Since parting from the Secret Grove, I’d felt quite off. I couldn’t be rid of the feeling of the –imaginary?- flies that had violated me in ways that I did not care to mention ever again. At times I could nearly hear their incessant buzzing about my head and I couldn’t help cringing involuntarily when their ghosts reappeared. The memory itself was too much to think of or to bear at any given moment of time, let alone when it conjured itself in broad daylight here in the Edge. My body ached frequently and despite my best efforts, nothing seemed to cure it completely. I wasn’t sure if I was falling ill or if my experiences in the Grove and the Steppe had somehow left me with a mark of their presence. I dreaded the idea and often dismissed it with a shudder, hoping that it would in turn vanquish everything all together… though no such comfort was ever found. Coinciding with the strange apparition of the flies from the Grove, my wings had grown entirely too tender for my liking. They ached when the cold of the wind touched them and they sent sparks of intense pain down my spine were I to move them, even minimally so, along my wide back. There were too many ailments bringing me down at once that it was getting harder and harder to pretend that this had nothing to do with the faceless assailant that harassed me not one, but twice, on two separate occasions.

What was happening to me?

As I tenderly navigated through the Moon’s sacred land, I decided that I could no longer avoid whatever was affecting me. I had to find a way to deal with it or seek help, though I wasn’t sure what kind of help would be acceptable. I feared that seeking a Nurse would only enrage whatever spiritual forces had plagued me with their sinful medicines. So I quietly resolved to deal with the consequences alone without the help of anyone or anything.

As I crossed the tree line of the thick wooded forest in the Edge and into the wide clearing that overlooked the raging sea, I noticed a pale mare perched near the lip of the sheer ledge. However, she did not face the curious sea as she howled at her back. I could hear the impatient ocean beckoning the pallid girl for her attentions from below, whooping and squealing at the cliff until she realized that her efforts had gone unnoticed. I smiled, knowing that the briny waters did not take well to being ignored and so I approached the mare with as much ease as one, so pained as I, could muster. I called out to the mare above the roaring of the waves upon my ascent, hoping that she would not be alarmed by the limping stud before her. “She’s calling to you, you know?” I tried to outweigh the rushing of the salty waters as they danced and twirled far below our balanced hooves, more than happy to be the focal point of any conversation.

As I approached the ghostly figure of the mare, which I could not place by name, I motioned eagerly to the steep cliff, hoping she would follow. As I neared the lip, close enough to look out over the wide expanse of the sea in its entirety, I smiled as she laughed and chuckled upon seeing me. With the hope that the pale girl had found her way to my side, I gestured to the ocean once more. “She’s quite the selfish little thing, isn’t she? Always performing, but never quite getting the appreciation she deserves.” Without turning to look to my companion, I rocked in a slow painful rhythm to the waves and their jubilant song. “I’m Thor… I don’t think we’ve have the pleasure of meeting just yet.” Quietly, I let the ocean and her tunes overwhelm us both. I knew that I wasn’t the only one here seeking serenity. This girl was just as troubled as both the sea and I and I was not a man to deprive her of the nurturing she needed in order to heal.