As she looked out over the plains, she couldn't help but admire its likeness to the ocean. How each individual blade moved in unison to create a wave against the breeze. The magical autumn glow from the sunshine above glinting against the meadow. Even in the season of dying, it was so full of life.

As they dipped below a ridge, their home fell out of sight. This was easily the furthest she had ever strayed from the castle grounds, and it kinda left her on edge. However, there was some comfort lent by the presence of her brother. Not that she was scared, more or less just grateful for the company. "How far do you think the plains go on for?" She asked out of curiosity, not really knowing if Thorn knew the answer or not. From what she could tell, it may as well have been forever. Though from her conversation with Balthier, she knew that even the ocean had its ends. Surely the grasslands were no different.

Thorn walked along with confidence next to his sister.  He’d been to the berry grove a few times now, finding it a great place to explore and also great for finding good sticks.  That meant he’d been through the plains of course, though that was a straight path he had taken and so there was plenty of the plains still to see. “It goes a looong way,” Thorn replied to his sister with no sign of having to think about it.

“Theirs a spot beyond with lots of trees and berries and bushes and stuff but it takes a long time to get there.  Have you been to the beach?  You just follow the wall till you get there. I haven’t been in the other direction yet.  I never went far to the left so once we get as far away from the castle as ya want to see let's go left and then turn around.  It’ll be new to me then. I wonder how far it goes that way.” Thorn glanced up at the sky for a few moments before back ahead of them.

“I found a nest here one time when I was walking with Aunty Gwyn.  It was hidden in the grass.  I only saw it cause I was looking at a flower that happened to be nearby.  Eggs were tiny.” Thorn's gaze swept across the plains. “I bet there are all sorts of hidden treasures.  Let's go slow.  See who finds the coolest thing!”  It was fun getting to talk like he knew stuff.  Thorn had been just running out each day to play around, explore, and make weapons a time or two.  Apparently all that fun was paying off.

"Thorn Carpathius"

When Thorn assured her that the plains went on for a long way, she nodded in acknowledgment. They certainly went on as far as the eye could see. The new territory was impressive at the very least. "I bet!" She agreed, momentarily getting lost in the motion of the grass.

Though when she heard her brother's voice once again, her ears perked to attention. He went on to describe the grove- she had overheard mention of it when the adults were talking to each other. She had never seen it for herself and was a little surprised that Thorn had. "No, this is the first time I've left the castle grounds," Talyssa answered quietly. It sounded like the Carpathius boy had made a habit of exploring far from the castle grounds. The cautious part of her wondered if that was safe. The realistic part of her recognized that it didn't matter- Thorn was going to do whatever he wanted. When he described another location he had been, a pang of jealousy developed in her chest. "I'll check it out sometime." Lyssie responded, a little more confidently. Going forward, she would make more of an effort to try and talk one of the grown-ups into taking her beyond the gardens.

It seemed like they had been walking for a while when she started to get a little uneasy about being this far away from home. "We can circle back now ..." She offered softly, hoping that Thorn would agree and they could return. When he went on to describe a trip out he had taken with Aunt Gwyn, her interest peaked. She hadn't even been paying attention to the ground. Her pale blue graze had been plastered on the horizon. But at the promise of hidden treasures, she nodded much more enthusiastically. "Okay! I'll start looking, then." The fawn-spotted fae vowed, starting to study what lay in front of her with each stride- or at least, more than she had previously.

Thorn hadn’t kept up with how often his sister went out and explored or not and now he looked curiously at his sister. The boy was fairly certain Taly would enjoy exploring so it was a shame she wasn’t. “Ok, if you want I can show you the beach tomorrow?  If you want to turn back now we can but when you are ready I can go with you to the grove if you want?  I know the way after all and I’ll be a master fighter so I can protect you if you’re worried.”  The pack land was patrolled by the adults after all so it wasn’t like the odds of running into predators were all that great.

He grinned at his sister suddenly focusing more on the grass.  “Just think, when we get bigger dad will let us go out even farther.  I want to see Taly, I want to see everything out there.  I bet its super awesome.”  Really, everything around here was still super awesome, there were plenty of things he still had to learn about on the pack land.  So why did he still want to go see what was out even further?  The desire gnawed at him, to go one more stride and see what was beyond them.  His eyes looked ahead a bit before moving to follow Talyssa.  

Thorn wasn’t joking on things to find in the grass though.  The boy’s own head went down, scenting the grass, nudging here and there with his paws.  He sure kicked up enough grasshoppers as he did this.  “Hey, I found a snake.  It’s green and small and not doing much.”  That was about all Thorn knew of it right now.  The snake took one look at the wolf pup and started to slide away back into the grass that hadn’t been disrupted by the boys paw.  

"Thorn Carpathius"

When she met her brother's gaze, she quickly looked away as a heat flushed to her face. She wasn't scared to leave home! She just wasn't ready to go too far yet. A small twinge of anxiety poked her in the chest. But she was grateful that Thorn didn't push her to explain. Instead, he had mentioned the beach. She had seen it many times- through the windows in the Great Hall, but she had never explored it. "Yeah, I think I would like the beach." Talyssa softly agreed, thinking about what the sand would feel like to her paws.

When Thorn mentioned the grove, she hesitated before thinking of a response. "I'll go with you to to the grove another time, I bet Momma is worried." In reality she didn't know that for sure or not. But it felt like the easiest explanation for now. Though, she didn't linger on it for much longer. Her pale blue gaze roved the grassland around her. She imagined it would be easy to get turned around if you weren't paying attention- since it looked very similar all the way through.

As they circled back, they took a different path. At some point along the way, she found a game trail that caught her interest. It was easier to walk too. But before she had too much time to investigate it, her brother vocalized his daydream aloud of what it would be like when they were older. "I know, I can't wait!" Lyssie answered excitedly. Looking to her brother- she immediately thought of the knight she had met as he spoke. "My friend, Balthier, said that he has sailed lots of places on his raft- and he said there are a lot of really cool places out there. Maybe if we ask, he'll take us out on it one day." The man seemed very nice, and she couldn't think of a reason why he would refuse. Perhaps between herself and her brother they could convince him together.

Just as Thorn called out his finding, a brown and whited spotted feather caught her attention stuck to some of the thicker grasses. "That's cool!" Talyssa called out as she quickly closed the distance between herself and her target. "Look at this feather!" She enthusiastically announced as she pulled it free from the undergrowth. She didn't know what kind of bird it came from, but it was certainly a big one.