It was my first time leaving the Falls and Letha since she'd been born, but I was comfortable leaving her with Dragomir to watch over her. He might have been awkward at times, but I trusted him with my life and the life of my child. He would make sure that she was safe and warm until I returned to feed her, and while I would have loved to have stayed tucked away all day I had other things on my mind. It had been a while since I'd seen Cathun and I thought about searchihg for him to make sure he was still taking his quest seriously, especially since he'd entertwined my life with his. At the time I hadn't been too worried about it, but since then I'd become a Czarina and a mother. I couldn't afford for him to not take his quest seriously and kill me in the process.

Then there was Ros. I couldn't even remember the last time that I'd seen her and I hoped that I'd stumble upon her while wandering around because that seemed the only time I ever found her. I was never really successful when I looked for her.

And Mara had an insatiable urge to roam and explore, and I wasn't very keen on exploring with a foal in tow. At least with Mara if anything threatened us I could grab her and take to the skies. Letha was too big for me to carry and too young to fly -- it would be some time before her flight feathers finally grew in.

Being bonded to Mara was still very strange to me. I could feel her excitement over the smallest things -- I discovered rather quickly that she liked shiny objects and if given the chance would snatch them away and try to hide them. More than once I'd caught her trying to take the tailring that Ros had given me. When she was caught she would make this noise, something between a chirp and a trill, and she would run off and hide and wait for her next chance to steal whatever had caught her attention.

Now, however, she wasn't so much interested in shiny things as she was meaty things. She bounded ahead of me, her snow white fur making her blend in almost perfectly with the snow. I found that she liked to change her forms multiple times a day -- the first time she'd done it had left me shocked and I would have been confused if I hadn't already meat Chico once before. I knew right away when she heard something beneath the snow because she crouched down then leapt into the air and dove head first into the snow. Her butt wriggled, her tail flicking from side to side as she tried to dig herself deeper into the snow and then she was stuck. I couldn't help myself - I laughed as I walked over to where she was stuck. I grasped her by the tail and pulled her out and once she was free she was off again to a, hopefully, more successful hunt.

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