Young colt had fallen. Darkness had taken over his vision, and when he first had stepped away from the veins of the gods, he had fallen. When he opened his eyes, he wasn't sure if he had blacked out or if it was simply the ever persisting blindness. He wasn't sure of anything.

He heard Manhattan's barks, but he could not tell how far she was from him. He ached and cried, feeling as if every bone in his body had shattered upon the impact. He tried to move but could not, tried to breathe but felt himself being choked. Perhaps he was not meant to live- he wondered that as he lay still and bleeding. He was only aware he was bleeding because of the scent, which only just now crept into his understanding of his surroundings. Each sense returned slowly and with broken understanding, as if the links to his brain had been quickly severed. He felt a sticky heat lapping at his stomach and chin, tasted the familiar bitterness when he opened his mouth to cry out and was forced instead to spit out the taste.

"Manhattan!" He called, muffled by the dirt and blood pooling around his mouth. He wanted to say something else but he could not remember what- the only thing he could think of to say was her name. And so, his tone increasingly desperate, he shouted it again. "Manhattan!" Knox yelled, pain building inside him with every breath, fear rising with every moment that the blindness persisted. He heard her panting, felt her pawsteps vibrating through the earth as she neared him, and became aware of the fact that he had never before experienced such a heightened sense of his surroundings.

When she was beside him he didn't feel scared anymore. Whatever sense of fear and suffering had crippled him before left him in a moment, and all that he knew was how much he loved her. Her nose, cold and comforting, pressed against his forehead, while her body curled around his face. She was still small, barely taller than his ankle. Now he felt small and weak- helpless unless within her embrace.

He wasn't sure how long it was before he could stand again.

Maybe it was minutes, maybe it was hours, hell, maybe it had been days before he lifted himself up from the earth on weak and trembling legs like the very day that he had been born. Manhattan had lost her innocent and childish character- somehow she understood the gravity of the situation. Perhaps she had seen the Goddess before him and understood, perhaps she simply shared his mind more than he knew. But whatever it was, in those passing days, she was what kept the young colt alive. She was small and incapable of much, but she was steadfast and loyal. Were it not for the hunger, she likely would have led him home.

But as it were, she could take him no further than across the thin, slow flowing river and the rocks that made a bridge over it. The water proved a struggle for them both, especially as hunger wore on the pup, who was used to being hunted for by her master, and blood loss and bruising plagued Knox. They reached the other side of the river, soaked to the bone and exhausted from their battle with the waters, and could walk no further.

The bloodstained colt fell again, this time onto the unfamiliar sands of the Dragon's Throat. This time when Manhattan curled beside him, it was for warmth and comfort in what she thought may be the end.