Finally, after wandering through hell and back across Helovia and meeting some odd characters, I’ve rediscovered the direction north and found myself… well, shit, okay so I don’t really know where I am still but I have a pretty good idea that I am somewhere near the Basin. I felt some comfort in that, though I would much prefer to find the mountains and get somewhere safe. As the night stretches I begin to realize it wasn’t bloody likely that I would and I look around. There’s an odd little light glowing near the surface a little ways away. Caution and reason tell me to keep away, but it’s moving a little bit and I find myself moving as well - figuring I had about a 50/50 chance of surviving this encounter.

Much to my own embarrassment, I gasped when I realized the source of the light. Not a ladylike, she-probably-wouldn’t-notice gasp, but a loud and shocked one that seemed to echo across the quiet Steppe. Get it together, Elspeth! It was just a horse! Or what looked very much like one. I wasn’t altogether convinced that the creatures I was walking around with here in Helovia were horses in the strict definition of the word. They seemed far too bizarre, as though at some point their genes had gotten mixed up with all manner of things in the world.

I wondered if sometimes I looked as strange to them, with nothing but cream and red-brown on my coat, as they did to me. And it was that chastising thought that stopped me from turning and running as fast as I could away from this creature. She had to be a goddess, some sort of physical embodiment of the stars and the sky. Had I fallen asleep? Or perhaps I was freezing to death in the Basin and this entire excursion was a hallucination while Calder and the rest chuckled and told me everything would be fine. If I was safely in a dream or a coma, then perhaps I did have the courage to go over and say something.

I approach slowly, far too cautious for any moth-to-a-flame comparison but I had to admit the light of her coat and the colours, especially with the twisting aurora above them, were utterly fascinating.

“Are you the Goddess?” Four of the most idiotic words I’ve probably ever said but it seemed appropriate, did it not? I’ve approached from the side and keep a few lengths between us just in case she is a god and decides to smite me for my insolence.

When my voice startled her - she startled me in return. I certainly had not been expecting such a violent turn of her head and I retreated a step and was prepared to bolt. It was foolish of me to approach someone so brazenly and I cursed myself for that stupid curiosity. I would end up dead if I kept doing this! But as I am readying to flee, I notice that she has calmed and it encourages a similar reaction in me. My stripe forehoof returned to the snow and although I remain on alert I settle.

I appreciate that I’m not immediately brushed off as a result of my idiotic inquiry - she had every right to tell me to screw off. Especially after I had frightened her! When she moved I noticed the scarring around her eye and wondered if I had accidentally approached her on a blind side. That certainly had not been my intention and I was a little relieved to find some tiny flaw in the galactic mare.

“Oh.” Not that I really believe her - there is definitely something ethereal about her if not actually divine. Something has to be going on, right? She’s literally a star horse. Scar or not, I did not think it possible that we were from the same species or even the same planet.

But she was kind, and I supposed speaking with a beautiful alien was as good of a distraction from the damn cold.

“I’m Elspeth. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Seren.” Which, well, maybe it was a little bit of a stretch but it wasn’t a downright lie. But her question to me caused a conflict of emotions that I did not expect. Instantly, the confusion caused a flicker of a frown to cloud my golden eyes as I look at her - as though I could find the answer in her face.

“I’ve… well I’ve been staying with a herd near here, in the mountains… which I’ve seem to have lost.” I glance around us, hoping that they might suddenly be popping out of the snow nearby, but it’s just the two of us and the aurora. “And what about you, Seren? Do you live here?” It would seem an apt homeland, after all.

I appreciated her gestures of apology for her question, even though I answered it. It shouldn’t have been such a hard question to answer. For anyone else in Helovia that she could have said those few words to, I’m sure few of them would have acted the way I have - as if it were the most personal question in the world. It wasn’t her fault that I didn’t know whether I considered this place home or whether I would ever consider it home.

“You don’t have to apologize, it’s okay to not know.” I point out, attempting to soften the bluntness of the comment with a warm smile. It was too bad that she didn’t know but I wasn’t about to chastise her for that! There are a great deal of things that I don’t know but I couldn’t imagine apologizing for it, I’d never stop! It certainly reaffirms the idea that this mare isn’t some sort of Goddess - I doubt the divine were prone to apologizing. Though her mortality continues to confound me.

“The Aurora Basin, that’s what they call it.” At least I could fill in one of the blanks, golden eyes shifting from her face once more and into the distance as though speaking the name of the herd will light up a signal that shows me where I might find it. No such luck, however.

I find myself further softening to the strange Seren as she answered my question. I wasn’t sure if she literally meant the world being torn open or figuratively, given her appearance I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if it was the first but my mind could not comprehend such a formidable event. I was not imaginative enough, I suspected, to even begin to guess at what sort of world Seren had been born into.  

But despite the difference in us, I could at least understand the last part of what she spoke. It struck me in the heart and any remaining harshness in my face or attitude completely falls away.  “It’s nicer here than where I had been stolen to as well.” I admit quietly, my eyes sad and gentle as they look at her. I’ve never been very good at hiding my emotions but I’m actually not trying to this time - I want her to understand that I think I know what she’s going through. I can only guess what sort of land she had come from but if it was anything like where I had spent the last year, her relief at the peace in Helovia must be great.

“Perhaps we’ll both be luckier here?”

I smile at her as she explains her tendency to apologize. It’s a habit I’ve seen in a few mares - one my mother snapped me out of as soon as she could. She told me to never apologize for things out of my control. As a result, her daughter wa a little more hard-headed than she should be but at least it prevented me from being stepped on. “Yes, a hard habit to break but you’ll get there.”  

A light laugh escaped me at her question about the Basin, whether it was colder than it was here. I thought back to my first night there, when I had been freezing and went to pick a fight with Calder, who had failed to mention just how damn cold it would be. Time hadn’t changed my annoyance over that skipped detail and I wasn’t getting acclimated as quickly as I’d like but still…

“Almost. It’s protected by the mountains and they keep the worst of the wind out. And there’s caves to get shelter from and hot springs to warm in.” I stop and wrinkle my nose at myself - realizing that I’m sounding nostalgic about the place. Perhaps it was growing on me more than I cared to admit.

“You’d be welcome there, if you need somewhere safe stay. The horses here… well they’re a little odd but they’re kind.” Not that Seren also wasn’t odd - maybe she would be better at fitting in than I was - but that didn’t seem to mean anything here in Helovia. It was an entire land built of outcasts, everyone leaving behind one life or another and starting a new one here. For the moment, it was seeming a little too good to be true and I feared what was hidden in the shadows, feared what I did not know about this place.

The question she asked me had my face wrinkle in confusion again - but without any complicated feelings. I seem to be getting confused over a lot of simple words lately - “home”, “rift”. Perhaps I’m growing senile early, a triggered reaction to the stress of late. God, I hope not. I rather hoped to keep my wits about me while travelling in a strange land, thank you very much.

“No, not from the Rift.” A waiver of uncertainty broke my voice with the last word. Not because I was confused about whether I had been from there or not - but because I didn’t know where to go next with the conversation. I could ask her about it, but it didn’t seem right to. Seren was a mare with a troubled past - which began the weaving of a bond between us.

When I did speak, it was cautious and slow - and though my eyes were on her they were unfocused. “I was a slave. My herd was invaded, they killed most the stallions and took us…” I can’t bring up everything, can’t tell her the whole truth. It was too much - too much for me to think about nevermind explain to a near stranger. I liked Seren, I didn’t see a need to burden her further with my own sad tale when she had one of her own. I inhale deeply, my eyes closing for a long moment as I sought to stabilize myself. When I open my eyes again, it is with the question of whether Seren will understand my next words.

“My first few steps in Helovia were the first free ones I had taken in a very long time.”

I smile small but graciously at Seren as she calls me strong, as she hopes to be free in spirit and in mind, and I don’t have the heart to tell her that it is only my body that is free. My mind is still trapped in the past and I don’t know how to free it. There was too much. Right now, it doesn’t feel as though I will ever shake the fear that these steps could be my last free ones. It would seem that I wasn’t alone, either. Seren’s voice is soft and careful as she gives me a brief insight into how she came to be here. Our stories are not entirely the same, but there’s enough of her words that strike a chord within me that I can empathize with her. I know what it felt like to have the weight of the knowledge that I was forever separated by my family.

There was a strong desire to reach out to Seren, offer some sort of comforting touch, but I quiet the thought as she raised her head and. ‘Here’s to second changes.’ Her words echoed in my mind and I smiled fully and warmly at her now to return the sentiment. “May we both find kinder times here in Helovia.”

I welcomed the question about the Basin, the change in topic. “Not intruding at all… I’m still new there myself, but I’ll tell you what I know.” I still don’t know where the Basin is in relation to where we are standing, but my golden eyes look for it again, still thinking that it might just suddenly appear.

“There’s mostly unicorns there, from what I’ve seen. And jobs, which is something I find interesting. There’s five different fields to choose from - warriors, scholars, thieves, healers, and crafters.” I think that was all of them, I was trying to think back to the first few moments in the Basin when I had been about to fall asleep on my hooves but had been getting as much information as they had thrown at me. “I’m a little partial to the healers myself, it’s what I used to do. I like the idea of having a job, something to keep myself busy.”

What else could I tell Seren about that herd? “Most sleep in the caves, outside of the wind, but I spent my second night out beneath the stars - beneath the aurora.” There’s a secret smile tugging at my mouth then as I thought of Calder, how immovable he had been when faced with my wrath about the cold. How warm it had been curled up next to him, sharing stories and secrets.

It aggravated me that I had trusted him then, that I did trust him now. I felt like I should be more cautious, that I shouldn’t let myself be lulled by the kind attitudes of those I had met so far. I couldn’t fully shake the idea that there was something wrong with this place - there had to be.

I shake my head to get rid of the thoughts of him and turn my golden eyes to the sky, the one that so perfectly matched the mare standing before me. “I had never seen it before I came here.”