The snow began to fall heavily around me, each flake glittering as it meandered to the ground. It was as if the world around me existed solely with me, closing in around me into a deafening silence. The birdsong had died away into faint casual calls and eventually faded into the background to disappear entirely. Her approach was nearly indecipherable, almost like a shadow moving through the trees, her golden eyes unmistakable against such a dark canvas. Her frosted breath curled around her face like magic and I could sense her prowess even before her arrival. I did not move and I did not face her directly in fear that she might mistake my intentions, but this did not mean that my walls had crumbled; they were merely frozen along with the harden wintry ground.

Her voice was soft, unlike her tattered exterior. This brought me to meet her eye to eye and I could not help but notice the lacerated hide that she wore upon such a small back. Around her, the snow continued endlessly, landing on her face and melting away with her breath. No doubt I appeared the same, a mere nameless entity hidden away between the infinite calm and quit snowfall. In this moment, neither animal possessed a name, power, or any real importance. It was this moment that I longed to live in before I sacrificed the beauty of the land for words of my own. They were a long time coming but when they finally sprang from my throat they were hardened and rough from disuse. “If I might engage in such folly, I would intend to tell you what I’m sure you’ve heard many times before-” My eyes rest on hers now, biting back the internal freeze that threatened to clasp voice from purpose. I shifted my weight from front to rear and lowered my head to allow her equality as I continued, “I seek acceptance of sorts into Helovia, being that the winter approaches and I find security in what some still refer to as home.”

Whether she would find this answer admissible, I did not know but I could find no better explanation than the truth. As the world fell quiet again, I felt as if I were whole, each moment ticking by like the hands on a clock even if no such invention existed here in Helovia. The birds had gone away to distant parts of the forest and now the mare and I suffered in utter silence, breath for breath falling from reality into the surreal magic of the lands. She, a tainted shade with barren golden eyes and I a simple minion to her quest.