"Wings," Raymond, replied, and he knew with no elaboration from her that she would know exactly the child of which he spoke.
But he had no real interest in Cynix's fate for the time being. If he was not here, then he wasn't likely in danger, and therefore not really the red stallion's problem. He was no babysitter and had no intentions of becoming so in the foreseeable future.
Araxes, too, seemed content to continue, moving on even before he had as she introduced herself alongside the ashes of a corrupt and broken regime. "It was the needless death and decay that brought me here," Raymond replied. His voice was layered with the depth of that statement: old growth forests bloated with their own deadfall at the height of a dry summer, the rumbling of keystones within a leaking dam. Time is corrosive and rot is insidious. Once a crown rusts, nothing can fully restore it again, and Reichenbach had been shedding oxidation like dander.
If he were to guess - and it didn't particularly matter, so he felt no harm in guessing - he would have said that she'd spent Cynix's roving time locked away behind the gates. What had she done in that time? Had she known the poisonous silence spreading in her own kingdom?
To judge her would be premature. "I am Raymond." His expression remained inscrutable as the mare introduced herself, and upon his back the raven had finally begun to stir from his brief rest. It fluffed its feathers contentedly before investigating the short bristles of Raymond's mane with curious pecks.
"This land will forget what happened here someday; we should not." Time levels all. Only stories lived beyond the paltry lives of horses, and eventually the blight upon the Arma Mountains would be buried beneath lush vegetation and the footsteps of the animals that would call it home. It would be arrogant to assume anything they did today would mean a thing to the earth mother, given time to heal, but folly for the sake of mortal hearts to let their children's children forget as nature did.
and at his feet they'll cast their golden crowns
when the man comes around
@Araxes
aut viam inveniam aut faciam
