i am a leaf on the wind

She probably wouldn’t have stopped here, if the form on the ground hadn’t been so familiar. Not because she disliked the meadow for any particular reason, but rather, because she’s never actually felt the urge to explore around here. In fact, Lyanna hasn’t actually stepped hoof in the Thistle Meadow, though she’s heard of it, flown over it enough. If she’s being really honest, most of her experience with Helovia has been from the sky.

She soars over the land, close enough to see what’s going on below her, far enough away to wallow in her own self-pity. As soon as her feet touch the ground, she’s back to pretending otherwise, back to pretending she’s perfectly fine. Trying not so much to fool others as herself. But here’s the rub in that plan. She’s not fine. How is she supposed to be fine? Her family was murdered, her life was ripped away from her, and she can’t even find one horse in this godforsaken place to call a friend.

No, Lyanna. Knock it off. This place is far from that terrible. Most of the horses seemed kind enough, Ichab was a cute little thing and something of a friend. Apollo. She didn’t know if she’d see him again, but there was always that hope. Good things, Lyanna. They exist.

When the black and white form of Alysanne comes into view, she’s actually glad. She needs a distraction, needs to get out of her own head. It’s a spiral in there, and she’s very good at ignoring it just so long as she keeps busy. So keep busy. Lyanna lands not all that far away, tucking her wings to her side and pausing for a moment as Alysanne moves into a trot, and then a canter.

Lyanna had just missed the half-spoken conversation between Aly and Hemlock, not that that would have explained anything if she’d heard it. She waits a moment longer before rather purposefully nickering a greeting, trying not to be a creepy little spy sitting off in the corner. Not that she was hiding in the middle of a meadow, but still. “Aly!” she calls, friendly as always and with a smile on her face. A smile in greeting, not a laugh at the mare’s antics. Is she trying to fly?

Lyanna takes a few more steps forward and then stops again, tilting her head just slightly. “I hope you don’t mind my asking, but are you trying to fly?” She would have assumed that Alysanne knew how. She assumed anyone with wings knew how to fly. It’s an amazing thing, soaring above everyone else, the wind in her hair and beneath her wings. But then again, Lyanna used to call that wind to her like a friend. Now, flying was the closet she could get to being herself.  

watch how i soar.

lyanna

i am a leaf on the wind

Alysanne comes skidding to a halt, her greeting high pitched, and Lyanna’s quickly thinking she’s just managed to be in the way again. Not that she knows for sure, but it seems highly likely Alysanne wasn’t looking for company, and probably definitely not from Lyanna. But too late now. She’s here. Like always, she here, in the wrong spot at the wrong time.
 
She’s actually quite thankfully for the owl’s hoot above their heads. It gives her a moment to look up and smile, banishing the more unwanted thoughts, before turning her attention back to Aly. Her smile is easy, and though Alysanne may be embrassed, Lyanna really doesn’t see the need to be. There’s always something to learn, and though Lyanna wouldn’t have guessed that flying was something an older Pegasus needed to learn, in the end, it only mattered that she was trying to learn.
 
And for once, in a very rare turn of events in Helovia, Lyanna can actually be useful. She can’t tell someone much about the different lands (only what they look like from the sky), and she can’t tell someone which herbs can be found where, or who most of the population of the Edge (let alone Helovia) even is. But she can fly. She can teach someone else to fly.
 
“It comes back as easily as breathing,” she says with a reassuring smiling. Not that she’s ever experienced what Aly is going through (her only loss was the ability to control the wind beneath her wings, quite literally). But they were both born to fly, just as they were born to walk and run and live. “No, not embarrassing. But I think you’ve been wasting a lot of time talking.” She chuckles slightly, before angling herself so she’s facing slightly away from Aly. Enough that she has a clear place to take off, and not so much that she turns her back.
 
“Think up, more than forward.” She offers, extending her teal and white wings and letting them stretch from her sides. She takes a few trot steps forward before moving into a canter. And then, there’s still only a few more steps before she jumps, aiming over some invisible barrier in front of her. It’s only then that her wings move, a powerful sweep downward that pushes her from the ground. A few more, and she’s several feet in the air, dipping and turning around to face Alysanne. Waiting to see if her friend (the closest thing she has to a friend here, anyway, and there’s so little she knows of the other black and white mare) would join here. 

watch how i soar.

lyanna

i am a leaf on the wind

Lyanna grins as Hemlock joins her, hooting in the air. It must be exciting for him, she thinks, to be able to fly with his bonded. He seems to enjoy the air in the same way Lyanna does, and she can only imagine that he wants to share that joy. Particularly given the bond between them – what joy that would be when experienced two-fold. She can only imagine, and she can of course only speculate, but she grins at the owl anyway. After all, she always enjoys company when flying.

Lyanna laughs – a bell-like sound filled with delight – at the whinny that escape Aly’s lips as she takes the air. She’d clap, if she could, but instead she gives an excited little whoop! sound. It doesn’t last long, but that doesn’t matter. It was a start. After all, it had taken Lyanna some time to master flying as well, and she’d had the power of the wind at her back. Though, at the time, she’d been rather inept at controlling the wind then too.
 
It’d been rather disastrous, honestly, those first couple of flights. She’d blown down a handful of trees, sent herself careening into another tree (broke a branch off the tree and one of her ribs), and sent more than a handful of horses fleeing. Possibly, she should have learned to control the wind separately from learning to fly, but her tutors decided to just throw her straight into it. She learned, and pretty quickly, after that broken rib.
 
She smiles, coming back to the present, as Aly speaks. “Nope, seems you aren’t.” The other mare continues, mentioning lands. Lyanna nods, a sort of ‘I’ll be back’ nod, and then takes off a little higher in the sky, putting some space between her and Aly before looping back toward her. “Legs down, wings up as you come in,” she says, loud enough for Aly to hear. She lets her legs hang some, using the drag created to slow herself down. She angles her wings up, creating more drag to slow herself down while still keeping herself in the air.
 
As she comes closer to the ground, she tucks her legs again slightly, tipping the front of her wings up slightly so she finally drops the last distance to the ground. “Right before you land, bend your knees to absorb the shock, and tip the front of your wings up so the air stops flowing.” She tips her weight back just a bit, rear feet hitting just a second before her front feet touch down as well. She flaps her wings just slightly, taking a step forward to steady herself, before tucking her wings back to her side. “It helps to practice when you have some runway room, so you figure out the timing.”
 
She takes a few more steps forward, wings at her side now, closing the remaining distance between herself and Aly. “Cantering makes it a easier, so if I can, I usually do. But as you get more comfortable, it’s not entirely necessary. Maybe just a step or two, or a really good jump.” She didn’t even need that once. It was strange, when she first came here, learning to fly without the power of the wind. But it’d come somewhat easily, at least. Still, she used to just call the wind and it would pick her right up. It had been such an amazing feeling. One she’d always miss.
 
Aly tries again, and Lyanna stays on the ground watching time time. The other mare stays in the air a bit longer, and Lyanna grins, glad to see how quickly her friend is progressing. And glad, in truth, that she’d actually done some useful around here. Flying was one of the few things she could still do. “You’ll be soaring around here in no time!” 

watch how i soar.

lyanna

i am a leaf on the wind

Alysanne seems happier than she had when Lyanna first stumbled into this impromptu flying lesson. She’s glad for it, as well. And glad she happened to find Aly here. Because in truth, starting over was a lonely thing. When she’d first set off in Helovia, she’d assumed Adelene would follow. Perhaps not to the Edge, or even into a herd. But somewhere in Helovia. They’d entered the Threshold together, after all, but Adelene disappeared after that. 
 
Perhaps Lyanna should have stayed with her little sister, gone to live wherever Adelene had chosen. But she’d wanted to give her sister a chance to pick her own life, to live without Lyanna constantly hovering over her. But was it Lyanna’s fault now that Adelene had gone? Would her sister have been better able to cope if Lyanna stayed?
 
She tried not to think about those questions, but of course, they always snuck in. She tried not to think about a lot of things, but like a thief in the night, the thoughts came anyway.
 
But now, with Alysanne smiling beside her, offering information about her life so casually, Lyanna can almost believe she might have friends here. Might have a life here. Alysanne is the closest thing she’s got, at this point. But perhaps, after this, they would actually be friends. Partners in crime, at any rate. Not that learning to fly is a crime, but it’s secretive, and that seems like a close enough parallel.
 
“Well, I had some extra help when I learned to fly. I used to be able to control the wind. It makes it easier to learn, and easier to look graceful. Also, there was no way my brother would ever let me skip a lesson in anything. So there was also that.” She chuckles slightly, thinking of Corbin, finding the memory sad but not as painful as it so often is. “But practice makes perfect.” Because eventually, if Alysanne flew enough, she’d look as natural in the sky as Lyanna felt. But then again, the sky has always been home to the tri-colored mare. And it always would be.
 
It’s all she has left, really.
 
“Well, learning about plants and trees seems to have benefitted you well. But now we’ll teach you to fly so you don’t have to swim to the isles to collect said plants.” She says with a chuckle, remembering a rather wet Tilney from their brief journey there. Wings were handy, after all.
 
Alysanne takes to the sky again, and Lyanna watches, letting the other mare figure it out for herself mostly. Sometimes, talking only helps so much. It’s also just a feeling. A beautiful, free, impossible feeling with the wind in your hair and beneath your wings. Horse’s weren’t meant to fly, probably, and yet here they were. Born with wings and all. Lyanna takes off after Alysanne is above the trees, coming to join her friend before tipping her wings slightly, veering to the right. Another powerful pump and she jumps up in the sky a bit more, switching her wings and veering to the left now.
 
“Just let the feeling of the wind guide you. There’s some level of instinct to it, I think. You just kind of figure it out.” She slows, leveling herself and hovering not too far from Aly, but far enough to give the mare space to move. 

watch how i soar.

lyanna

i am a leaf on the wind

It was good that Corbin had gotten her to stick with things. Everything. He never gave up on her. Frustrated and annoyed, certainly, but never gave up. What would life had been like if he’d lived? Even if they’d been forced from Morham, what if he had come to Helovia too? The thought brings a quiet smile to her face, before she realizes she should probably get out of her head and actually reply to Aly. “Well, he could have lit my ass on fire, so I wasn’t every going to just slip away,” she says with a chuckle. Not that he ever would have. She was not immune to fire as he was. But he definitely would have singed a few hairs to get her attention.

She could have tried flying away, and he would have found her with that damn fire anywhere (also, you know, he could have just followed her). Granted, she typically could put it out, but it took a hell of a lot of wind and energy to actually put the fires out and not just make them stronger. So she tried to avoid situations where she actually had to put the fire out. With her luck, she’d probably end up turning a tiny singed hair into a second-degree burn.

Alysanne laughs at Lyanna’s next comment, though doesn’t say anything more until she asks how to get down. Down. Down is the part she hates, really. She’d rather stay in the sky. It was a good way to miss things, certainly, but it was also a good way to find things. Lyanna often stuck close to the ground, using the speed of flying in conjunction with the proximity to earth to learn the lands, to find her own specific someone.

That find, may have just been luck. But still, she could have been halfway to heaven, and she wouldn’t have missed that familiar blue horn.

“Not to fall,” she says with a cheeky little grin. And then, more usefully. “You want to slow, and ultimately break the airflow. Your legs create drag, though tuck them closer to your body when you are near the ground, and try to land softly. Wings raised some to keep yourself from plummeting, and then, when you are ready to drop, tip them up just in the front to break the airflow.” She demonstrates, angling down toward the ground, trying to make the movements large and deliberate so they are easier to actually see. The movements don’t need to actually be so large, but it’s always easier to learn with them too big, and adjust later.

She hits the dirt with a soft thump, knees bending to absorb the shock, wings tucking back to her sides almost instinctively. She moves a bit out of the way, and then expectantly waits for Aly to give it a shot.

watch how i soar.

lyanna