Ever since her birth, the desert air has felt heavy from the anger and sorrow hanging over the Throat. The whole mess is palpable, the weight of it as constricting and as confined as being trapped in the coils of a boa. Every ounce of tension simply seems to grow instead of dissipating as the herd settled into their new normal. Gaucho's passing occurred so swiftly after her own birth that she didn't really comprehend why the herd seemed to be turning on each other. She couldn't understand the sadness tainting their souls, couldn't comprehend the figurative clouds hanging so drearily above so many of their heads. She is so fresh to this world that she still holds every ounce of innocence she could possibly possess. Death is an unknown and far off concept; life's impermanence isn't even a blip on her radar.

So it should come as no surprise that she continues on her merry, youthful way.

The dawn creeps in, slowly spreading upwards and outwards from the horizon - lightening the sky with a rainbow of warmer colors. The sun paints a canvas so beautiful, the filly finds it rather difficult to focus on her own breakfast. Just as soon as she finishes, however, the girl is off, hastening on her way as nearly all young do: with seemingly boundless energy and a nearly forgotten 'goodbye' and 'I love you' shouted over a shoulder. Her mother had a lot of business to attend to, often leaving the filly the freedom to explore the desert on her own. With the Throat separated from the mainland, the filly is relatively safe to wander; as long as she doesn't fall off into the icy sea water surrounding the island, of course.

Bella heads towards the northern coast for her little expedition today, though it takes her ages to get there with her slow and perpetually distracted demeanor. Frequently the girl pauses to examine some desert creature or plant and finds a reason why each subsequent one was somehow as (or perhaps more) intriguing than the last. Everything is still so new, so novel and different, that the filly can hardly hold back the excitement each time she stumbles on something she's never seen before. In fact, Bella is particularly entranced by a small lizard skittering across the sands that she isn't aware of where she's going or who just might be in her path. Still she bounds after the lizard with a somewhat reckless and joyful abandon.