises. She hadn't, however, had any uncontrolled tumbles off the edge of a cliff.

If they survived this encounter, she made a vow to herself to ensure that this would be the girl's last tumble.  She just had to get the girl back on her feet first.  As Iona breached the cliff, she found to her great relief, that the girl hadn’t tumbled over the edge.  She spread her wings to slow her momentum, hovering just off the edge from where the girl had fallen.  “Are you alright?  You’re not hurt, are you?” she asked, the concern evident in her voice, as her heart rate slowly returned to normal.
 
Iona allowed the breeze to carry her back over solid ground and slowly found her footing once again.  She moved closer to the girl and tried to ascertain if she was alright, though that was Aly’s specialty – not hers, but knew that if anything the girl’s pride might be wounded.  “That was quite the tumble.  You need some help figuring out those wings of yours?”  Iona couldn’t help but offer.
 
“I’m Iona, by the way.  What’s your name?”