“Come on Nonno! The frozen waterfalls move faster than you do!” Impatient? Well Murtagh thought he had every right to be. Kaj, Czar of the Falls and grandfather to all, had recently agreed to take him on a trip to the Threshold. It was a good thing the weather was cooperating because the colt wasn’t sure he could wait another day if the snows had decided to come in and stop them from making the trek. After getting consent from both of his mothers, he had hurried over to find the golden pegasus and proceeded to prance around him until he was ready and finally heading to the borders of the Falls.

The trip to the Threshold was, of course, filled with all of the excitement that leaving the Falls provided. New smells, new sights, new sounds! Frostfall was back but it was a sunny day and there were birds of all sorts signing away in the trees, clearly just as comfortable with the cold weather as Murtagh was. He had been born into the world of white crystals, after all, and realized that he felt most comfortable when surrounded by them.

Unfortunately, darkness had started to fall by the time they got to their destination. “Well what do we do now?” Would they still look for newcomers to Helovia under the darkness? Or would they find somewhere to nap? He didn’t want to admit to being tired and was doing his very best to hide it. As of yet he had not managed to stay up for an entire night - try as he might to be up when his mother was back from her patrol in the morning - but if Kaj wasn’t going to be stopping then neither was he. Although, he had to admit, he missed the little copse of trees that he slept in every night, sprawled out on dried leaves.

But before he could get too caught up in the thoughts of home, a flash of orange light through the trees completely caught his attention and he reached out to nudge Kaj repeatedly to get his attention (whether or not he had not already seen). “Nonno! What’s that?!” Knowing better than to race off into the dark forest on his own, he waited for Kaj to move before falling in beside him until they came to a clearing with a mare just standing there, staring into the fire. Well that was weird. He wondered what she was seeing?! Not being one to be shy or wait, Murtagh boldly stepped forward and greeted her with a bright grin. “Hello!! What’s the fire for?”