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Between the bristling forest and the murmuring stream, Astolat dithered on going forwards, the devil in her mind playing cruel tricks with conflict after conflict. The hapless girl fell prey to it time and time again, she had hesitated many times since being dumped on this strange land and each time she had closed her eyes, stumbling forwards despite every corner hiding something else and, sometimes, different. Her gaze was occasionally contended by a broken kind of misery that cracked the edges of her bright features, usually in times like this when she didn’t know where to go and couldn’t see a solution for the dread clouding her thoughts. Her troubles would often start with a suffocating panic that dulled into a constant stress; she helped herself by praying to the Dalianir Gods and singing old songs with cheerful meanings. If she could do these two things then Astolat could fight through the day. So it was with a slightly trembling voice, that she hummed the tune of an old legend of Lothrin—about a bard who fell in love with a sea fairy.

Lost so completely in the story, the soft-hued paint missed the moment when she was noticed by a deer and then, by a stallion. So lost that when he called she almost thought it was part of the tale she hummed and she was just hallucinating too vividly, but her ears swivelled to the call and the dawning of realisation crept up on the now silent Astolat. "What is he doing" her alarmed thoughts screeched as she turned her head to see his twisted horn and blaze marked face getting horrifyingly closer. Dismayed, she stumbled away from him, even as he offered his cheek in a manner that seemed polite, but also—so dangerous. If only he knew that she was a harbinger of calamity.

“Don’t come near me,” she told Ashamin the Clovenheart. Her voice, though usually quite musical, was flat and firm. As soon as she said the cold words she immediately wanted to apologise, her heart was kind, he too seemed kind, but Astolat could not bare it if she ruined another life by being careless enough to think her luck would be any different here. ”Sorry” she silently projected the thought at him, wishing she could press her sandy nose to his cheek and accept his welcome with something gentler—”blessed Lon, protect him”.

Helovia? Astolat mulled the name in her head, the name of the land she had taken a leaf from and drank from its water. She had never heard of such a place whilst living in Dalianir—she must truly be a long way from home. “Yes” she answered his question hesitantly, her voice was now lighter than before as she raised her gaze to try meet his dark one, it wavered now and then to view the two deer that accompanied him. “Am I intruding? It’s just I don’t really know where I’m going” now the musical tones rang through her speech as her heart rate recovered a little, as long as he kept his distance, she wouldn’t mind his company.

Their little conversation grew in members, however, and Astolat anxiously snapped her head to the new guy in the back. Grey, striped and dual horned he was interesting to look at, kept a very wise distance and offered welcoming words to which the hapless girl smiled at him with a nod of her head. “You too” she returned politely before going on to introduce herself to both stallions, the deer and whoever else was listening “I’m Astolat, please treat me well” she grinned.

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<33 yaaa sorry for the wait!