RUSKE

        My first journey to the World’s Edge had been far too harried for a proper inspection of the territory’s border. Only upon regaining my strength had I truly noticed the wall: certainly a great edifice, at one time. Previous inspections had been brief and yielded little information; I observed from a distance, curious but ever driven by another goal – so much to think on, here! My thoughts surged constantly, a thousand questions seething. Matters of architectural wonder were pushed aside until I had, for a brief while, sated the worst of my curiosity. As I found myself within the borders of the Edge once more, however, I suspected the time had grown ripe for studying the shards of glass, which so often rose from the earth like jagged teeth, glinting. An ominous impression. certainly.

        Perhaps I ought to be glad I never noticed them at first.

        My strides took me alongside the ruined structure, hooves crunching now and then over shards of glass. I worried briefly about catching a sharp edge in the frog, or perhaps piercing my own sole, but quickly dismissed the notion. If I stepped carefully enough, I might avoid the largest pieces and yet satisfy my curiosity, all the same. It was truly a marvelous creation: something out of a long-ago dream, very distant, nearly given up. A part of me ached – I had nearly forgotten the sensation. Arriving in a land of plenty long after my ambitions had dried up… cruel, fate. Though perhaps I set the path myself, destined ever to strive and fail or to quit and find late success hurled in my face. Did it even matter?

        A particularly large gap lay before me; with a thrust of my haunches I hopped through, satisfied at least with my ability to leap meager distances. Beyond the Edge, the world stretched pale into the distance, a landscape of trees and jagged mountains. It might be lovely; it looked as many other places did, from far away. Only Helovia’s inhabitants remained of interest to me, truly. They at least proved varied; I moved forward once again with my ears up, hoping perhaps to meet a herd mate. They proved reclusive in many respects, or perhaps simply scarce. I could not be certain how many in this land approved Kahlua’s goal of peace; I might hope, but my optimism often proved disastrous. Instead I merely wandered, gazing at the wall and also at the outside world, until a certain noise caught my ears from somewhere ahead: a timid voice, feminine, reverberating in small echoes off the warped and shattered glass that must have drawn us both.

        Head up, I spied her in the distance: white, brown, solidly build. Another mare – it seemed the World’s Edge attracted more of them than any other. Though I could not profess to find discomfort in the situation, I did find it strange. With a hoarse whinny, I answered her much softer call – my own voice much abused by an unhappy past. ”Hello.” Drawing near enough, I responded to her query in kind. Was she one of our own? Somehow I doubted – she stood on the wrong side of the wall, for one. And the smell on her hide, faint with distance but identifiable, did not match the particular smell of the forest. A visitor then? Or a newcomer? Certainly others existed who might do better in assisting her than myself, but I could hardly retreat, thus announced. I might do a small service in meeting strangers at the border, anyway. ”My name is Ruske,” I introduced myself, ”nurse of the World’s Edge, this land.” How foolish I might sound if she did know the place; I shoved that worthless touch of anxiety far aside. ”Are you familiar with it?” Though my gaze rested, for the most part, on her face, I did not fail to recognize the brown wings skating on the air above her – a dragon. For no discernable reason, its presence set me more at ease than the mare might have, alone. Perhaps because all those I had met in company of such creatures were kind, trustworthy. I had come to see dragons as an excellent judge of character, if nothing else.

NursE

world's edge