The bucket was heavy, and Africa was more than relieved that her company was carrying it on the return journey. Water slipped and sloshed across their path, up dell and down dale, but she was sure there would be plenty to deliver at the end to the God of the Earth.

The heat was wearing a thin line through her tolerance – she felt as though her bloated barrel had the breadth of a tree angled sideways within – and each breath drawn seemed barely to fill her gasping lungs. She spoke nothing of her discomfort to Midas though because she was still quite unsure what the cause was herself. Perhaps there was no hiding it regardless; her legs had adopted an awkward stagger (no matter how smooth her intention) and as she grew tireder still, her pace slackened considerably.

As she walked, musing about the helpless changes occurring, a small smile slid by him to perhaps nullify any rising concern he might feel - she was completely consumed!

They fell again across the pasture where the Earth had bent his trees, and the structure seemed larger still then even it had before. A curious glance searched the expression of the painted stallion as they placed the water with at least a dozen others, and she listened with a tipped ear as the enormous God imparted his next task upon them. Collect plants... she mused in silence as Silas arrived across her spine with a beak stained bright blue. Her wandering eye noted it playfully and she swayed her hips in a cumbersome (failed) effort to unbalance him. Tasty? thoughts questioned, and she looked to the direction he had come to see if the other pair – missing for some time as well – were trailing.

The second they began to move again, Africa wanted to suggest they find thistles or preserve a line of grass; anything that would mean less travel. She sucked a long breath though and gathered aching legs to continue – a needless hero for the occasion. At least, that was until they came across an inconspicuous couple uprooting a dandelion.

The one-winged mare flashed a smile by Midas – utterly relieved and thus filled with new enthusiasm – and hurried forward to meet them. “Do you need help?” she asked boldly, more so than she had been the entire event thus far. There was one with no horn, and she presumed naturally that it meant no affiliation to the Basin – or Unicorns like those...