Northstar Vale nameless, faceless

This place was nothing like Mereo.

Leona woke up every day at the crack of dawn, the soldier's hour you could call it. The first few times she woke up confused by the scents in the air, the mosaic quality of the treetops, the views she did not recognize; the lack of movement, too. Nobody else was awake at the time or if they were, their patrol routes were hidden from her.

She saw everything through the lense of Mereo: this place was too green, the air was too thin, too cold, too wet; all that Leona sought was familiarity, and before that came in the routine of her training schedule, with the other kids. She didn't have that here.

By the late morning Leona was outside of her new home, pacing, kicking at a rock she'd found, imagining that it was the punishment stone; but in a fit of frustration she kicked it especially hard, and listened to it skip and roll in to the grass.

he had been carefully placed alongside towhee. enjoying the silent hours of the morning, even if he remained awake as he laid. not inclined for true sleep. he gave no thought to when his children shuffled out into the world. even when rocks clattered softly.

but he figured it was a good time to rise and see what they were doing.

it was leona he found first, watching as her stone skirted off into the grass.

do you want to patrol with me?

he asked in a hushed voice, in case jack snipe had settled for an late morning laze.

Her father's voice rose behind her, softly.

The offer was considered as she looked out upon the rest of Epoch, imagining the green shifting to reds and browns, and in a way dying, so that in her mind's eye it became dry and cracked like the canyonlands.

Yeah, okay, she agreed with a similar disquiet to her tone.

Unsure of which direction to take, she looked to Maxim and waited for her dad to direct her. It felt more like a father-daughter date than anything else, which wasn't the worst way to start the day.

headed towards this part of epoch

a soft chuff and swing of his head. he cut them north through the territory. the trees dared to dapple sunlight across their dark forms as they moved along.

of course he thought of mereo in their movements. leona had the start of a soldier's training and he had become a tactician under the canyon's claim. tell me of the things you see, he encouraged softly. wondering if it might scratch an itch from the now lost routine they once had shared.

He moved north. Leona followed, giving only the smallest look over her shoulder before forgetting all of her worries; for a while she said nothing, and seemed aloof at best.

Her father asked something — she almost missed it, then it processed and she looked around. Was there something special about the route they took?

Plants. Lots of green stuff. Most of which was turning brown or some shade of gold, given the season. It was all very ugly - like the trees couldn't decide what pelt to wear. Leona watched her father to see if that was the right answer.

he smiled, soft and warm. the answer was not what he had expected. yet it gave way to a lesson to be taught.

lots of green stuff means lots of places to hide. he offered softly. gesturing towards bushes, beds of moss. epoch truly was the opposite of mereo. in nearly all regards.

if you were a spy or an assassin, where would you hide?

they would continue this discussion. he'd give her the tactical knowledge he had built in mereo, and she would give him unreplaceable time together.