I had finally moved on from the Threshold to seek bigger and better things. I was tired from the journey and my bones ached beneath my skin. Underneath my disabled wingspan, I shuttered against the cold winds that had led me from the claiming grounds to the World’s Edge. Before me, tall bare trees rose to the heavens, their arms stretched outwards and helplessly entwined with one another as a thin mist hung faithfully around their trunks. The frozen atmosphere made it easy to see through the forest and capture the ideal lifestyle that I would soon be living. It was a grand expanse of land, one that could harbor a creature of my size and I was grateful that Mirage had brought us together. This land was now the mother to my hopeful intentions and as I stretched my feet across the hardened ground, I felt the old power that existed in the expanse of nature I now called home.

Under me, the earth quaked as my gait increased, each moment that my legs opened and lifted from the ground, I felt as if I were flying even if I would never know how it felt to touch the clouds above my head. It was no question that I was an imposing animal, my size dwarfing many I had come to greet throughout my lifetime. But now I felt like a small child, weaving between the trees and throwing my haunches against the breeze like a young colt, only slowing to fling myself across a small creek, whereupon I halted my haste to consider more urgent needs. I hadn’t thought of how parched I had become and as I neared the bank, I slid carefully down to the cracked, icy surface. No reflection met me there as it would have if the creek hadn’t been frozen from the new wintry weather. I brought a large hoof down upon the surface whereupon I dipped my massive face to the gurgling waters below. Each mouthful of the chilled stream quenched my dying need while freezing my gut with an icy coat.

I then stepped back to ponder about the things I knew I must approach upon entering a new band. I was eager to meet the other residents, if slightly apprehensive. I was none like the other pegusi and surely a gruesome sight to behold with such misshapen appendages. However, Mirage had spoken so highly of this land and I hoped for nothing but agreeable situations here. Without her guidance, I was sure that I wouldn’t have considered the World’s Edge as I do now. I also longed to begin my quest as a Protector, which only seemed fitting due to my size and nature. That meant that I was in need of a mentor, of friends, of support, of family. All of these things were features I hoped to find in my new place of refuge. Perhaps freedom did not lie in the lonely ranks of an outcast and more so in the numbered alliances of a collective.