They hadn't ventured beyond the borders of their home in far too long. Time had passed, familiar trails had disappeared while new ones stretched into unknown places. Areas that once had been inhabited now lay abandoned. A thick quiet fell from the sky along with each fragile crystal, as though the world was holding its breath. His footsteps felt too loud, too heavy despite the deliberate caution he took in treading cautiously. A heart unprepared for the power of all emotions felt pounded in sloping ears, and as he licked the frost off the lips it left a salty taste upon the tongue. Bitter, lingering, like the sorrow that drained the day of its beauty and closed the lid on cheer and laughter.
The stallion hadn't been able to keep away even though he knew that he would gain nothing by coming here. Guided by memories pulled from the memory of his distraught dragon the grullo had wandered eastwards, into the deep uninhabited forests close to the Threshold. He had to see it. Had to say goodbye and pay his last respects to Torasin even knowing that the golden stallion would no longer be able to return his words with that polite smile of his. Lace knew it wouldn't make him feel any better to look down at the corpse of his friend, but still he went. Over fields, across the frozen river, further and further the place where he should have been, until he arrived to that spot in the woodland that had now become a graveyard.
It had only brought him heartache to see the fallen, frozen carcass lying half-buried in the snow. In the end nothing had been said, no final words had been uttered. What was there to say, when the real Torasin and his Kiba was no longer there? Only pieces of cold meat met his eyes, food for wolves and insects. Soon it would have returned to the earth, and the memory of their radiance would gradually pale from their memories...
"I will remember. You will too, light-of-my-heart. We swore we would."
The voice echoed within the gold-clad soldier, bounced between the walls of his soul and then fell to the bottom of his gut where everything that wasn't sorrow seemed to have retreated. He wasn't ready to accept that yet. For now he had to mourn, had to miss the bright soul that had been a comrade and a brother. He could return to hope once these feelings of loneliness, sadness and burning rage had lifted from the throat, when the sight of that icy tree no longer haunted his mind. Who had erected such a memorial before anyone had been able to reach the fallen healer? Who was it that had impaled the dragonbonded's heart, stealing away his life and leaving them all bereft and hurting? If Lace ever found the one responsible for this...
"Up ahead" Fajira suddenly said, cutting through his thoughts like a pearly white knife. Barely aware of where he had ended up the frost-bitten equine focused his gilded eyes on a figure in the snow, standing on the other side of a clear pool. For a moment he froze, mind racing wildly as imagination mixed with reality. Was this the guilty one? Was it this dark figure, this horned abomination in shape of a horse that had dealt a blow against the Qian? A burning sensation burned through his veins, a hatred stronger than anything he had felt before directed itself towards the stranger. Lace felt warm, so hot, as if his blood had been set on fire. Snowflakes sizzled and evaporated as they landed on his skin and around the feet the snow began to melt as uncontrolled magic leaked from the body. Breathing heavily he glared forward, ears flattening against the poll while taught lips retreated from yellowed ivories hungry for a bite... and in response to his state of mind the white dragon plummeted from the sky, teeth bared and claws ready to rip and tear and dye the pristine snow in crimson.
Then a flash of recognition brought them both to a halt. Fajira squawked in surprise and veered to the side just in time to miss the left flank of the roan mare, and just like a switch had been flicked the surge of emotion faded from the mind of the steed, replaced by surprise and a sudden tiredness that felt very out of place.
"Huyana..?" he asked hesitantly and began to move forward, having to search his mind for a while to find the name of the unicorn he had met only briefly over a year ago - in this very forest. "It is you, isn't it... It's Lace. Maybe you don't remember, but we've met before." He threw a quick glance at the dragon as she struggled to pull herself out from the thorny shrub she'd landed in, before returning his gaze to the blue lady. She looked a bit off, staring the way she had been into the rippling surface of the red-rimmed pool... "Is everything alright?"
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