[SpringsSong]

"This bandana is a reminder of what I truly stood for," Tali said softly.  "I only fought with the Imperials because it meant I would not have to fight my mate at the time.  If we had not been together, I would have fought with the Purines.  I cannot believe that I ever supported the Imperial's cause."

She was truly disgusted with her choice to support the Imperials, thinking back on it.  Before, she wore her Speakers badge with honor, but now... there was a reason it was buried away amongst heaps of clothes that she had worn during the war.  The only thing that kept her from burning them was her companion, Ryen, who said that she should not have been ashamed with her affiliation in the war.

[4.0]

[SpringsSong]

Lithônion nodded slightly, trying his best to understand.  It seemed like she was truly upset about the side of the war that she had been on, but at the same time, she could not have expected things to go perfectly in the war.  The Imperials had lost.  Shi'Hana had sacrificed herself for the Purines.  The Tear had been found, and she was a Preluhna.  Tali had died.

"Mosqua would have adored you, Taliña Darkpaw," he said finally.  "She was a very rebellious female herself; always, always getting into trouble, but always able to get out of it.  Well, all trouble except for... the last time she got in trouble..."

[4.2]

[SpringsSong]

"And when was that?  That is, if you do not mind me asking..." Taliña asked, taking her Lucain form.  The bandana remained there, concealing a wound she had sustained from the war.  However, part of it began to show outside of the bandana.  She listened as he talked about her, trying her best to envision this female.  After a moment, she chuckled.

"Sounds like she would have been related to my mother in some sense," Tali said, laughing.  "I picked up her rebellious nature, and most of the females that follow after me are rebellious."

[4.2]

[SpringsSong]

"Monsoon season, a few years back," Lithônion said, frowning.  "She was out hunting and she got caught in a storm.  A tree fell on her back legs, breaking both of them, and she... she was dragged away by the current.  She was never a swimmer... so she was unable to fight the current.  I heard her cries too late to retrieve her, and by the time I saw her... she was sliding downstream, slipping beneath the surface."

Here, he noticed the wound on her leg.  "Is that... from the war?" he asked.

[4.4]

[SpringsSong]

"Oh... I had no idea," Taliña replied.  She pressed her nose into his shoulder; a sign that she understood what he had gone through, and that she could slightly sympathize with him.  "I would have loved to meet her, though.  She sounds like someone I would have gotten along with swimmingly."

Here, she looked at the gash on her leg that the bandana had slipped to reveal.  She frowned as she nodded, sighing as she looked away from him.

"Yes.  It was from my first, last, and only battle..." she said quietly.  She lowered her head here as she tried her best not to show any emotion.

[4.4]

[SpringsSong]

"It's okay.  You couldn't have known." Lithônion said quickly, trying to ignore the nagging voice in the back of his head that wanted him to recite the poem that he and Mosqua had come up with, just to see if maybe--maybe--there was a possibility that Mosqua's soul had transfered to this Lucain.  He would have just as soon not find that out, because he didn't think he could stand getting used to Mosqua in a different body.

"The stars gleam ever brighter in the night sky..."

He said this in a dazed voice as he looked away from her and to the night sky, trying to keep his voice from cracking.

[4.6]