dreaming of winter flowers

[Charlotte]

Charlie stood on the shore where the bridge touched mainland Novus and stretched out into the sea. It’s not the first time she’s stood here, at this most mystical and strangest of crossroads. But now she is older, and above her Indy flies wide and low circles like a last fall leaf in the wind. The young girl stretches her wings to the breeze and lifts her vermillion eyes to the distant horizon where she can just see the island.

Where it has risen from the sea.

And she knows that she must go to it, for the way her heart begs her to go to all new things. She is an explorer, and adventurer, and she cannot resist the pull like a siren’s call. Charlie stretches her wings to the sky and the corner of her lips turns up in the barest of sly smiles. Now that she can fly, there is nowhere that she cannot go (without a break or two, perhaps, as her stamina is still not the best).

Charlie rises to meet her bonded, who drifts alongside her. Their shapes dash over the frigid sea like broken reflections, rising over the crest of every wave. “Islands don’t just disappear into the sea and then change their minds one day,” the osprey says, yellow eyes bright and sharp, skeptical. The filly laughs, “This one does.”

“Yeah, well… just be careful. You remember the things we encountered last time?” She does, of course. It’s hard to forget a place like that, with birds that don’t quite look like birds and water that creates weird mist with figures in it. “Everything will be fine, Indy,” Charlie reassures her bonded, glancing at the bird as the island comes upon them like an old friend. Only, it looks nothing like she remembers.

The filly lands on what used to be a beach, but is now covered in dry winter grasses. Her landings have gotten a lot better with Commander Marisol’s help, and she barely trips over her own hooves as she immediately races along the shore. Huge evergreen trees rise up out of the island, with branches dusted in a fine coating of snow. And snow is piled everywhere, as if this place is deep in winter and not that the season has only just started.

“Can you believe this?” Charlie asks, eyes wide with wonder as she begins to trot deeper into the forest. The dry grasses brush up against her ankles and the sound it makes it like a strange whispering. Indy alights upon the girl’s shoulders, “It’s like it’s not even the same island anymore,” responds the osprey.

From the corner of her eye, the filly thinks she sees movement in the trees. Charlie turns her head, “Did you see that?” and begins to move quickly in the direction of it. She can hear the birds in the trees, singing magical and unfamiliar songs. Was it just a bird? Or something else? As the pair rounds the trunk of a tree, they see not a strange creature but rather a familiar face.

“Oh, hello Corrdelia,” she says, slowing her gait as she approaches the older mare. Admittedly, the girl is a little disappointed it’s only another equine and not some rare animal, but there is a whole island to explore at least. Charlie notices that the medic doesn’t seem to have her bonded nearby, and Indy looks on from her perch with keen eyes. “Where’s your crow?”

"Speaking."

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@Corrdelia ask and you shall receive

☸