The young buck was growing quickly dependent. With every word Lena spoke to him, he felt closer to the mare. He didn't recognize the bond, didn't realize that her assurance was almost motherly, and attributed it only to a fault in himself. It was his weakness, he thought, that made her seem so strong and present to him. But he would lean on her regardless, for now. Ashamin had gone long enough alone and without hope; it was something that, in this unfamiliar land that he'd carried his grief to, he deserved.

Thus, as soon as Ashamin sensed Lena's reassuring tone, his figure relaxed into contemplative repose. He lifted his gaze to look over the "sentinels," as he had learned they were called, and followed Lena's suit by moving closer. He wandered, appearing aimless, towards the one to his left, looking up into its red eyes and listening to the faint whirring of the energy that hummed through it. Ashamin had never before experienced anything so mechanical, and was overcome with questions. There was so much to learn about such a creature as this! And yet, he hesitated once more to ask Lena for information. He knew now that she would have readily answered, but did not want to seem foolish. And what if more questions made him a bother? The last thing he wanted was to pester the mare who had so kindly invited him into her home.

Ashamin stepped carefully forward on deer-hooves, casting Lena a sidelong glance, even as she told him that the sentinels could sense his intentions. He trusted her, but the machines were so foreign to him. Delicately he extended his neck as he had towards Lena in the forest, placing his cheek against the barrel of the machine, the easiest part for him to reach. The greeting was not-reciprocated--from that he learned the extent of the sentinels' animation. And from the biting cold of the metal, a shock that was sent straight through the fur gently covering his features, he learned of their place in this Basin. As the glaciers and the hoarfrost, these sentinels were ever-present, ever-enduring, and ever-cold.

As harsh as the chill of the sentinel's side was, Ashamin kept his face pressed against it. There was a sort of comfort in the cold. But as Ashamin stood there, still and pondering, he was reminded of the true cold comfort of his situation, after all.

Lena was kind, it was true. But she and Imogen had been his one and only encounter in this land, and he knew better than to assume that all would be so gentle. He leaned more heavily against the sentinel, his ears cupped to its mechanical hide, taking in every faint click of its machinery, seeking a way to drown out his thoughts. But there was nothing to be done; he was thinking already of all he had lost, the only reason he was here, and how impossible it would ever be to feel that trust, in anyone, ever again. His father had been a soul he had understood, one he could tell everything to, and one who asked after him. Lena had asked after him, to an extent, and he had kept himself hidden. How long would he keep himself hidden?

His long white tail, lifted, fell back and stirred the traces of snow on the earth. It snaked around the base of the sentinel as Ashamin thought of the different kinds of cold he had known all his life: the cold in a storm, the cold of the dead wrapped around him in the night. He felt a piercing loneliness, and held his lips tightly closed to suppress the outbreak of sadness from overtaking his features. He couldn't think of such things, not now, when Lena was leading him into a place that could be home.

Ashamin turned back to the mare, pulling his face from the sentinel's side and giving a shy smile. The air rushed to warm his cheek, and still he shivered. "Safe," he murmured softly, half to himself and half to the mare. "It seems everywhere is safe with you, Lena." Ashamin took a few steps forward, as if to suggest they move deeper into the territory, but he stopped where he stood and looked back to Lena. She would lead him onward into this land; she would be his guide.

[[Tagged: Lena, Rexanna, all others who wish to join.]]

Ashamin