Here once more, the doe couldn't find herself to stay in place at the Falls; she had regained the strength to adventure away from the hidden valley, but in fear of finding herself lost again, only returned to the very same property lines that she had been only weeks ago. Still, Arvakl's sinister, distant eyes bore into the underfed mare's mind, haunting her dreams each night of her lonesome slumber. While she felt safe under the distant eyes of herd mates, she will never feel right without her sister's voice each night.. even if it wasn't the friendliest.

      Today the weather is fair, unlike it had been just the night before. The chill of Frostfall kept the brutt up all night, quivering in a small ball, her body trying to shut down in the middle of the night while her eyes slipped closed. But now the sun made it's way out of the thicket of clouds once in a great while, the wind cold, but nothing that made the malnourished girl stop and wince in pain. It was calm enough even, that a stranger had set to the skies to take a fly. Hiding beneath a thin, leafless tree with thick bark with the wind coming directly at her, she watches the man circle down from the sky and find his feet with ease. Wonder filled her sheltered mind, aquamarine eyes focused hard on the decorative gold splattered along his wings and up along his body. Bountiful hair leaked off of the side of his arched neck; she can feel her thick forelock wrapped around her right ear and crawling down her face, hopefully covering the sickly scar she is so ashamed of.

      At this point, she could see the stallion sniffing at the air, his wings still arched out and feathers being tickled by the wind. A stiff smile toys with her velvet lips, pulling them up at the corners; how she wished she could have been adorned with wings like her sister. Once more, Arvakl makes it into her empty mind. The sister with the pink highlights and her fluffy, magnificent, powerful wings. "Each night, once every one else is asleep, he flies high up into the heavens and sleeps on the clouds." Her father's voice whispers in her head, a night time story she could only hear on the nights that mother wasn't around.

      The sound of feathers folding against the wind sucks the brutt back into reality, her eyes refocusing from one golden feather and back onto the now rattling body of the stranger as he shakes his head in the air. Silently, she blinks hard, trying to count the golden splatters that decorate his dark body. Another breeze tosses her forelock across her right eye, causing her to shy away from the gust and fold into herself, tripping on one of the tree roots to her right. She falls into the tree, her hip hitting first before she nearly drops and a whimper escaping her dry throat; in a hurry, she finds her footing behind the root and freezes in her tracks, hoping to have not disturbed the speckled man that stands a stones throw away.

"Speech"
@[Bucephalus]

      As soon as she was heard, the stranger's attention was regained, and he wasn't pleased with his silent visitor. A demanding shout allowed the frail woman's ears to lay back in fear, her heart beating hard in her chest within a split second. From this far away she could easily turn and run.. No, not easily, she had no idea where she was going. On top of being easily lost, the doe wasn't known for being agile nor quick; she was filth, remember? The rag doll's throat tightens while the stranger rips a chunk of sod from the freezing earth, each breath full of lively steam clouds and one as ragged as the next.

      The show only grew worse, those wings she had just day dreamed about moments before now making her want to dissolve into a pool of shame and sink into the soil below. The golden-splashed brute raised himself off of the ground, a powerful thrust of his massive wings sending the remaining thistle plants scattering off of their shoots and tumbling toward the shaking doll. So many tears of Adelis' have already been shed in Helovia - she was sure they would be the reason for vegetation to once again return in Birdsong - and once more her vision was blurred behind hot tears as they swelled on dark lids.

      Intimidated, and heavily reminded of her entire childhood, the doe raised her antlered head, searching for a way out of this mess before she was beaten and left for dead by this strange and violent man. The tiny chain, proving always to be more of a hassle than a blessing, slipped across a low hanging twig that sprouted perfectly off of the branch. The silver pendant pulled hard while the brutt swung her head the opposite direction; the chain, strong enough to not snap in half, clacked against bone and made the rag doll freeze in her steps once more. "No-" she whimpered, eyes reaching up to try to spot the necklace as it dangled between limb and antler. "No, no, no, please don't!" she finally spoke up, likely loudly enough for the outraged male to hear.

      Scared and unsure of what to do, Adelis shook her skull, listening to the metal clink against itself and rake across bone and bark. Dark lips tightened while she held back a sob, now pulling herself forward and the chain slipping off of the twig. Freed from the branch, the ghostly pale woman slid from the shadows. Bright, wet eyes peeking up at the brute from behind a wild forelock and a swaying gem inlaid in silver. Her legs trembled, sprawled out like an hour long old foal finding their strength and following their mother. "I'm sorry." A whimper, choking back those same hot tears that had somehow not spilled onto her dainty, dished face.

"Speech"
@[Bucephalus]

      She she burled into view, the anger immediately washed away from the stranger; instead of a fierce scowl that she had expected, his features slide into an almost worrisome, soft mask. Still her heart pounds wildly, her ears flooded with the noise from within her body and her body trembling. "Hush, you didn't do anything wrong-" blue eyes danced behind tears and she blinked against them, ears slowly rotating forward. "Hush-" She hadn't ever heard the phrase "You didn't do anything wrong," and as relieving as it was to hear, it seemed almost foreign to her mind. A shaky breath is drawn in through dark flared nostrils before she can even think of a response. The stallion's wings retracted to his dark sides, her eyes finding themselves on the soft looking feathers; being this close, she almost wanted to reach out and touch them.. she hadn't even felt Arvakl's when they had, well.. when she had gotten in her way once again.

      "I apologize Miss-" he trailed off, perhaps inquiring for a name, perhaps unsure of where to turn and run to. Still, it would be rude to not offer her name, wouldn't it? "Adelis." she chokes out, having to clear her throat softly afterword. Unable to keep balance all spread out in a wide stance, she pulled herself up slowly, her head staying just at shoulder height. His eyes bore into her, taking in every inch of her battered body; out of habit, the rag doll pulled her dished face to the left, shying away from his gaze as she attempted to hide the massive gash that began at her snout and stopped at her cheek . Her jaws tightened, teeth grinding and making her ears twitch as they did so. Always ashamed of her looks, she cannot help but wonder if the speckled stallion caught site of her worst scar. Regardless, he was still looking her up and down, eating her with his eyes.

      Finally the tension in her brain was broken once he spoke again, introducing himself as Bucephalus and explaining his reasoning behind the violence she had just witnessed. Taught not to spoke until spoken to, the brutt nodded, her eyes cast down from his face and trying once more to count the spots that peppered his shoulders; nervous habit, perhaps. 'One, two, three.. six, seven.'- "Might I ask where you are from?" She stopped counting, stopped breathing for a second, almost forgetting where Midas and Kiara and the panther had brought her that miserable morning. "The Hidden Falls." she replies, her voice no longer shaking, but soft and unsure.

      Bright eyes reached up for Bucephalus', secretly taking into account that his forelegs are dipped in white. Even if she were to pick her head up and look proud, the liquid gold staring down at her seemed so high up. A smile wanted to crawl across her lips, but all she could manage to crack across her lips was a soft, shy grin. She wanted to know so badly how it felt to fly, to soar through the sky and touch the clouds and taste the fresh air. Sometimes if she closed her eyes and held her breath, she could imagine what it must feel like. "I was watching you fly." she whispered, eyes casting back down from the strong yellow ones of Bucephalus.

"Speech"
@[Bucephalus]

      "A lovely name for an equally lovely mare." 'What?' shocked, flattered, and confused all at the same time, the brutt's eyes narrowed slightly before attempting to lock onto the yellowed eyes above her. 'He's lying. He's making fun of me.' her conscience babbled; offense bubbled underneath the flattery and one trembling leg moved her back by the shortest foot, the pendant tapping the thick, rough base of her right antler. The sentence played over and over in her head, trying to pick up a note of sarcasm in his deep voice, but the more she replayed it, the more she forgot what exactly it was that he had said. Finally, she decided to ignore it and let the stallion move on. Perhaps he would make a less hidden joke further into the conversation and allow her brain to ease out of mistaken, overwhelming joy.

      At this moment, his flirtatious tone dissipated in the Frostfall air (which was what kept the ghost visibly quivering) and relief washed over her warm eyes. At the mention of the Falls, Bucephalus' expression changed drastically, but that tone that held mild concern still played with his tongue while he spoke. He mentioned something called the Threshold, a name unfamiliar to the uneducated doll, and someone he called Elsa (also unfamiliar) but at the mention of her weight, Adelis wanted to fall to her knees and hide from this winged man. For not knowing many of her herdmates, the young-minded girl knew that there were a few who did care about her health; hadn't Midas found her, the girl would likely have been killed off already. "No," she says under another shaken breath, "They take care of me. I.." she pauses, wanting to bite the inside of her cheek, but she pulls hard and finds her voice. "I like them. I used to be smaller." For as much grass that she has been able to consume in the past season, the brutt had only thought that she must have filled out, but for as far gone as her body was, it was going to take a lot longer than just a season.

      Even while stewing over the thought of this stranger thinking that no one cared for her, she still managed to allow that grin to creak across her face and share what she had been doing before his fit. "I have never seen a-" Bucephalus pauses in his words, almost as if he was trying to find the right word to connect the dots. "-unicorn before I came here.-" Silently, her still wet eyes blink in confusion; how has he not seen a unicorn before? Her memories sway around like old Polaroids clipped up by clothes pins on a line of wire; most blurred, some faded, and others erased to black. What she does remember though, is how bountiful Arvakl and their mother's wings were, but they had all carried antlers and some of the distant herd mates that Adelis could never meet even had sharp, lonesome ones. She had spotted a few of those at the Hidden Falls.

      Eventually the malnourished girl nods at the brute's words, her eyes finding themselves on his once more. "Almost.. cruel." 'I want to fly so badly.' she wanted to cry, to just climb out of bed one morning and be adorned with the same fluffy wings as Arvakl. The brutt's tail sways between long back legs, the blue tips dragging across the ground at their longest strings. "Does flight interest you?" Another nod. Finally a smile spreads across her dark lips, her forelock still hung securely over most of the scar, though the bit above her nostril would always be visible. "My sister can." she mentioned, her voice finally fully audible over the constant breeze in the Meadow.

"Speech"
@[Bucephalus]

      The man was always moving, whether it was a small flick of an ear or a wing shifting, he was almost always in motion. Now, he digs at the frozen layer of snow and ice, digging up enough dying vegetation below to feed a hungry mouse's family. Her wet eyes looked up from behind that thick forelock, quivering in their sockets as she dipped her head down obediently at his words. "Eat,-" he stated, his voice distant in her dusty mind. His eyes, as soft as real gold and just as shiny, watched her with some kind of interest that she couldn't understand. Why anyone would find any interest in her, she hadn't a clue.

      "Stay away from me, filth." Arvakl's voice echoed between her black rimmed ears, over and over again, ending each time just strong enough to prod the back of her brain and make her close her tired eyes. She wondered where her dear sister is now, and what she must be doing. '[/i]Flying.[/i]' she whispered to herself in her head, velvet lips almost tugging into a grin again before they were wrapped around dull, wet grass. Silently she chewed, worried that her teeth grinding too loudly would bother Bucephalus or send him into another fit. "If you'd like.." he pauses, trailing off for a second before finishing his sentence. "I could try to describe flight, if you'd wish?"

      A single blade of grass fell from her now empty mouth, sailing through the air before tucking itself away again among it's family roots. Her eyes, open once more, search the golden brute's in hopes of finding some perverse joke hiding behind them. But nothing was there for her to find, only that same yellow twinkling back that had been the whole while. "Could you?" she whispered, eager to learn about something that she loved so much. From years of watching, it looked to come as naturally as running to Arvakl and their mother.

      Her small, dainty face raised from the half-eaten bushel of grass, her lips slack in a straight line. He paused in his words once more, changing his mind and teetering on showing or telling. "But first-" his round foot scratches at the same pile of grass she had just been slowly chewing to bits, "you must eat and grow stronger." Her jaw parted, dark lips peeling apart by the smallest centimeter as if she wasn't sure what he meant by "eat." Again, her small snout is touching the earth, lips pulling tenderly at the grass, sorry that she was eating the food that someone else could.

      A couple more small mouthfuls left little more than the roots in the area she had been nibbling off of and she raised her antlered head again, blue-tinged tail swinging back and forth between thin legs as she finished. "Please, please! I want to learn so badly." she whimpered, ears cupped forward and her attention completely focused on the star-littered stallion.

"Speech"
@[Bucephalus]