The dark one continues speaking, and while my abrupt little stormcloud had begun wandering away, she did tilt an ear towards the sound, smiling to herself. I felt in her mind, the realisation that she was speaking to a foreigner, a newcomer to the lands - this was not something she often did. Normally others in the herd brought them home, and that was where she greeted them (or more often then not, healed them). The questions the unknown dark mare posed were not unusual questions - the fact of the matter was, Cirrus was born into this wonderfully chaotic, magical world and so thought that this was normal. Being bonded to myself had further opened her eyes to the wonders Helovia contained - being able to palpate another's soul with one's own was an enlightening experience, to say the least.

"What is your name?" My little stormcloud asked, pausing her step to allow the pegasus to catch up, glad to pretend the equine assassin was behind them, forgotten. As the words kept on coming from the dark one, my bonded realised just how sheltered a life this mare must have lived before literally tumbling into the Threshold. Cirrus couldn't possibly hope to explain everything, but I felt the resolve within her tighten as she aimed to do her very best to enlighten the mare on the workings of Helovia.

"Sitka is hardly tame," she began, with an amused smile thrown my way. I lolled my tongue out of my mouth in a few breaths of pant - a generally happy expression, though panting wasn't really needed in these chilly circumstances. "We are bound to one another, our souls have been entwined.. He is everything to me." She said quietly, though clear enough to be heard over the wind that danced around us, but subtle enough that the wind would blur the words to anyone but the shadowy mare. Her magic was working hard to try and deflect said wind, so that the pocket of warmth around us could continue to be maintained. "Bones do heal at their own pace, as do feathers and flesh and blood and everything else.. Unless you are gifted with the ability to enhance this natural process, to improve it and to bend it to your will. My home is sanctioned by the Lord of the Sun, and he granted me with this magic, for as long as I might wish to call myself a healer."

There was so much to speak of, so much to say, that she simply could not say right now. The Sun God had done a great many thing for her - she was sure it had been he who took her father's bodice in the form of a phoenix, he who had given her the magic to alter the weather on that same day, he who had even given me my ability to call flames to dance along my spine. "You walk now in the Threshold of Helovia, a land that contains much more than I have spoken of. That mare back there.. That assassin," she said the word with undisguised distaste, "is an equine, just one of the species that shares Helovia's vast grounds. The other main one is a unicorn, and they look much like equines, but have horns, usually jutting out from their heads." And commonly stealing my family.

"I'm actually travelling North at the moment," she said, knowing she was doing an appalling job at 'recruiting', as those who often took part in the task called it. "My home, the Dragon's Throat, is south of here -you'd be welcome there."

[ Posting out of order as Orinthia indicated to Chan that she would not be pursuing this if Shadow would not follow her. Please let me know if I am incorrect and I shall delete this post myself, thank you. ]