Somewhere from the depths of these foreign lands appears another.

Sia watches him with a fixed focus. She cannot easily erase the instincts that have been drilled against her psyche. It made the world a wild place, it made her a wild thing, and now as she stood before them a sense of astonishment plumed and invaded her thoughts. Such feelings failed to surface her face, which remained stoic, save the spirit that wrestled against her auburn eyes.

Could she believe them?

She ducked her head slightly, grasping for the neutral white space of the snow with her eyes.

So tell me, snow… She wanted to say, who are these people?

She could at least appreciate that lies were easy tricks, and that anything too good to be true was indefinitely false. When she wisped her confused eyes back on Roland; a figure highlighted vaguely by subtle hues of dusty red; she recognized the insatiable yearning to blindly accept their propositions without question or reproach. Too many sunless days had gone, lonely and frightened to give up these opportunities. Deprived, vulnerable gypsy that she was, her soul begged her – quite naturally – to choose, to make a decision before it was too late!

“Sir.” She addressed the pegasi. “Thank-you… thank-you for giving me hope. A chance…” A uneven sigh forced itself through her mouth. Why was she making this decision? There had to be some logical reason…

She finally turned and glanced across Descaro and Roland. Ending, staring blankly at the bottomless blue eyes that appeared unfeeling at first, lifeless if not for the practiced skills that broke that mirror. Nonetheless, the filly could not possibly hold all her faith in either three. It would be more than foolish to do so; it would mean death.

“I would like to go to the Aurora Basin.”

What was a life lived out alone and empty? Perhaps that was what scared the child most of all.

And then, loneliness was also a very safe place.

But without purpose now that she had nowhere to run, no drive except to hold out on hopes and dreams alone, she waited. Having been chilled for so long by the winter, she could finally wait, and follow… even if it only meant wandering towards this new place. It didn’t guarantee her that Descaro or Roland would stay with her, and that in fact she would be quite alone trapped in herds as large as oceans; with one white and red drop to add to the fold.

'Hell, you’re one of the luckiest girls… knowing what it’s like to be loved.'

'Fuck you…'

It just hurt more, she thought.