The Glazier joins me, and I find myself plunging forth into the waves with a joyous kick of my feet, attacking the ebbing liquid with enthusiasm. I feel myself become weighed down as the long strands of my tail become waterlogged and heavy, but I use it as an exercise to strengthen my haunches, lifting and swinging my long tail though the water instead of letting it drag along the ocean's sandy base. My wings lift high, though feather still get damp - droplets roll off them, repelled by the dander that coats all feathered creatures, through with the prolonged submergence they too eventually soak in the liquid. The fact that flight is less of an option now does not trouble me - I find myself trusting this steed, perhaps because I feel I could take him on if a physical altercation arose or because I felt he was an honest worker of the Edge, a herd I once knew to be peaceful. Either way, I was unconcerned with the need to flee to the skies in the immediate future.

As the water lapped further and further up the sides of my barrel, I revelled in the sensation of washing away the dust and grime that had been building up across my hide. As the ocean engulfed my withers, I laughed as Dragomir did, with my wings sticking up from the great blue, dark pillars of feathers that glittered with the splashing and crashing waves. I toss my damp forelock from my eyes and do similar to he, dipping my nose into the water and leaning back on my hocks. As I rise and spin, my wings flap, sending a broad spray of droplets across the vicinity, before pushing myself now towards the shore and the painted hide of the steed. I laugh as his muzzle encourages more droplets to cascade towards me, and I do similar, only I use my wings, skirting them along the surface of the water before surging them upwards and towards him, a broad grin upon my maw.

It is times like these, when I am filled with such careless happiness, that I am then hit with a truckload of guilt.

Your absence burns through me, suddenly and all-consumingly. I shudder to an abrupt halt in my motions, my bodice tremoring in the shallows of the beach. Perhaps it looks as if I have run out of breath, or swallowed copious amounts of water - I would gladly do any of those things and more than to face the reality of the horrible thing that was actually the cause of my sudden shift in perspective. I coughed and spluttered, interrupting a laugh, my wings drooping by my sides as the realisation of your absence once again swallows me whole. The coughs turn into sobs, and it isn't the first time recently I have had such a shift.

My eyes blink as they peer down at the water that swirls between my dark forelegs, my tail dragging along the sand basin behind me, my entire body shaking with the effort of crying, and trying to hide said crying. Normally I would worry at what he would think of me, but right now, all I can do is think of you, your smile, your howl, your dazzling blue flames.. I think of them, I remember them, and I miss them terribly. Sitka, how can I ever be happy without you by my side?

@[Dragomir]