fiachra

Home, where I wanted to go,
And nothing else compares.

Fiachra had thought she had finally found a home. She had stepped inside the modest cave and for once could not smell the evidence of another being having lived there. She had even settled in for a brief minute to see how it felt, closed her eyes for just a moment and folded her limbs under herself. She look a few long deep breaths and had just began to think she may have found her home when the burning began.

"YOWCH!" she screeched, leaping to her feet with all the elegance expected of a startled newborn. The hide on her rump stung from where she had laid on the dirt floor. Her tail swatted furiously at the spot and when she turned to look, the area was covered in tiny bumps. "What on earth...?" she grumbled, trying to reach the irritation with her teeth, but to no avail. Stamping a hind hoof in annoyance, she scoured her gaze across the ground and saw thousands of tiny ants scurrying to find their way home, their paths having been scattered by her stupid spotted hind end.

"Ants," Fiachra snorted. She stamped her front hooves, her frustration at not being able to find a suitable home getting the better of her. "Fucking ants!" She reared up, and her head smacked into the rock ceiling of the cave, nearly sending her sprawling to the floor. "Oof!" Her head fell, her neck stretching downwards until her nose just touched the ground. She couldn't help the angry tear that trickled down her face. She was done with this stupid valley, and all of its stupid snow, and its stupid equines who wouldn't give her the time of stupid day. With a loud huff that echoed about the empty cave, she stormed out, her footfalls excessively heavy on the floor. So what if she disrupted the ants again. Stupid ants.

She hadn't gone far before she heard the sounds of cheerful voices. Stopping in her tracks, Fiachra turned and headed in that direction. She found a most welcoming and warming sight. The hot springs, which she had noticed earlier as she passed by, were full of people. Full of mares, even. Several of them she had not yet met, but then she spotted Rexanna, the mare who had welcomed her into the Basin. Striding forward at a confident walk, she cleared her throat to make herself known.

"Rexanna," she greeted, glad that she knew at least one face in the crowd. "Ladies," she offered by way of greeting to those whose names she didn't know. "This seems cozy and fun. May I join you as well?" Without waiting for an answer, she settled herself alongside the spring and trailed her tail through the water. The warmth tickled the end of her tail dock, widening her smile. "I'm Fiachra," this directed at the other mares, "What may I call all of you?" As she waited for answers, she reached around and once again attempted to reach the bites on her rump. She couldn't quite get them, so instead she swirled the sodden tendrils of her tail through the air and smacked herself with it, offering some relief to the awful stinging-itch, and sending hot water flying through the air in all directions.

"Talk."