“Why here?” he asked himself (having had no other to keep him company for a solid month or longer), stepping without regard for borderlines or the narrowing gaze of patrolling soldiers; suspicious, vigilant. Because she is here... easy, he answered with unmoving lips, shrugging casually. He remembered her well, the warmth of her blood, the pulse throbbing through her; he remembered the darkness, but mostly he remembered the memories, her horror, and all that had touched her life- for better or worse. They had lived here, he’d been born here- everyone we should know is here, and even though he felt like at any moment he might melt there and then beneath the blistering heat of the desert sun, he continued.

It was a bold presumption, childlike confidence, because really Kari had not the slightest idea where those from the caves had strayed too. The little colt sighed deeply, stepping with exaggerated care as he slogged towards the rippling blur of black and green across the horizon; placing each narrow hoof as though an eggshell lay beneath, nervously avoiding those visions which filled his thoughts and clouded his eyes whenever he was not well prepared to deal with them.

Undernourished and looking particularly dishevelled since the disappearance of any mother who’d offered to care for him, he had not the strength to travel quickly and the journey towards the oasis seemed endless... Kari grew tired quickly and his cool jaded gaze filled with frustration. “Why am I not any closer?” he vented, snorting as sharply as the narrow slit-nostrils at the end of his young face could manage.

He turned quietly, scuffing through the gravel, but he could no longer see the bridge across which he’d wandered to come here.

For a moment he thought to fly and opened his steel-grey wings, beating them for only seconds before he felt the weight of his fatigue and could bother no longer. The long tail behind him danced slowly, pensively left and right as he considered his options then- to rest awhile and risk roasting beneath the fury of the desert sun, or press on, chasing shadows like a fool, with perhaps the same result. That just won’t do... he thought quickly, not altogether keen to give up life without first tracking down his mother. He was hungry first, and grass just was not as sweet as the milk she withheld. Everything else had to wait.

“IS ANYONE THERE!” ...he resolved to shout at last, casting his small, boyish voice as far into the sky as he could with his face too flung upwards. Unfortunately the action was too sudden for the half-grown brittle horns upon his brow, and the left cracked, snapped and fell to the earth. Kari peered down at it, bothered and disappointed because it had taken much longer than a few seconds to grow so long. “Well that’s just great...” Carefully he knelt across buckled knees to retrieve it, and after passing another look around him, set off again after the mirage.