The Guardian Of Nature ~The Rise Of A Heroine

How Different Are We?

Okay, so warning about mention of domestic violence. When you see this -> (~~~~) just know that it's there and if you want to skip it, scroll a little down until you see it again.
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I was a natural at Horse riding!

It was not the first time that I had ridden of course, but with the Mearas and Raina as a trainer I did so much more than just running through the forest! Raina gave me a beautiful black and green saddle and partnered me with Azeban, the youngest Stallion of the herd. He was a black-and-white Tobiano with a black line across his eyes, like a Raccoon and the personality of one to match. He was the Stallion of a little girl Medlinniel, one of the Elflings friendly towards me. Raina asked her if I could be training with him and she agreed, but made me promises to give him a good brushing before and after training. Suffice to say, Azeban was shining under the Sun!

Now, because the Mearas were raised by the Elves they just understood Sindarin, so I spoke to Azeban accordingly. Small commands, words Raina taught me, don't think that I learned to speak a whole language in a matter of days. When he spoke to me I understood him fairly well, so communication went smoothly.

Raina was a great trainer. Patient, supportive and with an attitude I can only describe as Rapunzel from Tangled, funny and full of energy. Besides Tlaloc, with whom they worked in total sync, she knew every single Mearas from birth and as such she was the one who named them. She told me that the names she gave them, except Tlaloc's who was Nahuatl Aztec, were words of the Elvish Quenya language, but the to be honest, the more time I spend with the Elves, the more the names of the Mearas didn't quite seem to... match their language. Couldn't quite explain it at the time so I went with it.

Back to our main topic, Raina cared and respected all Mearas and in return they respected her. All except Thunder that is, the punk of the herd and thus most of the time they had him in the stables cause he liked to pick up fights with other stallions. He was uncontrollable and always stirred up trouble, which is why Raina wasn't comfortable with letting me ride him, even though he seemed to tolerate me more than anyone else. But she allowed me to spent time with him when he was moved at the stables and I came to know him as a truly unique Mearas. A wild spirit not wanting to be anybody's Horse, least of all Serethiel's, but that's a topic for another day.

The major reason I loved Hoarse Riding Training was cause Raina always had the craziest stories to share. Mostly about the Ages of Middle Earth, but later they became even more valuable.

FRIDAY MORNING, 11:30

"America is VALINOR?" I brought Azeban to a halt, facing Tlaloc and the laughing brunette on his back.

"Alright so I am not good with geography, but the explanation is simple. Middle Earth throughout the ages became the Europe you know today! For example England was the Shire, the Kingdom of Mirkwood and the surrounding areas were basically these lovely forest areas at center-to-north Europe, Italy and Greece were mostly Gondor, then Turkey was Mordor, but don't worry Mountain Doom no longer exists." She wiped her forehead as if having just avoided a world catastrophe. "And like all these, North America as it's own continent is the land that my people believed to be Valinor. Now not every piece of land matches perfectly cause it's been centuries upon centuries that the land naturally changed through floods, earthquakes-oh there was one massive earthquake that shocked the entire planet! It was at least a few years after the death of the Royals, but I'm not sure exactly how many since I was quite young at the time."

I blinked, wheels turning in my head trying to comprehend what she said. It's not like it didn't make sense, it actually did, which was the intimidating part. The secrets our universe hide. "Valinor... The West... The Undying Lands... is America."