It was strange to think that the river had been covered in ice not a full season ago.

Cascades of glittering water splashed high into the air as Lace rushed into it, groaning with pleasure as the liquid closed over his hot, sticky back. Ignoring the heartless laughter of his dragon he knelt on the steep, muddy river bank and let himself fall to the side, eyes closing and breath suspended as he rolled over, rubbing grime and water and clay into the silver coat.

"Silly dirty fourlegs" Fajira announced as she swooped over him, dropping strands of grass and flower from her talons that immediately got stuck in the sticky muck. The stallion lifted his head and snorted at her, the amused grin spoiling the irritated glare he sent her as thanks.

"Better than having flies crawling over me" he announced before going under again, only emerging once the pale grullo color had disappeared completely and turned him into a horse of unknown appearance, soaked as he was. Only then did he allow himself to lie still, head inched up on a pillow of tall grasses while the shallow, slow river that meandered through the Meadow eased the heat of the day from his muscles.

The days had been unbearably hot ever since the sun had returned. It reminded him of the intense heat that had lingered into Orangemoon the year he came to Helovia, the aftermath, he had been told, of a summer so long and brutal that many had perished from heat and thirst. This was not quite the same thing though. It was simply that the true warmth had arrived so suddenly after the long winter and spring of constant darkness, that they all had trouble adjusting. Sweltering hot days were followed by breathtakingly warm nights, the coasts were almost unbearably moist, and even the northern snows were melting or gone. Lace was glad he weren't in the Edge now, or in the Throat for that matter; how the desert pegasi even survived there had always been a mystery to him.

"I wonder what happened to that armor I ordered from their Forger" he mused aloud; only to suddenly spit and snort, as he found his muzzle covered in the slimiest, greenest muck of mud that Fajira had been able to dig up.
"You little..!" With a squeal of delight the white dragon leaped into the sky as Lace heaved himself up on all four and threw himself after her, ears pinned back but with eyes glittering as he ran after the disappearing lizard, intent to try and catch the tip of her tail that - quite deliberately- dangled just out of reach of his teeth.

It was summer, he was free, with all the time in the world to spare... Shame the times when he allowed himself to relax and enjoy himself like this were so few and far between.


@[Onni]

Dim vales- and shadowy floods-
And cloudy-looking woods,
Whose forms we can't discover
For the tears that drip all over!
Huge moons there wax and wane-
Again- again- again-