Mauja the FrostHeart
ice cold man watches earth die, eternal winter takes its reign

He had too many questions, and too few answers.

It bothered him enough to send him far east, further east than he usually went even when searching for new blood, and much closer to the Foothills than he preferred. While they could hardly be called enemies, their aroma wasn't the most pleasant mixture to Mauja's racist nostrils. Most of the time he controlled himself enough to live through an encounter with someone of a different species, but an entire mixed herd - it disgusted him, and the Unicorns who lived in such settings deserved to have their horns removed. They were less than worthless, and somehow revolted him much more than a simple pegasus did. Just the mere thought of skirting around their border made him angry, the reality of having their scent in his mind even worse. He was glad for the cover of nightfall as he quickly stepped around their territory, a pale ghost flashing by. He was practically steaming on the inside, a volcano ready to erupt, but it would ruin everything if he had a witness. With that knowledge hammering next to fury in his cold heart he ran, blindly, towards the path that looped around the mountains. He needed the cool clarity of winter, and not the sweltering heat of summer.

Summer, though, was the reason he was there in the first place. Panting, hot breaths rushing in and out of his nostrils, Mauja thundered up the path. Sweat laced his pale body, long tail whipping behind him in the wind. The only thing that could stall an outburst was to move, to run, to work it out of the system that way, and with a fine disregard for his own safety the Edge King pushed on. He was used to rocky ledges, so as long as he saw where he was going, it worked... But soon enough the legendary fog covered the path and Mauja was forced to slow down to a walk. His sides heaved with his rapid breathing, heart still thundering in his chest, but the Foothills were far gone and the salty scent of the sea was lodged in his nostrils. The anger was gone, too, and for now he pushed aside the knowledge that he had to descend as well.

At this much more moderate pace Mauja continued his ascent, hugging the mountainside and feeling his way through the thick fog. He had lived long enough at the Edge to learn the pattern of it as it broke over an edge, and was smart enough to not walk off the mountain and fall into the sea. As the minutes ticked by and became an hour or more, he first grew tired, but then alert again; the air was thinner, it smelled less of salt and more of, well... heaven. It was cool, too, the wind whispering against his cold, sweaty body; it was night, the Moon ruling above this cover of cloud. It was for her that he was here - for guidance, answers, solace. With the heat of the Sun ravaging their lands, they needed a direction in which to go. He doubted he'd be served a perfect solution to their problem, but he hadn't come up here just because of the view - his own home provided an adequate one of the ocean, after all. No, it was to get a sense of feeling, of knowing where to go and what to do. Was it a war of Gods, in which the mortals could just stand by? Or could they strengthen the Moon and her Earth brother with worship?

Could they actually fight one of the Gods, physically?

So many questions and he doubted any would be answered. With a resigned sigh Mauja stepped above the clouds and out onto the flat grassland, and without stopping despite the breathtaking view he moved deeper onto the field. It seemed that, so far, the Sun had left them fairly alone - maybe because he regarded them as, well, his? But tonight they belonged to the Moon, and she sat regally in the sky and shone upon them with her cold silver light. It was for her that he had eyes, and to her he whispered: "Tell me what to do."

( for Aylin! )