Their path took them through a forest, the likes of which Inara had never seen before. As a child, the forest near the valley in which her herd resided had been sparsely laid out and nowhere near as imposing. There had been great, skinny birch trees all throughout the forests of her home, and there had rarely ever been a threat. It had been a strange day when Inara had found herself in the woods with her sister when they had been stalked by hungry, yellowed eyes.

As she walks alongside the dappled mare, the dark mare is sure to carefully examine her surroundings. Not only is she worried that the two of them might come across a beast that hopes to make a meal of them, but she thinks it would be wise to remember the path to take to this illusive Dragon’s Throat. Though she would never divulge the thought to Africa, Inara was curious to see what the one-winged mare’s home looked like, if she was not to see the Aurora Basin before finding a place to settle in, at least she was able to scour the grounds of Africa’s home before making her decision.

Still they walked, and the dark mare could feel a little bubble of apprehension settling into her gut, the idea of staying in a herd in one place seemed to bring back memories of her birthplace and the faces of those that had cast her out of the herd once her sister had fallen ill.

Of course, as she reflects on her past, they seem to have moved out of the vast forest and into a great stony plain, and for a few moments she listened to little more than the soft, clipped sounds of their ragged hooves clattering against the hard ground. They hadn’t been walking for too long before Africa broke the silence with an explanation of the animosity between Dragon’s Throat and Aurora Basin that had been eluded to earlier in the careful glances passed between the other dark unicorn and the winged woman. “I gathered as much…” She answers quietly in response to the tension between the two lands, acknowledging that she had noticed the, albeit small, hints towards hostility towards the two women.

Following the mare still, she listens intently and in silence as Africa educates her. She learnt that there was more to this land than just Aurora Basin and Dragon’s Throat. There were four lands, and already that was much larger than her home. As they, she assumes, get closer to their destination, Inara listens to the explanation of what Dragon’s Throat is like as they come upon a rocky bridge, of sorts. Staring apprehensively at it, she watches as the dappled mare crosses without fear, and takes a moment before following behind her, being sure to step where she has stepped, so as to avoid stepping off the bridge and plunging to, she figured, her death.

Once on the other side of the bridge, it didn’t take them long to come to a flat, hot desert that draws Inara’s eye to the horizon, where she settles her gaze to stare for a few moments. Through the gently rippling waves of heat that reach up from the desert ground towards the sky, it seems as though the desert never really ends, and while that could be intimidating to some, the dark mare had never seen such a place in her life, and finds it enthralling. “Do you have a name?” Africa’s voice interrupts her and cuts through the silence once more, this time making eye contact with the mare before answering. “My name is Inara. I hope you can understand my earlier… mistrust.”