Morning rose within and without the young unicorn, filling the pine-woods with long, west-ward shadows and painting his patchwork coat in stripes of dark. Ashamin lifted his weary head from where it had hung, his eyes fluttering open at the start of the day and his long tail twitching and twirling in a physical yawn.

The night had been long; Ashamin had hoped to find a cave to call his own, some place to make his bed, but the encounter with Zandora had been... distracting, to say the least. He stretched now, his forelegs extended and his back arching with the exhaustion of waking. It was true that he should not have expected the same level of kindness from all in the Basin, but Zandora had still caught him off guard. He remembered her response at the outstretching of his cheek--her swift refusal. Was it his fault or hers? Was he really in the wrong for offering such a greeting, or was she just unfriendly?

Ashamin didn't stay long in the wood to think on it. There were other thoughts to be had: soon, he would journey from the Basin and explore the outlying lands, leaving Zandora behind. But first he had a few more places to wander within the frost of his new home, and so he pulled himself through the wood with the eagerness endowed by exploration.

His flanks brushed against the rough trunks of the pines, the occurrence lessening with the trees and halting altogether when they ceased. Here, at the edge of the mountain woods, were wide expanses of white to be explored. Ashamin felt the chilly hint of a coming winter in the air and smiled into the cold breeze, his tail a snake-like banner at his back, signaling his arrival. He was a spot of black patches in the scene of overwhelming white: he was a sore thumb, inevitably and dangerously visible outside the shadowed patterns of the woods.

But there were others at his back; he felt suddenly watched but was scared to turn. Was he being followed? The thought occurred to him, but he shook it off. All he could hear were light steps like those of the deer in the wood, the same steps that lulled him to sleep. Surely that is all it is, he thought to himself with a nod of his head and a few more careful steps towards the hot springs that he had yet to see.

[[Apologies, running on four hours of sleep and I had a post that I then lost so this is not my best. @[Thranduil], and open thread is more than fine with me!]]

Ashamin