Deep and thick the trees stood around him, towering giants in the place he had come to think of as Ancient Helovia. Empty of clones, alternate personalities and storylines, it was his sanctuary, and more and more often he found himself within it, but why he was not quite certain. Had he somehow found a pathway to it, located either in a physical realm or within his soul? Or was some capricious God being merciful all of a sudden? Or was he dying?

No, Irma's stalwart denial said. It was such a complete, thorough rejection of the notion that it was hard not to believe it. Whenever he wondered about his own state of life, she told him they were still alive — in no uncertain terms. And yet, if he doubted his own sanity.. why not doubt the sanity of his owl as well? Sighing, Mauja stared up at the clear blue sky, and the few drifting tendrils of thin clouds up high. If he had had wings.. if he could've flown.. would he have found the way back home? Would he have been able to soar into the stars? Better to yearn for what he had never had, than to fall into the trap of hope, though it was hard to deny that odd things happened.

As if anything in his life wasn't odd right now.

Lowering his head, the majestic stallion rubbed his cheek against his carpal, before moving on. Moist spring grass, lush earth and verdant mosses cushioned each of his frosted hooves when he stepped upon it, and aside from the trill of early birds and the occasional deer, he met no one he could truly converse with here. It was as if Helovia was stuck in a perpetual dawn, just awakened from an old, deep sleep.. waiting for life to come. So why was he here? Mauja snorted. If he knew the answer to that question, perhaps he wouldn't still be here.

Within a glade, an opening in the trees, the former King drifted to a halt again. Sunlight filtered down through budding, small leaves, and sparkled in the dew upon every leaf and spider's web. So untouched, so rich — it was beautiful in a way that tugged at his heart, in a way that he could understand... And it was better to just raise his head and close his eyes and drink in the sunlight, than think of the world he had been taken from.

Better to stand there and breathe, than know that yet again the boundary weakened and his shadow slipped into the real world, just a short distance from the newcomer mare.

( Basically she can see him, and he looks like a ghost - transparent, distant, sort of "dreamy". ^^ He's lost in time at the moment but at times he kind of.. "shows through" to the real world. xD so what he sees, is really not what she sees. >_>; as he's.. some place else, lmao. )