cI had thought that Calder was joking about using the sentinels as a way to find the entrance into the Basin but I couldn’t help but take note of them as I left, worried that I might not be able to find my way back. I hoped that I would, although I felt like I had been spending most of my time there sleeping or shivering I was growing fond of it. I knew it to be safe, after all, and I was looking forward to returning there but I woke up this morning with the terrible need to walk. Not just around the Basin, or to the hot springs, to keep my bones from freezing but further out. I was growing more and more curious about Helovia, curious about what sort of creatures lived here. So far they had been kind and I had passed through here unharassed once… surely I could again?

I had lingered on the borders of the Basin, considering asking Calder to come with me but quickly moved off from the thought. It wasn’t that I did not trust him to keep me safe but I stubbornly resisted the idea that I further needed assistance. Surely I was capable of walking about on my own - the snow would hinder my escape but it would hinder any attackers as well. Still I could not hear the cracking of a twig or the pulse of hoofbeats without wincing, without my own pulse picking up. I was perpetually jumpy and on-edge but my freedom was still new and I did not want it to be taken from me for lack of awareness.

Not overly interested on travelling further north than the Basin, I followed my instincts south. We had taken our time on the journey to the mountains but I had been so tired that I must not have retained any of the little conversation Zandora, Calder, and I had shared. Did we discuss the name of these fields and forests? Did they have names? And what of the streams and the trees? The depth of the snow lessened as I travelled but it covered the plants too much for me to do more than guess at their names, if they were similar to those from the foothills I called home.

It was afternoon when I reached a meadow dappled with snow-lined oaks, the sky a bright and crisp blue as the sun shone deceptively and lit up the light layer of snow so that it glittered. Still getting used to a life outside of slavery, my body was exhausted from the walk already and I found a spot beneath one of the oaks to rest. It took a little fidgeting to get where the branches blocked the worst of the glare from the sun and I was more free to look around and admire the simple, crystalline beauty around me.