The air was too thick; this mist was too heavy with chill. For some it might be refreshing and welcome, but for Laila, it was a lasting irritation that pulled her mood downward and threatened to turn the normally sweet and patient filly into a temperamental time-bomb. Curiously, whenever she felt her mood turn into something popping with heat, her hooves would respond—they would surge with prickling warmth, fluxuating with her own irritation. Instead of being a comfort to the mist-soaked filly, Laila found that this heat in her frogs was terribly painful, and normally it was hard for the acolyte to stifle a groan as she wandered about on sore heels. Why she hadn’t seen a healer about her dilemma, Laila hadn’t a clue; supposed it was her unwillingness for others to endure her foul mood? Perhaps it was the reason she had avoided her family lately?
Laila’s thoughts were halted as a call sounded—summons from her queen, the Lady Mirage. The guttural, throaty bugle was unfamiliar to Laila, but the meaning and source of it undeniable. A herd meeting? Laila wondered, angling her aimless trot towards the location of her Lady; she picked up the pace into a high-spirited canter, remembering the last, memorable, meeting she had attended. She was slightly more mature than before, yet Laila couldn’t help a little twinge in her breast that hoped that she wouldn’t see any other lost-and-found familiar faces at this meeting. She didn’t think her feet could take it.
Laila slowed her pace, her great brown eyes positively boggling at the sight of the great golden monolith that stood in the center of things. Somewhere in her short life, Laila had heard-tell that her Weyrleader was a shape-shifter; that Mirage had the ability to turn into a prodigious beast of scales and fire. She knew this, and yet Laila had never seen her Queen enter such a form….until this moment. She believed that this brazen beast was indeed Mirage, for why else would there be so much calm about the appearance of a great lizard? Had this been a stranger in their midst, the chaos would've been indescribable.
Spotting her Father, Laila made her way to his side, her face-splitting grin faltering somewhat as she caught sight of the glittering green scales of her father’s new familiar. She adored Suli, do not be mistaken—but the little green’s appearance was the embodiment of Laila’s aloofness from her own father. She had missed the poor little lady’s hatching—and Laila couldn’t rub off the lingering guilt she felt whenever she saw the green hide of the tiny hatchling. “Hello, Father,” she murmured in a carrying whisper, smiling up at him. “And hello to you too, Suli,” she added with a slight giggle. Mortified or not, Laila couldn't help but be charmed by her Father’s companion; the gangling creature was just too adorable sometimes.
Silencing herself, Laila’s gaze found her Golden Lady once more, and she listened to the words that fell from that powerful maw. The name “Qian” meant something to Laila—she remembered her mother instructing her about those troops for justice and equality, although at the time Laila had been too young to fully appreciate the meaning of their existence. Even now, confined as she was to the company of the Edge, Laila had a hard time imagining a world that was not full of peace and equality. How broken was the world in truth? Laila saw no damage.
As the trail of the announcements veered toward magic, Laila found herself floundering once more. In all honesty, Laila had never spent too much time worrying about magical whoopla; she met those with magic, but somehow she hadn’t been too enamored by it, being perfectly content with the beauty of her homeland and the love of her family to covet. With a nervous paw at the ground, Laila began to wonder if magic had anything to do with the problems in her feet. It was a thought, and even as the tingling in her hooves began to recede somewhat with her dying temper, Laila figured she should consult someone about it as soon as possible.
Laila continued to watch her Lady in silence, contemplating the choices she must make to end her quiet anguish.
LAILA
One Day, I Shall Live by the Code of Honor
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[P] Twilight || Compulsory Herd Meeting
