My round hooves halted on the frozen ground. I lowered my dark muzzle towards the frosted leafs on the forest floor. My ebony, silky mane brushed my neck and tickled the point of my bay shoulder. My moss green eyes blinked a few times. I had to stop. I had to collect myself and figure out how I ended up here. Here? Was one allowed to call a place ‘here’ when one didn’t even know where ‘here’ was? Stop it Lucilla, you’re over thinking things! Focus!

Months of travel lay behind me. Months of searching. I had run from a rebellion. I had escaped the unholy death by the hooves of lesser horse species. But my family had not. Their blood, my blood, had soaked the moss in our beautiful forest. I missed them. But I had have time to heal. I had have time to turn my sorrow into determination, my grief into happy memories of my parents and him. To se his body thrown to the ground had been the worst, but it all lay behind me now. Yes, Lucilla, it’s time to look forwards now. Keep the goal in sight!

I had been driven by the memory of a roan mare I once met. She’d told me of her resent fate, a fate I would come to somewhat share, but the important thing was that she’d told me about her future; her plans for a faraway land. She was planning to wipe out the naked and winged vermin and she’d offered me to join her army. But I was too young then to see the point - to see the glory which would come with a noble task like that. If I had gone with her, then maybe our fates wouldn’t have become so alike, at least not in the way they had, but of course hindsight is 20/20.

I lifted my head from the ground and kept walking in the slumbering forest. My ivory horn pointed skywards, it’s savage hook, designed to tear enemies apart, was something I was proud of. Much like how I was proud of the magic that rested comfortable inside me, I could choose to have that magic curl around my vocal cords and then I could sing it into the world. But I was completely alone here, so no one would be affected. I sighed and looked around. It was twilight, even though it was not late, and on the western skies I could already detect a few faint stars. It was going to be a cold night, the white cloud around my muzzle confirmed that, and even if my bay dappled coat had grown thicker these last few weeks I felt a bit chilly. I figured it was because the lack of food in my belly and the wariness of my body. I was glad it wasn’t windy today. Come on now, Lucilla. If you’re going to fight bloody battles then you ought to toughen up a bit!

I stopped again. Where would I go? The last horse I’d asked had pointed me southwest, and that was a few weeks ago and since then I hadn’t met anybody. I had hoped it would be easy, but to take directions had proved much harder than I thought. I was a good tracker, but there were no tracks to follow. At first when I asked people for directions many of them had heard of the roan mare, Nyra, but none knew anything about the land, Isilme. The more south I got though, less people had heard about Nyra and more of them knew about Isilme. They all warned me. They said the land had gone to shit, that I ought not to go there. But I didn’t listen, most of those I met where naked or winged freaks anyhow. But now I was beginning to lose hope. Would I ever find what I was looking for?