Rynia felt as though a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders as she cleared the tree tops. It was perhaps a premature sensation, but all her life the air had meant freedom. Her mother and sister were both grounded, and her father, after first instructing her in the art of flight, had been an absent presence. She had always been beyond reach once she’d taken flight, and just getting off the ground meant an easing of her tensions.
Adrenaline still coursed through her veins as she took off eastward, but she was no longer overrun by her fear and instinct. Conscious thought was making a return, albeit a confused one. For starters, what had just happened??
Ah well. She would dwell on that later, after she’d put some distance between herself…and everything. And she thought she knew just the place!
~~
Ladius stood on the edge of the treeline, her eyes narrowed as she watched the stallion climb out of reach. Damn him, his wings, and his feathered flock of followers! The whole meeting had left a horrible taste in her mouth, the behavior of her daughter being not the least of her issues.
Her daughter…
Stepping forward, Ladius craned her neck and studied the path of the stallion. Odd, he didn’t seem to be taking the chance to get out away from her territory but was flying across it, almost as if he was heading for a specific place…or following something...Of course. He was following Rynia. Ladius’ stomach turned with revulsion at the thought, and her mouth creased into a new snarl. Whatever his motives, that stallion had crossed the line.
But there was something she knew that he didn’t. And that was the fact that Rynia was her daughter, much as she might regret that fact, and these were her lands. If Rynia was going off to hide somewhere, then there could only be one place. With a look of grim determination, Ladius lowered her head and took off into the undergrowth.
