I knew that I wasn't supposed to leave mother.  I didn't mean to leave. And to be perfectly honest, I wasn't entirely sure where I was, but I thought I knew enough to get myself back home.  There were just so many new things to see and to follow now that the world wasn't so cold.  It was always cold in the place that mother and the others called home, but not quite as cold as the day that we had all first arrived. Back then the snow had blown in thick drifts and it was easy to get stuck. I wasn't sure why mother had taken us up into the mountains until she had shown us the caves and the springs and all the other things that had been hidden away.  It seemed that there was magic hiding everywhere if you went looking for it! I stumbled through the trees almost gracefully, following after the lynx, and couldn't believe how different this place looked from home.

I wondered if mother and brother were worried about me. I frowned, and looked back over my shoulders at the mountains that I knew meant home.  I could still see them which meant I could still find my way back.  So I looked back at the reason I had come so far away. The lynx and her babies.  We'd been playing all morning, and when brother had grown tired the baby cats had been more than willing to play!  I just hadn't realized how far we'd gone until the snow wasn't so deep around my baby-legs and the trees started to grow thick and soon all of everything was painted in colors I'd never seen before.  How was I possibly supposed to turn back now? I'd found a new magical place! Maybe if I brought back some of the colors for mother and Virga they wouldn't be so upset that I went off and had an adventure without them. 

I followed after the baby-lynx until the mother-lynx cried out and disappeared, effectively ending our game.  I let out a frustrated huff before craning my head around to find what it was that had startled the mother-lynx. I was surprised to find it was quite a large gathering of other equines - sort of like the group that had welcomed us home! However, I did recognize any familiar faces.  There seemed to be all sorts of people gathered around, so with no hesitation at all, I bounded over to the group much more confident in my ability to stop and go on command now. Realizing that the group was growing much larger then they seemed much more quickly than I thought, I struggled to stop.  The slick stones did not provide much purchase for baby hooves so with little grace I tumbled head over foot, landing with an oof and a giggle at the edge of the pond - staring out at the fish and egg in a rather prone position with rather wide eyes, unaware of the scene I likely caused. 

"Oh, Fish!" I murmured, happily - quite enraptured, "Hi! I then looked up at the others, finally feeling somewhat abashed before echoing the only practiced greeting I knew for the impressive group that had gathered here. "Hi!"