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The ruby-hued angeni wasn’t one to stay on the ground for long. Flight was where she belonged, safe and sound in the skies, lifted by powerful quad wings that allowed her to soar through the bitter winter air. She used to only come down for periods at a time--to rest, to eat, to sleep…and to track the enemy. Hunting ran through her blood like a fever through her veins, boiling through her with this compulsive need to hunt down the ones who hurt others.

The cold-hearted kalonas. The cruel, twisted, sadistic skinwalkers. The ones who relished in others’ pain and suffering, the ones who laughed when an innocent was struck down. The ones who lapped up blood like it was some sweet sort of sin. The idea of it set her off and over the years, it made her cold. Collected. Indifferent. She had to be to survive a life filled with duty. A life given to her by the Elders of Faeble. The warrior herd who had raised her from a tiny filly, training her the moment she popped from her basket, orphaned by a skinwalker attack. And she became strong, the most powerful Faeble mare there was. And she was sent off to the Kawani lands, to hunt the demons that plagued this land.

And then she’d been a fool. She’d fallen in love--love? Was it love?--and birthed two beautiful foals, foals who gave her life new purpose…but also new dangers. She vowed to protect her new family, but she became weak. Began to wonder if her duty was truly the one thing in the world that mattered to her. Truth was, she wasn’t even sure anymore.

The only thing she knew was that she was alone. Once again, left to the silence of the forests. Touched by love, only to have it wither away with her stupidity. So Aleksei now stood where only months ago she was greeted by family. Her children, her mate. People who loved her, people who she’d turned away. Closing her eyes, she lowered her head to the grass, hoping to catch a scent, a whiff of the life she once had.

Finding nothing, a single tear slid down her cheek to blur into the grass. Oh, she was but a fool…

X

The skies were darkened with night, dotted by starlight and a heavy, pregnant moon that illuminated the darkness and lit his way. Domovoi smiled, his wings carrying him across the lands with each powerful wing stroke. His ruby red mane fluttered in the crisp air behind him, coming loose of its tie to tangle around his face. His cheeks were flushed with cold, with happiness. He was in love--there was nothing more to it. After so long, he’d finally found the love of his life and she’d been sitting right under his nose the whole time. Just thinking of his Niobe had him grinning from ear to ear, a laugh escaping him in the darkness. But the smile faded as he neared the place where he’d been born, a small field, the wildflowers long since crippled from the coldest winter he’d ever felt. Slowly, he glided to the ground to land gracefully, folding his angeni set of wings against the small, frailer wings of his flutter heritage.

He came here often, holding onto hope that his parents would come back to the place where they’d had a semblance of happiness, the place where they raised himself and Etain. Where they were once a family… He wasn’t sure of the details. He didn’t know who called it off, in the end, or if his parents just truly didn’t love each other anymore. If his mother had ever loved his father at all. That was the kicker. Aleksei was so sharp-edged and stoic that he could never look into her eyes and see the truth. He loved her--she was his mother, after all--but he didn’t know her.

The wind blew in a gust, gathering ruby strands of hair and tangling them, but with the gust of wind he smelled something familiar. Warm. Heart picking up speed, he moved through the field…only to find Aleksei standing at the edge, wings folded in, a few more scars littering her body. Some of them were fresh, still healing, and it made his heart ache. When would she give up on this so-called duty, give up and live her life?

“Mom…” he murmured, stepping closer, one delicate wing reaching out to brush her back. “You alright?”

X

She flinched at the sudden touch, whipping around to attack--her muscles tensed and wary--when she looked into the bright gaze of her only son. Domovoi. Half angeni and half flutter, she’d tried to train him to carry on the Faeble bloodline, but he was… Too gentle, too caring. She did what she could, but forcing her will on him had ended in anger, frustration, and in the end, Domovoi fleeing the safety nest of home to make his own life.

She hadn’t seen him in so very long and now, on the cusp of an emotional breakdown, she regretted everything she had put him through as a young stallion. “Domo,” she murmured, her heart squeezing, another tear falling. He looked surprised. She didn’t blame him. She’d never been one to wear emotion on her sleeve, hiding it all away, hiding it behind a mask of cool confidence. She wasn’t confident anymore. “Why would you come back here? After all this time. After what I put you through.” Endless cycles of strength and stamina training. Sparring, both on the ground and in the sky. She’d been hard on him, determined to drill her knowledge into his head. She smiled, but it was distant. “I never deserved you.”

X

Domovoi stood there, wing still outstretched to where it had been resting against her back. She looked so much older than he remembered…so much more worn, like a wary creature of the woods, and it broke his heart. His happiness fluttered away like sand on the beach, a frown creasing his forehead, tipping his lips down. “Mom.” His voice was tight in his throat. “I came back here for you.” It was the truth. Yes, she’d hurt him. Physically, emotionally, but he knew that she had her reasons, her answers. “It doesn’t matter,” he said, bumping his head against her neck despite the way she flinched, her eyes pressed shut as tears slid free, salty and silken. “I forgive you, Momma… That’s the past. It’s not the now…and I think you need to start living for yourself, instead of the ones who sent you here. You aren’t alone anymore…” It was his turn to shed a tear, one of hope and of sorrow.

Then he took a deep breath in and shook his head, trying for a small smile. He bumped her hip with his and she looked up at him, her eyes softening. “Your life is far from over, and so is mine. I still want you in my life, Mom. In…our lives. I met someone. I met her very long ago, but… I love her. I truly do and I want you to meet her. To know her.” He looked down at his feet, then up again, their gazes colliding. “We’re going to start a family and I want my kids to have a grandmother. Okay?”