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Leaving from the Heart Caves Rei had considered returning back to her home in Dragon's Throat; she had directed herself in its direction. But there was some glimmer in the distance that tugged at her heart pleading with her to continue her exploration. Her next adventure could be crouching right around the next corner. It was the unquenchable thirst of a wanderer. She was constantly in search of everything at once, yet nothing at all.
"This is it. Then I am going back." She closed her eyes and spun in a few tight circles before taking flight in the direction that the spin left her facing. Rei was a fan of spontaneity and adventure, and figured that the two went hand in hand.
Throwing her head high she sighed in contentment as the light wind braided itself into her ivory mane. Her breath mingled with the whistling breeze. The pegasus herself felt as if she had become one with the wind and sky.
A gorgeous scenery unfolded below her. With one last toss of her head and a trumpeting whinny she bid farewell to the azure heavens and began her descent to the plush green grasses below. In her typical fashion Rei hit the ground at a canter. Instead of transitioning into a trot she pushed herself into a gallop.
Rei ran for the pure joy of running. She reveled in the sound of her hooves pounding against the ground. Delight was found in the challenge of racing forward, each hoof just barely glimpsing the ground, her nostrils flaring beckoning oxygen into her lungs.
The spotted pegasus did not quit running until her legs began to tremble with exertion. It was then that she slowed to an ambling walk drinking air in with indulgent breaths. If the run hadn't taken her breath away then her surroundings would have also gladly taken it from her.
She had came to the edge of the forest that she had been racing through and ahead of her snow capped mountains cradled their land.
A quiet blanketed the land in a lullaby that led Rei's restless heart to contentment. In an almost trance like state she made her way forward through the bitter landscape of the tundra. She only had eyes for the towering mountains and the bulky glaciers. Only the sound of her hooves hitting the ground whispered in her ears. Everything else was quiet.
Upon making her way to a crevice that piqued her curiousity a voice broke the musical silence echoing from the edge of one of the icy caves.
"I want to go home."
With ears pricked Rei briskly trotted towards the voice. She was drawn to it in the way that a moth is drawn to the flame. The frustration in it echoed her own that she couldn't bring herself to voice. Wasn't it all that anyone wanted? All things in life centered around love, home, and food. Maybe the last part is a bit of a silly add on, but at least if you find yourself without the first two you can drown your sorrows in food. Inwardly she chuckled, and debated about sharing her thoughts with the other she was making her way towards, but decided she would instead work to tear their attention from their frustrations.
"Hey there! I'm Rei." she called out as she caught a glimpse of the owner of the voice, eager to make a new friend. Her pace slowed slightly as she concentrated in an effort to carefully place her hooves on the icy footing. "It sure is slippery in the icy spots! Back in my homeland Lytninia it was always cool because we were so high. It was a stunning land, I didn't realize it because none of us had left and the few that did leave never came back," her words caught in her throat as she inadvertently reminded herself of her father. "but Lytninia was a huge island floating at the space in the sky where the clouds sit clumped at its base. We have a story about how it got there. It is said that the lands were once all connected, but were ravaged by war. Brutal war. Not even the young were spared. Although many had been infected by the bloodthirsty rage of war a few evaded the cruelness that enveloped hearts and clung to their kindness."
By this point she had made her way to stand near the stallion. With a momentary pause in the story she took in the unicorn standing before her. He was beautiful in the same way that a vast expanse of desert is. Although the eye is first drawn to the jagged edges they later fall upon the softness. The hair covering his gaunt body was a welcoming shade of grey that was nearly white. In stark contrast to his colorless hide his eyes were the blue of a summer's day. The unusually small horn sitting upon his head brought to mind the flowers Rei had seen growing in the harshest of conditions; determined to let themselves be known, even if it meant the dainty seedlings had to push themselves through the cracks in seemingly unsurpassable rock beds. With that one detail she knew she wished to befriend him, if the horn was an indication to his strength of character he was one that would go far.
With the worry that he thought she was staring at him Rei's eyes glazed back over once again lost in the story she told.
"One of these was a pegasus healer, he and his apprentice traveled the lands tending to the wounded regardless of their position on the war. No one was an enemy to the pair. When they came across a dragon who had been poisoned the two pegasi spent several weeks caring for the massive beast. The pegasi told of the things that they had witnessed during the wartime and once he was healed the monstrous dragon pushed the land up into the sky far from the war stricken land as thanks to the pegasus healers that saved his life. He saw kindness left in the young healer, and in seeing how he instilled it into his apprentice, in a time where kindness was seen as weakness, it gave him hope.
Despite being told the story from young ages in Lytninia it was assumed to simply be a story. We didn't think that there really was anything below us to be held up above. But here I am. On the ground below my former ground!
Why was it that I got started into this story? Rei's cheeks blushed a shade fit to match her mottled pink nose. Whenever she felt nervous the mare would talk needlessly, often telling long winded stories that didn't have much to do with the matters on hand.
"Oh yes! It was always cool back home because we were so high up, but we never got much snow or ice. I am unsure as to how-" Rei's words were interrupted by one of her legs slipping out from underneath of her, shakily she saved herself from a tumble. "I am unsure as to how others manage to make keeping their balance across such tricky surfaces look so easy."
After looking to see that her hooves were firmly bracing her upon the ground and slightly spreading her wings for balance she glanced over and noticed the stallion's hooves, "Those cloven hooves of yours must be wonderful to have in this type of footing." She beamed with a smile that was nearly warm enough to melt the frigid landscape around them.
In the space of quiet that often spans between two who find themselves first meeting Rei ducked her head "Sorry about talking so much. I, erm, love to tell stories." looking up from her eyelashes she lightly chuckled at herself.
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