A trio of flaming orbs float around twisted trees, wavering in the air as if they were leaves quivering on a branch. The purple light that they cast did little to reveal the hiding places of gnarled roots or pockets of mud and swamp. Their purpose was to provide company for the shadowy figure of a silver equine; and to serve as her weapons if she were to be confronted. Traveling at this hour was becoming common for the fae, but regardless how many nights she spent running underneath the starlit skies, she still managed to get herself completely, hopelessly lost.

Battered from all sides by the rushing wind, her sooty white mane whipping against her throat and cheek, Sulwyn squinted her eyes and surged blindly forward. The purple glow from the spheres of light was now blurred, as was the rest of the dark, swampy region around the trembling creature. She felt helpless with her handicapped senses, and she was constantly tripping over the uneven ground or pulling her short, dainty pillars out of the thick mud. Her mind had focused all of its attention onto keeping herself upright, and all thoughts of lurking beasts who were hungry for some horse flesh had left the anxious mare's subconscious.

A blood-curdling shriek resonated in the air all around, snuffing out the levitating orbs in wisps of lavender smoke and sending the grulla into a panic. Golden eyes rolled back in their sockets to show their whites, and legs that had just been carefully skirting the edge of a quick had lost their hold and fallen into the putrid soup. Vile water seeped into Sulwyn's mouth as she cried out in shock and fear, her head going under the water's surface before she kicked out with her shaking legs. Held in the firm of grip of sheer terror, the mustang subconsciously pulled a mass of her purple specters into being and flung them about in fear.

Some of the life-stealing orbs collided into the malformed trees and vines surrounding the sun-marked mare; others doubled back and struck the struggling fae in her shoulders and neck. The splashing equine was quickly losing energy and was barely able to keep her head out of the marsh, but she soon realized that her hinds had smacked against the walls of the quick. With her fores reeling and her naves panting with exhaustion, Sulwyn managed to turn herself around and dig her hooves into the soft, slimy sediment. Pulling her body out of the pool of filth, the mare collapsed on the boggy ground, her chest heaving and her mouth coughing up rotten fluids. The balls of flame that she had unintentionally summoned floated over to their mother, hanging in a slowly-rotating circle around her head, as if daring anything to try and creep up on the laboring equine.

Little did she know that a number of creatures were already aware of her presence.