The sea giggled just beyond the cliff and I could hear the spray of the oceanic waters climbing the wall as if their sole intent were to reach the top in order to glimpse a view of what thrived just beyond their grasp. Morning light danced upon the snow like ghostly reminders of the flowers that once grew within the tall grasses. How I missed their blooming faces peering up at me from my hooves as they brushed about my ankles, planting tender kisses against the feathering that fell around the wide base of my toes. I pondered such beauty and life for a while before letting my thoughts drift out into the vastness of the sea. It turned and thrust about, writhing and rushing in a violent dance that I’d come to know too well, one that I knew so little of in spite of my time spent calling its torrent song my refuge.

As I stood quietly observing the same sight I’d observed a thousand times over, I finally let old memories chase away any reluctance or reservations I’d held about the past. I knew it was time to let go and explore this new life that I’d been awarded, but it still felt too surreal, fake even. I possessed this second chance without consequence and it felt like a mere sham compared to the life I’d once nurtured. I’d felt this woe for too long and yet it still claimed my heart at the most inopportune of times. I should be celebrating my return! Not brooding by the sea like some lost soul… How quaint I’d become, how weak.

In mid-thought, the soft rustling of muted footfall sifted into my reverie. For a moment, I was convinced that it had been a mere figment of my imagination but when a curious voice reached into my conscious, permanently interrupting my daydreaming, I turned quickly. I wasn’t sure if I was grateful or annoyed that someone had felt the need to save me from my own self-induced, inner conflicts. But, ever the gentleman, I lowered my head slowly in greeting. “Good morning to you as well friend.” I’d never seen the queer looking stallion within the Edge before and I could only assume that he had come after my departure. He was a Pegasus, like me, but of course his luminescent appendages appeared to be of more use than the fragile, inoperable vestiges that stood a solemn reminder of my defective birth.

The stranger’s wing coloration was something I’d yet to see before in Helovia and I couldn’t help but stare openly at the pale wings resting atop his starless, black hide. There appeared to be a film of sorts layering the soft curves of each feather and when that film caught the light it cast off various pigments into the open air, each of them shimmering and dancing across my line of sight until I was finally able to suppress my curiosity and face the stallion head-on. However, as I’d somehow assumed, he detected my state of distress and brought it to life before me as if it were a physical thing that we could both plainly see. Flabbergasted, I stared at the imaginary thing standing hunched between us. If my vexations were a monster, it most certainly would have been “hunched” and it would have snarled like a ferocious beast at the two pairs of eyes accosting it now. But as I had now learned to train it, teaching it the proper façades in which others could accept it or at least ignore it, the thing retreated back into the recesses of my mind.

“Ah, just recalling my former glory days… I’m Thor by the way. I don’t think we’ve met before…” Motioning eagerly to my left, I invited the other man to join me as I returned my attention back to the sea. She was stretched out before us and dancing openly to her own rhythmic song which made the sight of her seem altogether worthwhile in spite of the cold gale that was sent up from her depths. She laughed and sputtered and sang in the midst of our conversation and while I wanted to pay her the consideration she so deserved, I was too occupied with company. “Do you have any glory days in which to share young friend? I’m certain that a man such as yourself has seen pride in his day.” Though the remnants of my previous brooding still touched my words and made them wobble across my tongue, I felt no need to share yet another sob story. No one needed to revel in my past. Besides, I was quite certain that I could hide myself in theirs.

Thor