Her son was nowhere to be found. He must have left Helovia altogether, or else they were simply walking past each other, because she had scoured all the regions of the land and he just wasn't there. Sometimes, in her darkest moments, Shadow got the feeling that she was not supposed to find him. Maybe a god had hid him from her sight, in punishment for leaving his side in the first place.

She had been on her way back from another fruitless search when she saw flashes of light in the distance. Fear clasped tight around her heart; she had left her daughter on that vast, open pane! She had thought it safe, Erthë had told her about the words of the Sun God, how he had declared it pure, untainted, free from battle. Had the child's word been false, or the gods? Regardless (and since she refused to believe that her pure, innocent girl would ever tell a lie) the black mare picked up the pace and beat her wings frantically in the struggle to reach the battle. If the girl was anywhere near it she had a nagging suspicion she'd get dragged in somehow, it was as though she was a magnet for trouble. How else could she get involved in three skirmishes and Lady Wind knew what else despite all their efforts to keep her in sight?

Aching with worry and the pains of disease Shadow angled her wings and dove down towards the milling crowd below. All the sounds had become amplified, likely due to the black mucus that kept oozing from her orifices, and every breath, step, shout or explosion battered her over-sensitive ears until the thin membranes within felt fit to burst.

Finding the white filly in the throng was easy. She was by far the smallest and most out of place among all of the fighters. Biting back a curse as she noticed what her child was doing Shadow swept down and angled her hooves towards the back of the giant, elongated something she just barely could make out thanks to the sand and the flashing lights, and aimed to strike the spine of the monster before it could harm her little girl.

She had done it before with the wolves. She had almost managed to kill a queen using that maneuver. Surely it would aid her again this time, when she fought for something so precious.