It certainly hadn’t gone unnoticed that someone else was working on the garden with her. Secretly, it would seem, because Alysanne had never actually seen who it was. She suspected a few - such as the curious Roskuld - or maybe even Tilney and after waking up a few mornings and noticing a difference she decided to forgo sleeping in her usual spot to wait by the garden and see who it was. She was rather proud of her attempt at being stealth as she found a spot among the underbrush of the forest just near the clearing where the garden existed. Luckily the lush Birdsong growth provided enough foliage to hide even her stark white coat and the approaching storm provided further cover.

Hemlock wasn’t a big fan of the lightning and he huddled amongst Alysanne’s feathers on her folded wings - pretending to sleep through it though they both knew better.

She missed Evangeline’s arrival in the darkness and it wasn’t until a flash of lightning illuminated the area that she saw that unmistakable chestnut coat and her heart leapt.

Moving slowly - the wound her wings carefully concealed on her left thigh still hurt with every step - she abandoned her cover and approached the garden.

“Evangeline.” The name came out in a soft whisper but already the smile was forming on her face, bright and genuine - practically sunny in the middle of this storm. She couldn’t believe she was seeing her after so long. She thanked her good luck that had brought her to the garden tonight, that they finally crossed paths, and she hurried forward to greet her friend with an extended muzzle. “I was wondering who was secretly helping me with the garden!” She couldn’t believe it had been Eva all this time, and she hadn’t even known! But why the secrecy?

“Hello Tallis.” She greeted the dragon with a warm smile before looking back to Eva. “My dear friend, where have you been? I've missed you.”

It was so wonderful to see Evangeline again, Alysanne could already feel some weight lifting off of her heart. She laughed with delight as Tallis landed gently upon her back, giving the dragon a fond smile before turning her attention back to Eva.

Hemlock hooted with his own delight upon being discovered in his bed of feathers. Tallis was, after all, the only dragon that he had ever been able to stand for more than 5 seconds. Far more preferable than that blue bastard that had bonded with Kahlua! He un-burrowed himself from Alysanne’s feathers further and chirped another greeting to his friend.

It was so good to see the little owl getting along with other companions lately! Aly found it hard to believe that when he was young he was such a miserable grump!

For his part, Hemlock did his best to make it known that he was ignoring such terribly rude comments through their bond.

“That was so thoughtful of you my dear! They are certainly handy to have around.” Green eyes moved momentarily to the plants, thinking about how she should have been doing the same thing. All of her fears about Tembovu’s magma-hot rage and not once did she think to stockpile herbs that may be able to help. But that was why they were a team, her and Evangeline - maybe they were destined to always remember what the other forgot.

“Please, do not feel guilty about your absence. I can hardly blame you for wanting to stay away. Will you come back now?” Life had been so simple before that herb-gathering excursion had ended in disaster. She didn’t want to pressure Evangeline into deciding of course - and as much as Alysanne would miss her, she’d help her friend slip out unnoticed from the Edge if that was her wish.

At the question of how she had been, Alysanne could only shrug (carefully at that, with a dragon and an owl on her back). “Oh, I’ve been alright. I think it’s safe to say neither of us are our King’s favoured healer - he promoted Tilney to our rank at the last herd meeting.” Although there was annoyance in Alysanne’s voice, it was not directed at the antlered stallion personally. She still felt slighted over the idea that she and Eva had not been enough, that Tembovu felt it in his right to promote their healers without discussing it before hand. “I’ve gotten in a few shouting matches with Tembovu lately… I don’t trust him.”

“Oh no, no one has been replaced.” Not yet, anyway. Alysanne was still expecting someone else to be promoted to Moon Doctor in her stead - someone pre-approved by the arrogant Elephant King. She did crack a smile at Eva’s scoff about the Tembovu being her favourite king.  “And there were no issues while you were gone. A couple hard births for some of the mares - some very young mares becoming mothers - but it was nothing I couldn’t handle.” She smile reassuringly to her friend. As much as she would have loved Evangeline’s presence here in the Edge, she understood her reasons for being scarce.

Another small smirk appeared at the comment about Aly being more favoured than she thought since she had not been burned. “I think he wanted to. He got in my face and I snapped at him to keep him back, which only encouraged him to snap back and… oh Eva I was scared of him.” She remembered the rising panic, how it threatened to choke her. She had spoke to him with venom but he had reacted with fire until she was sure they would both burn.

Explaining their fights came out in a low voice, quick and filled to the brim with all of the emotions she had felt on those days - anger, fear, sadness. “I honestly don’t even remember what the first fight was about. He was injured - burns from his display in the Deep Forest - and I wanted to heal him,” Want wasn’t quite the right word, and she was sure Evangeline knew that. But it was their job and, however much Alysanne disliked Tembovu she would never refuse him healing. “But he refused until I healed a little scratch on my wing joint. I couldn’t heal myself, though, because I’m on a quest for the Moon Goddess so I got angry that he was making demands about how I do my job. I think we got in argument about how I didn’t like him but would heal him anyway? I don’t think he’s spent a lot of time around healers before.” Aly shook her dark head in a dismissive fashion, not having hands to wave the situation away. It sounded a little lame now that she was thinking back on it, but it was fresh after finding Mauja burned in the forest and all of her fears about Tembovu setting fire to the Edge were new and frightening.

“The second time, though, he thought I was being insubordinate because I wasn’t thrilled that he was promoting healers without telling me and he cornered me after the meeting. I barely even rolled my eyes, it’s not like I said something at the meeting.” As if Alysanne would do that. “He thinks that the Edge being prosperous is all his own doing, did you know that? Apparently Tembovu is the only one pulling their weight around the place. I don't know about you, but I've never felt so appreciated.”