Wapun Meadow let these shadows prove the sunshine

He thought of home, and Malachi ached for many faces, but he found himself stuck in the looping agony of one, of her - and he longed for her sweetness, her gentleness, her eyes like the bright winter sun. Sometimes, he could still feel the waves against him, sucking him out into the ocean as they stole him away and tore her from his sight. The waters had taken many things from him; time and again, they had rendered him apart - but he had fought. Yet what was there to show for his efforts? He was still alone, and he wondered...

... if he returned...

... would he find her there? 

A voice broke the man, and his mind stumbled back to the present. The mirage of the ocean fled from his eyes, and he saw the meadow again with stark clarity. Birdsong called from the nearby woods, and the air filled his lungs with the nothingness of snow. It was almost too much, and Malachi turned - 

- and what he saw made him double take. He recognized the face running toward him - at least, he thought he did - and in a lapse of surprise, the man blurted, "Scarlett?" until he realized, this one was far too young to be the matriarch, and he shook his head with a clunky apology.

"Ah - no! Sorry, miss. I - ah, I mistook you for someone else." But his face still flexed in obvious confusion. Scarlett had been pregnant when he'd seen her last, but that had been many years ago. This simply couldn't be her daughter. Yet he had never seen anyone else, in any land he'd travelled, with an appearance quite like hers... so who was this?