Those days are gone

You see, there was a reason I didn't go out much. Mainly that was because every time I went out I was bothered or badgered by someone or something, and because I was too old and tired to put up with that crap. When I left my home I expected to find a nice quiet adventure, uninterrupted by idiots.

But that was the problem with leaving home in Helovia. This place was the edge of the world, and though I had thought I'd seen it all ever since coming here I'd learned one thing only: I hadn't seen half of it.

Helovia had its own new host of idiots that no other place before had bother to keep around. In that sense this seemed to be some sort of ground for rejects, some hollow gathering of souls that were like in that they'd essentially been unwanted elsewhere. For some reason or another their lives were tragic or they had the misfortune of being born here. Somehow, I had ended up among these ranks.

When the white stallion first entered the water and walked by me, I was pleased. He sported plumage almost as long as mine and watching it float away from me was good, because it wasn't meant he was going to piss me off. But as he started to sink lower without acknowledgement, as the charm on his necklace floated upwards and away from his falling form, my satisfaction turned quickly to alarm. Was he trying to drown himself? What kind of idiot would drown him--

Ah yes, that's right. A man would. Of course. A stallion only would pick the most inefficient form of suicide, so obviously performed in front of another. I was half tempted to let him end his own stupid life, but then a small voice behind me chirped.

A foal. My heart surged and pounded as I realized that this small child, as far as I was concerned abandoned, was trying to offer me help. Though, wait, wasn't there a bear by the thing? Certainly it wasn't violent, it seemed too subdued. Maybe a companion, like so many others wandering about.

The water above the white stallion bubbled and stirred, and I didn't have time to entertain childlike whimsy. "Just--" just what? Stay there? "Yes, ice is dangerous. But don't make a habit of listening to your papa, stallions are idiots. Stay there, don't grow up into one."

I hesitated, my breath caught as I inhaled as much as I could into my old lungs. "I'll be right back."

And with that I dove, my long blue hair resisting the foolish motion and vainly tugging me back up. My jaws snapped at the wing joint of the idiot who had tried to kill himself to get a grip and pull him up. Kill yourself in front of Ahvelyn? Nice try. Might be a stupid ass stallion that didn't deserve the ground under his feet or the charm on his neck, but he wasn't going to die on my watch.

""

AHVELYN