Look down, the ground below is crumbling
Look up, the stars are all exploding
Slowly, pale pools of glistening amber began to adjust to the weight of night’s blackness, there in the depths of the Deep Forest. It was an environment quite unlike the Threshold’s sparse, unlidded forest, and a stark contrast to the milky wash of moonlight which more often than not illuminated her desert home throughout these late hours. She related this darkness to that of the caves she and Silas had explored and dwelt within throughout the Frostfall and Birdsong- Africa had not experienced the wrath of the Endless Night while she hid below the weathered cliffs to the east; actually and probably, right beneath her very hooves as she swayed here now.
Gloomy dapples did not show well at night, and so Africa appeared to be a dismal, weak-black as she lingered there steady hooves pressed securely into the forest floor, waiting with baited breath for any answer to her call. One ear was stained forward carefully, listening intently the space just beyond her position, while its twin shifted backwards and forwards uncertainly, searching through the stillness for any other stirring of life; sign of company.

There was a movement ahead and both long ears pricked with cautious interest, eyes peering with much effort to extricate the shadowy form of another horse’s head turning towards her- quite low, perhaps attached to a fallen body. The silhouette of a long, spindly horn blurred as the stranger moved again to try and view Africa. A gap in the vast canopy above allowed a streak of cool blue-moonlight to descend upon the vicinity and both Africa and the unfamiliar Unicorn were cast in the delicate spotlight.
' •Still the other looked black, any lighter markings were quite undiscernible despite the one-winged mare’s best effort to examine the features and any display of behaviour which her company might have been offering. Perhaps the red-russet locks which cascaded about the dusky curve of her vertical neck, and draped down across a narrowing skull outlined the collapsed stranger’s fore-quarters a little.

Finally the signal which Africa had been waiting, somewhat anxiously for, peeled through the air- cheerful and quite obscure given the creepy atmosphere of all which surrounded them. She stepped forward slowly then, reassured at least that the other was of a genuinely friendly nature, and Silas rocked lazily with the movement of her traversing body.
He could see easily that the mare was folded unobtrusively into a bed of festering leaves and other, matter; and that she was younger than his beloved- her lithe, downcast frame not yet filled out with the tone and bulk which adults of their kind portrayed. This one was perhaps a child still, and her manner was nothing but passive as she gazed curiously up at Africa.
There was a meek shuffling across the floor, and Africa found she could see the smaller horse with far greater easy- a warm smile lifting away all that remained of the grave concern in her pale complexion.

"Cypress," She repeated fluidly, blinking her intelligent eyes through a thoughtful nod, "I am Africa." Her face leaned diligently left as she peered down at Cypress, wondering if perhaps she was injured or lost, here, in perhaps the most mysterious region in all of Helovia- Africa’s educated opinion of course. "You are young." She noted aloud, moving closer again so that her lowering whiskers might brush the cheek of the girl. "Why are you alone in this forest?" Africa was no fool to question the ability or resilience of an adolescent- they were often times in her experience, just as brazen and courageous as they were foolish and impulsive. Instead she blew affectionately about the youth’s ears, unable to withhold her caring nature.