Vespera picked her way carefully across the unfamiliar lands. Her quest had taken her far from the lands she called home...and yet, circumstances had done that long before her quest, she supposed. She had simply decided that she was done letting circumstances control her life and had attempted to seize that control for herself. Step one had been to attempt to track down her long lost brother, if he still lived.
All traces pointed towards his survival, however, and if she had made it out, then clearly he could have as well. And their parents...?
'One step at a time, Vespera,' she lectured herself, focusing on exactly that; placing one hoof in front of the other, continuously moving forward. There was nothing behind her now, only whatever lay ahead. If she paused to let her thoughts wander, she worried that despair would creep in, causing her to falter and fail in her quest. Find her brother. Then, together, they could figure out what was next.
She had questioned any friendly Soquili that she had come across on her travels. Had they seen a stallion about with markings like hers, though darker blues and purples than hers, and only one set of wings? Eyes like dark voids? It was a striking look, easy to remember. Either her question had been answered in the negative, that they hadn't seen him, or finally, recently, some remembered spotting him not long before. They had pointed her in this direction and she had felt her heart soar with hope. Then, they had added a warning to be careful, the stallion had seemed quite the grumpy sort, preferring to keep to his own company aside from a small fox familiar. Huh...her brother had never had a familiar before, but it had been some time. It had to still be him...right? Perhaps they were wrong about him keeping to himself. Perhaps he was just trying to avoid crowds. She would have understood that, given what happened...
She allowed herself wary hope as she kept going forward, always forward.
-----
The moon had risen high in the night sky and the hour was late. Astrophel had settled down for the night, one of his wings sheltering Tariq beneath where the little fox was nearly asleep already. The stallion was already working on new ideas, what to try next to--
His ears swiveled towards a soft sound in the darkness and his muscles tensed, instinctively setting his other senses on high alert as a response. However, as his eyes narrowed at the shape in the darkness...
"Ves...?!?" Was he actually asleep? Dreaming? He didn't think so. This certainly felt like he was still awake. Then, was this...real? "Is that...is that really you?"
Even though there was doubt in his tone, and it was deeper than she remembered, Vespera still recognized her brother's voice, even if it'd been seasons since she heard it last. Her vision blurred for a moment before she blinked it away, her heart soaring in her chest. "It's me, Fel," she laughed, though it sounded awkward with a hitch in her breathing as the emotions surged forwards that she'd been keeping bottled up for so long. Her brother was alive...she'd found him at last! She buried her face in his hair when he rushed to meet her, his familiar scent confirming that this was all very real and that she could finally relax. She wasn't alone anymore.
On the ground, Tariq yawned and stretched as he found himself abandoned to the cool night air. He watched the reunion with a slow growing smile, thinking to himself '
Huh...guess the doll was a pretty good likeness of her afterall...'
WC: 610***
[FIN]
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