Living in chasms under the ground with individuals from other herds that he had never met was hard, to say the least. Alleo knew none of them and found himself watching them warily as they all shuffled around one another, many of them looking for herd mates and loved ones, some just restless and missing the sunlight. More often than not Alleo situated himself into a corner of whatever room he happened to be in, his back to the wall and his eyes on the crowd. Whenever Rasta was away from his side his eyes rarely left her. Sometimes when he would look at her he would find her searching to meet his gaze and if he were a young colt he would have blushed furiously and looked away quickly. Instead he would give a nod of his head. Yes I am still watching over you. It didn't matter to him if her herd was there and she was safe among them. He had made a promise and he intended to keep it.

A promise. That was all it was... wasn't it?

Alleo snorted quietly as he left the room full of horses milling around. He longed for the feeling of the sun on his back, warming him and energizing him. He missed rolling in clover, he missed the dandelions, looking up at the stars at night. The caves, her found, were dark no matter how much light flickered off of the hooves, wings, and hair of the Throat herd. It was dank, as caves usually were and it put a chill in the air that would only be fought back and subdued with actual fire, but who wanted to go above ground and face the monsters everyone had been talking about just to get firewood?

Worry for his sisters was threatening to turn his hair gray. It was only a few short months ago that he had finally managed to find them after trekking halfway around the world, or so it felt, in search of them. Now the world above was in chaos and he had yet to see Hana or Lakota among any of the group that had found its way to safety. And so he prayed to every god that existed in his old homeland that his sisters would be safe. That the dead would find peace. The darkness would be subdued and defeated. That he would not go stir crazy and end up picking a fight with some knucklehead from another herd.

Alleo blinked as the ground beneath his hooves turned from hard stone to something with a lot more give. He had been so lost in his own thoughts that he had not noticed when he'd entered another room that was far quieter than the one he had been in. This room actually glowed and while it probably wasn't supposed to be eerie it made him uneasy. The glowing trees reminded him too much of the darkness of the endless night that had just been dispelled only a season or so ago. Was this it again? Another coming of the endless night, but more wrathful than it was previously? The stallion flicked his tail as he looked up toward the ceiling and he had to admit that the glowing above him resembled the stars he was thinking about just minutes before.

The sound of trickling water fills his ears and Alleo walked until he found the stream that he had been hearing. His head lowered and he sniffed at the water, half expecting it to smell strange and unappetizing. When he found that nothing smelled off about the water he sipped at it then drank long gulps until he'd quenched his thirst.

@[Rasta]

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