I’d thrown open the gates, pushed them wide and welcomed in so many new things, so many great things. I’d decided that “new” was a good thing. It brought a sense of excitement to my life and if it meant stepping outside of the many boundaries I’d confined myself within, then so be it. I needed freedom because the taste of it on my tongue was… intoxicating. The Edge allowed me a blank canvas on which to paint my life and now that I had been allowed to start fresh, I wanted to draw my future in deep greens and blues and greys. I didn’t want to recall the yellows and reds of the past because that’s not who I was anymore. I didn’t expect success to come quickly and fate certainly didn’t seem willing to make it so either.

Winter’s misty breath swept up around me in vague, ghostly apparitions that danced alongside me as I retreated from the World’s Edge and headed towards the east. The Threshold had been on my mind for some time considering the restless feeling that stirred anxiously inside my heart. I needed more to do, more in my line of vision than it now stood to reason. Wasting my time away observing the way FrostFall had changed my home from a sanctuary of emerald glass to ice and mirrors did little to soothe the feeling of disquiet blooming from my head to my hooves. The soft curves of the land had been transformed into rigid, sharp edges that were draped in crystalline frost. The Edge was still a thing of immense beauty, but now it lacked its former depth. The surface was I could see anymore because the cold had robbed my home of flourishing life. We had all grown stale.

Before me, shadows grew tall between the dead trees of the Threshold. I wondered where their spirits were laid to rest when the cold stole their souls and ran like hell into the night. The snowy ground had been turned to muddy trails of ice and trampled dirt that intersected at various points until no certain path remained. I wondered which one would lead me where I wanted to go or if I really had any certain destination in mind. On a whim, I followed a narrow passageway that bent sharply to and fro beneath powerful oaks and birch trees. At one time I could imagine that this particular route had been dense and completely shaded away from the naked eye which made it that much more alluring to my curious mind. What lost souls had travelled this corridor into the unknown? What did they find on the other side?


I had to find out.

No birdsong drifted through the treetops which made the Threshold feel eerily vacant and lonesome. But faint scents of possible friends and foes flitted about around me, each new fragrance becoming more enticing than the last. It was as if the claiming grounds were still trying to sing songs of past summer nights, but its voice had become strangled and numb. However, a constant aroma found its way across my path on more than one occasion and within moments, I had made the decision to seek it out, hoping that curiosity wouldn’t kill this cat.

As I trailed the mysterious ebb and flow of this new, erotic, fragrance I started to doubt my own sense of direction. That is, until I caught the soft muffling of a feminine voice in the distance. However, the creature that came into view upon my final ascent into her company caught me off guard. Her ivory hide looked as if it were splattered with dark paint that mimicked the midnight sky. As I stood to marvel at the wonder that was this mare, I couldn’t help chuckling to myself shortly after. For this was no mare at all, she was still young, perhaps as young as Essetia when I’d last had the chance to see her. “Would you say that you’re in need? Of help, I mean.” An amused smile parted my lips as I stepped closer with my head lowered in respect so that the youth would not see me as a threat. “I’m Thor and as it appears, you’ve stumbled upon what is called Helovia.”

Thor