Snow fell from the sky, tears falling from the eyes of angels in place of the one who no longer knew how to cry. She had no tears left to shed. They had dried upon her cheeks and left a burning feeling in the throat, a need to express the sadness that was well on its way to drown her. So many things had been lost during the hellish year that passed since the girl had been forced to grow up, so much blood had been shed that she felt drenched by it, reeked of it. Wherever she looked there was blood, layered on top of the soft white snow and dripping down from the delicate nose. It was all in her mind, but the body of the equine girl that slowly wandered through the forest remembered the feeling. She still carried the trace of the places where her skin had been ripped open, shredded and torn in order to let out that precious, horrid fluid. Soft chestnut brown dappled with gentle white was interrupted by the black and gray marks that marred her entire frame, from head to toe, from the blinded white eye to the black snake that coiled on her shoulder, marking her a slave and forever branding into her the knowledge of how cruel horses could be.

She was safe now, and free. But only in the way an exiled royalty with a price on her head could be safe or free. They would come for her again, without doubt, and this time she had no loyal kinsmen to protect her. They had already given their lives to bring her as far away from her homeland as she could come, the last dying in the snow after once again protecting her, from the horn of a unicorn who wouldn't have hesitated to blow out the fragile flame that marked her life.

The girl was disgusted by her own weakness. She was Rilosanne Ka'Adina, a princess of the realm! but what did that matter, when she couldn't even protect those who threw away everything to ensure that the bloodline survived? Maroon eye stared emptily into the snowfall, barely registering that her feet stopped moving and left her standing there, unsheltered and shivering beneath the open sky. Her thoughts inevitably strayed back to that moment, that horrible second when the lights in her friends eyes went out and left her alone in the company of strangers, stranded in a strange land so much colder than her own. She was so ill equipped to deal with the climate of this northern realm, after leaving the warmth of her forested country only weeks ago. They had traveled too quickly, hunted and unable to stop, pressing themselves onward even though their legs gave in and lungs burst. Even now, days after the even she still hadn't recuperated, skinny and worn as she was after months and months in captivity. Scabs coated the more recent wounds, yet unhealed by the passing of time.

Maybe it would have been better to follow the three strangers. Those who aided her when everything seemed lost. The colt with the canine, and the blind lady with her protector. She could have, but something stopped her from following in their tracks, and once she had been overcome with a fear of the woods, of loneliness and hunger, it was too late. Blown away by the wind and the snow, eaten up by the forest itself perhaps, the tracks were gone and the filly too inexperienced to be able to follow the scents. There had never been a need for her to know. She had been trained in the art of politics, in arts and welfare. She knew how to survive a bad year by storing crops and portioning it out to the people, leaving them hungry but alive. She knew the history of her ancestors all the way back to the foundation of the nation, she could recite the laws of the Arcane Arts by heart and knew from birth that she too possessed the ability, that it resided deep within the blood, in her genes, and had only to be awakened. She knew all of that, but not how to reclaim a country overrun with rebels. Not how to fight in order to save her own life and the lives of those around, and she knew nothing of survival in a woodland so different from those of her home.

And she never knew how lonely it could be, to stand still in the middle of nowhere as snow slowly covered the back, second by second draining away the warmth from the blood. It was a shame she couldn't cry anymore, perhaps that would have eased the numbness within. But as it were, she could only stand and watch, only slowly contemplate the shape of a stranger marked by fire that came into view. The wings on his back shocked her, caused a gracefully shaped eye to widen. Then her ears slowly turned backwards as suspicion pushed away all other thoughts from within, remembering the deeds done by those who were different from herself and her people. Strangely formed foreigners, welling in and destroying, shedding blood and disturbing the peace. Disgusting traitors standing over the bodies of her slain parents, laughing as blood dripped from their horns and into the grinning mouths, mixing crimson with slobbering drool.

She would never trust a unicorn again, never be comfortable around those who differed from herself.