Spring.

I enjoyed the warmth of a bolder sun on my hide. The promise of finding a better environment to soak in its attention drew me from the World’s Edge. Though I considered that place home enough, the new forest failed to hold my attention quite so readily as the Mystic Woodlands once had. As I grew stronger, I grew bolder, and the changing of seasons strengthened my courage – I wished to explore. Familiar with the scent of trees and the play of shadows, I journeyed west.

My travels led me to the sea.

Its sighing voice broke over my ears before the glimmering expanse met my eyes. Life in the Edge, however brief it had been thus far, had done much to habituate my senses to the sound of surf, even the smell – but not always the sight. As a creature given to wandering the woods rather than the cliffs, I avoided that particularly intimidating stretch of blue, on most days. As I left the trees behind for the soft, uncomfortable wash of sand, though, I supposed I might enjoy the way sunlight reflected off the beach. Though my winter hide clung tenaciously to my lanky frame, I appreciated such warmth – craved it. Winter had been so long… it felt like years.

I walked slowly, my gait leisurely as I edged ever nearer to the play of surf. Memories played in my brain – of a different beach, a different version of myself. This place smelled of no particular herd, no master and no law – only the passing of many vagrant hooves. But on a different day… I had paced alongside the ocean a motivated being. I had met Evangeline then. I had taken her home from long days of captivity.

And why, in the end, had I ever left her?

I did not wish to dwell on it. With a shake of my head, I dismissed stray thoughts of Paladin, of the strange healer he kept for his own ranks. Too long ago they had faded beyond the realm of my existence… But with them were wrapped up memories of my own herd – my own friends? I had no longer very many friends, though I had grown a small collection of acquaintances. I supposed I was not a man disposed toward friendship – I had little use for it. But I could not deny the loneliness gnawing at my brain, the desperate need for some purpose – a need to be needed – which had always propelled me forward in the past.

I walked along a beach as I once had – but without reason. I moved in empty ways, unimportant ways. I had regained some healing rank – but a low one. Unnecessary. What had I become? If not dead, could I still be a ghost? I could not name sorrow as the feeling in my breast – what had I to mourn? – but I felt strange. Adrift. My hooves met the lapping white tongues of the waves and I sighed, the taste of salt bitter in my nose. It would be easy to walk forward until the ocean had me, but why do that, either? Why anything?

Ears tilted back, I turned to nose at a little creature near my feet – a crab. I might have killed it if I wanted to – it was much too small to properly observe. But I merely studied its progress instead, as it scuttled away from me and toward a small, rocky shelf a few paces distant. I supposed its impetus was little more than survival – but could that ever be enough for me?