I had travelled through the storm, both figuratively and literally. In spite of my allegiance to Kaj, Kahlua, and Archibald, I had chosen a path already forged from my past mistakes. Upon my return to Helovia I had promised to resume my place in the World’s Edge, no matter how many transitions it suffered. That didn’t mean that I didn’t fear what would come of new leadership, but Torliek and Mauja appeared promising thus far… even if I had missed the opportunity to again call myself King of the Edge. The thought was a bitter one that still smarted to the touch, but was I not the Gentle Heart? Had I not overcome adversity too many times before?

Again I set eyes upon the very place of my beginning, one thrust from the earth in order to accompany those new and those old past the gates of uncertainty. The muddy trails became apparent as I slipped between both tree and underbrush, seeking no particular destination other than continual infinity. The Threshold was a place of possibility and one that encouraged a gambling of wit and performance, because this was nothing more than a show of achievement. It was designed to groom one’s ability to persuade and appeal to another… and at times it was nothing more than an auction of the soul. One was not pegged worthy for their intelligence or their skill, but rather for their physique and their momentary allure. All that is new shines bright… but I searched for something more than the obligatory four-legged number. One’s heart was not defined by his count…

However, with honorable intention and perseverance, the Threshold was something of eternal beauty. It stitched together two beings based on trust and understanding alone… It was something that did not always work as I had learned over the years, but also something that was just as rewarding as love itself. I considered myself a bridge toward the future and one that offered the World’s Edge a new start.


With Sabine tucked safely against my neck, I clambered across the sodden ground, still pliant after a midnight storm. It had been a beautiful thing to witness after the heat of TallSun and I had spent most of the witching hours tracing the hazy bolts of lightning as they stretched toward the ground, always missing. I had been lucky enough to seek shelter until morning, which led me on a detour to clear my mind after finally taking up residence again in the World’s Edge. I didn’t want to remember the grueling process of taking the Hidden Falls and I didn’t want to relive the very moments of its end… After all, pain and heartache were all the remained of its natives. How had I ever condoned such a fickle decision? How had I ever moved against them?

Though my thoughts were scattered to the wind, I was quick to recognize a familiar fragrance once married to the Edge itself. However, the brine was fading and the exotic taste of the Falls was becoming more apparent. I hadn’t formally met Lakota during our time by the sea together, but now was as good a time as any- even if it was accompanied by the tension of goodbye. I no longer referred to her as a part of “home”, but who could blame me? I had long ago devoted myself to the mists of the Edge and I’d long ago pressed my hoof to the cliff’s face, vowing to forever remain. Yet, that didn’t keep me from accepting her presence as warmly as I would any stranger despite the rift now between us. However, the mare looked quite different than I’d remembered… Now she appeared quite full and heavy with child. Those dark sides seemed to press against her skin, telling tales of new life that would fade with the memory of her glory as well as the memory of what was once the Hidden Falls thanks to her and those I once called family.

However, Lakota was not alone and instead her attentions were drawn to an antlered stallion with eyes just as green as Evangeline’s. He appeared to rival me in stature, but his youth made him my superior. I was no longer the youthful sprite I’d once been and there was certainly no shame in that… Perhaps he too would one day find comfort in the World’s Edge just as I had at his age. “Indeed, welcome. I guess you were fortunate enough to receive a welcoming party,” I smirked to both Lakota and her guest. The mare’s companion appeared to be anything but friendly and upon thinking as much, Sabine was quick to claw and bite her way from beneath the warmth of my mane. The Zephyr squawked and crooned at the massive bear, but was content to survey her surroundings soon after. “I’m Thor, a representative of the World’s Edge here in Helovia. I don’t suppose you’re here on business… so maybe pleasure? Or are you just looking for a place to stay?” I questioned jokingly. The young brute didn’t strike me as bitterly serious, so I went with my gut for once, hoping that it would not offend.

Was it not my mistake for seeing in someone what no one else desired to see? Or was it simply that I stretched the grooves of expectation until they were no longer discernable to the naked eye? Many times I had traversed the muddied trails of the Threshold, seeking talent and strength where others could not. It did not matter that the stallion before me might one day become a noted warrior or legendary philosopher… This was but a mere game of fabrication- a silken lie that could be conveniently pressed against one’s eyes until they could no longer decipher the fine line between what was ethical and corrupt. Again I was forced to oblige those I’d once believed to be moral and again I was forced to bear my own hands against the fire.

One could not miss the obvious resentment flowered and grown within Lakota’s violet stare. However, a fine wine could only be defined by its chalice, and the woman that stood before me now tasted more of poison and dust. Such a combination might sometimes be considered precarious or evenly deadly… But, I knew the men she served and I knew the life she lived (as old and quiet as it was), and there was something more substantial in the leaders I now worshipped. Did she find my presence to be so threatening that she would risk placing a dagger between the World’s Edge and the new Hidden Falls? After all, how many times had the very land she now claimed to call home been uprooted by stronger nations? Perhaps it was best that I had remained faithful to the Moon Goddess and her rule… she certainly didn’t mind playing dirty when the need arose. Could Kaj and Archibald say the same?

It seemed that I’d wasted too much of my life abiding by morals that subsisted only when the circumstances allowed. I’d been dubbed the Gentle Heart, but that certainly didn’t mean that I upheld such standards. Perhaps it was time to take a new route in life that did not adhere to the peaceful requirements supported by Kaj and Kahlua during their reign… Maybe it was time to adopt Lakota’s methods and forge my own name into the stone. Besides, what did she have to offer, other than a bloodied memory of a land always plagued in war and defeat?

My eyes turned slowly toward the golden stud with as much hesitancy as I could muster. I had to decide here and now whether or not I found him to be up to par to my own personal judgements. Lakota could bat her eyelashes and whisper sweet nothings into his ears all she liked, but that didn’t make her, or the Hidden Falls, the better choice. I knew what the stallion would be walking in to… and it wasn’t much. It was a group of liars, proposing peace and equality… and the World’s Edge had become much more dynamic since their departure. I just had to find a way to prove it. I’d come to recognize in him what I’d already reconciled in myself… and that was a strength that could not be hindered under the guise of peace and restoration. Why not bring to light the strength and valor of such a man? Why not make him larger than the life he now lived?

As my thoughts betrayed me, I chanced another glance at the pregnant mare with the lavender eyes (though I felt heavily sorrowful for the child she would come to nurture in future days). I’d done little to provoke the little roan and I could only imagine how a child would deal with such a bitter upbringing, let alone a full-grown man she could hold accountable for his actions. In that short moment, a bear second in time, I watched as she mocked me… watched as she attempted to fell my walls, and smiled because there were simply no walls left to crumble. As gracefully as one could, I winked at the hefty woman before returning my attention to the battle at hand. If Lakota wanted to treat the stallion like an object, then so be it. I had much more to offer.

“Fortune is such a fleeting thing if I must say so myself,” I stated while lifting my eyes. I had remained too quiet when allowing the younger stud a moment to speak and to introduce his cause. “Yet, I think that you have such an abundance of fortune, a plethora of opportunity if you will… Of course, it all comes down to politics and semantics when faced with the ability to decide, and I believe that you will be given quite the earful concerning the small issue of where you will live,” I added coarsely. “Be what it may, but I know that I come to offer much more than a fleeting mirage of what might be. The World’s Edge has come by some fortune as well… and I think you would benefit from its revival.”

I didn’t have to pretend such confidence because I knew that it was all based on what I’d witnessed in my short time back in the Edge. The mists themselves had secured such a fate and told me of grand future greatness. The Moon Goddess would return and redeem herself… and the World’s Edge would again flourish as it once did when Mirage herself inhabited the throne.

However, with so many thoughts cradling my mind in hope and grandeur I’d nearly missed the arrival of yet another female with an all too lovely horn seated between her sapphire eyes. If the Basin thought that they stood a chance back then, they surely didn’t stand a chance now…. Not with a former resident calling the World’s Edge his own. Whatever these women had to say was irrelevant; I was confident that the life I lived was admirable.

My mind wandered to home and to Evangeline and to all the things I’d been avoiding since my move back to the World’s Edge. I found that I had many things to pursue and yet no motivation to do any of it. Whether or not that made me indolent or not could go one way or the other, but I liked to consider myself… amenable. Besides, it took time to assemble a successful “faction” (because my family had divorced due to the invasion)… I just hoped it would happen sooner rather than later.

My eyes seemed to find each creature in attendance while I contemplated various other concepts about life, but I stopped on Rohan when he turned to regard the mare called Sialia. She was a beauty all her own before she thought to open her mouth and let her temperament ruin my view of her. That’s not to say that the Threshold wasn’t capable of bringing out the worst in just about everyone, I’d just expected someone –Kinder? More eloquent?— than her. But, hell… what do I know of eloquence? I guess we were all looking to make a a good impression on Rohan and that was (and I’m putting it quite simply) the bottom line.

Of course, he was still quite a hard sell as he found only more reasons to disagree with most everything we said. It was something different and perhaps a bit refreshing, given the many lost souls who settled for my own white lies. It was entirely too easy to paint images of niceties and peace concerning the Edge, or anywhere for that matter, but with the betrayal of the Goddess of the Moon hanging like a noose around my neck, I found it was a little harder than I’d remembered. I wasn’t even sure what kind of Kings I now served, other than the trickle of rumors through the grapevine. It was the land itself that I knew so much about; it had not changed as much as its government and that was something I found the most comfort in. I guess it was the only thing I found comfort in anymore.


When Rohan’s attention was finally curved from the temptress that was Lakota and again fixed (albeit distractedly) on me, I took a moment to consider my words. Whatever I said now would either challenge him or agree with him… I abhorred the idea of again being fooled by my own kindly nature, but at the same time… I didn’t want to mess up any chance of giving the World’s Edge a healthy berth for his consideration. My tongue felt dry and heavy as I began with an almost apologetic smile, “Oh, I certainly agree… that’s why I believe wholeheartedly in the World’s Edge. You see, not only are we constructing a new government, we are also constructing a new rule. We recently invaded the Hidden Falls and my own former leads are working to settle those willing to make the move. Where we once valued peace and neutrality, I believe that the two Kings who have risen to guide us back in the Edge are a little more… proactive to say the least,” I informed him with a subtle smile. If he were to meet Mauja and Torliek, I knew that he would be as convinced as I was… They were entirely opposite of Kaj and Kahlua before they made Archibald King. That was something that hadn’t escaped my notice since their coronation.


“Now, since you want the truth about the World’s Edge, I think it’s best you know that our patron is the Goddess of the Moon. I also think you should know that she has been banished by the other immortals for wreaking havoc throughout Helovia and committing a series of murders. As a result and as you know now, we invaded the Hidden Falls in and attempt to seek refuge away from the Moon’s sacred land, but I decided to stay. I’m too partial to the sea and the mist and, well, the memories,” I stated on a defeated sigh. It felt like the first time I’d ever admitted why I’d stayed behind and honestly, it was logic enough for me. “If you wanted all the unknowns then there they are… Though I have a good feeling you’ll have plenty to do considering the many ranks and the many chores still left undone from the invasion. The most I can tell you otherwise would be opinion-based, but the kind of stallions I follow most certainly come with grand schemes,” I concluded confidently.

“I guess what I’m getting at is this- I came here intending to sugar coat all that I’ve told you, but I find you to be a more than perfect fit. None of these lands are without hardship, no matter what their representatives say. But, I’ve told you the god-honest truth. At least come and visit, see the lay of the land, meet Mauja and Torleik… I think you’ll find us more than accommodating.”