The air snaps out at her flesh. Frigid teeth, seeking brutal entry into lungs, eyes, mouth and lips. The snow is crisp and cracks underneath her ashen hooves. Wings clutch close to the heroine’s sides. Milky neck feathers remain slick back, folded close to her long neck in her attempt to conserve heat. The forests offer no reprieve from the rogue winds that fell beyond the cliff edges.
 
A winter like this makes it difficult to fly. If the ground air is as cold as it is now, then up above, where the air is free to do as it wishes – the temperatures plummet even further. The youth breaches beyond the forest she had been walking through, just in time to see the sun sneak a glance at her. A moment for his kisses, before the clouds swell from either direction and swallows the skies whole. She hisses underneath her breath, whipping her tail in dismay.
 
She moves further out from the borders, in search of a midnight mare with frozen white locks – tainted with teal ends. Her scent is hard to find, because the cold air burns Ru’s nostrils when she inhales – and there are many, many other scents to filter through. But the dunskin persists on the ground. Her cool gaze sweeping the lands as she passed further within.
 
The Edge was not home yet. But after a time of exploring, she inevitably felt the old aches that had first brought her to the Edge’s doors. The concept of a ‘friend’ however, had not yet sunk in. Although it twisted about in her mind in a metaphysical sense – emotions and experiences that the girl couldn’t quite grasp into words yet. Could not assign herself to this idea of friendship, as if scared it would slip through her grasp like her mother had. Forever lost, meaningless in its new hopes and possibilities. So there it remained reserved and brewing, despite her search for the Moon Doctor Lyanna.
 
As her thoughts wandered without her, she entered another grove. The air became unnaturally quiet, just as the clouds poured out with fresh snow. Beyond the forest canopy it nearly blotted the distance, but from within the confines of the old trees the snow trickled in. Gentle, soft, divine in that intimate atmosphere devoid of another soul. It was beginning to make the mare uneasy. Her steps became careful, avoiding the rasping bark with a pointed path on wards. There were shadows in this wood that seemed to grow, reaching for the one who trespassed into parts unknown.
 
Indeed, the Edge was not yet home. Perhaps it would have to take some time, much more than the heroine had first anticipated.
 
Feeling as if the shadows had grown into one massive, prowling spirit – she feared to look back then. And stared onwards with a wavering confidence.
 
Right until the form of the greenhouse caught her gaze - transparent walls, lacking a roof to cover the earth, steered the shadows at her back away. Dissolved in the far reaching curiosity of the youth’s mind, alighting discovery with amusement and awe. Her quiet chirps followed her hurried trot. She settled right beside one of these walls, and pressed her dark maw against its surface with a hesitant laugh. Grinning at her faint reflection.