The little colt slept alone in a dense copse, the low growing foliage and drapes of aquis pine concealing easily his tiny, insignificant form. Beneath, he’d nestled into a bed of thick cushioning crimson tide and over the course of the week (time passing far faster than he could have imagined, with still no fruit for his labour), it had come to be his hideout; a place where he could become completely invisible. That was important to Kari. He’d constructed around it a little rough wall of sorts, sandstone and rock all tumbled and held together by the magical art he’d discovered and been practicing; and because such a thing might have drawn the eye of those passing by, the clever colt had pulled down the thick vines to dress it. Since coming to Dragon’s Throat, his frail mind had been bombarded with confusing events, memories of times long gone- all of which he neither wanted nor understood.

There was a shrill call borne along the warm wind, and it startled Kari to wake, bleary eyes searching for a moment. His sleep had been so deep this time that he had not readily recognised his surroundings, wondering why the cave had grown so bright, though within seconds the reality of his lonely situation came tumbling down around him. There was an urgency in the call, but not so frantic to install fear. It was laced with excitement, a vibrancy that he would preferred just as much to ignore. During those seconds after, the world seemed to pause and the little colt’s ears twitched as curiosity began to swell through his mind. The owner of the voice wasn’t someone he quickly recognised; it was family, yes, but no face danced through his mind to match it.

The scrabble of hooves on rock and falling water drew immediately his face towards the lake. Its glistening surface loomed beyond his little nest, and the light brown, groaning figure of another of this herd passed before it. Kari ducked quickly though there should have been no chance of detection, and waited, watching until she’d slipped by. Long gangly grey limbs extended cloven hooves from underneath his light mass, and he teetered forward, rising across them. His still undernourished waist swayed for a moment as thin blood surged to flood each appendage, the small unused wings also, which stretched pointlessly upwards. His attention was distracted though, wandering away with the horned stranger, and as his small pale face followed her departure, limbs began to move along the path she’d taken.

The day was hot, a quality of this baron plain he was yet to appreciate, and sweat began quickly to bead along the bony pitches of his dull, dark canvas. He was a fine creature, lithely built anyway and without the budding muscle mass of others near to his age. Kari’s semblance was more alike to deer-folk than to the equine type species. The mare ahead broke into a trot and the colt cursed her silently, driven to pursue because he was sure she was answering the call moments before, but bothered by the energy required to keep up. By then he was less concerned about being discovered, and more caught up with safe travel; navigation through and between the dry-land scrub which seemed hardly to hinder the gait of the other.

They left the cool shady comfort of the oasis to trek before streaming dust clouds, the parched land hard and unforgiving beneath bouncing fetlocks. Pools of blue opened though quickly when the silhouette of another formed through the rippling haze of heat ahead of them, and when finally he was near enough, Kari saw with a flickering half-smile that it was the dapple grey, one-winged mare from the cave. The champagne stranger stopped close by to Africa, and the colt paused with increasing interest still the same distance between that had been maintained the whole journey. He wanted to know what the fuss was about, but felt uneasy in their company; like without Shadow, he did not belong.