The scent that filled her nose was unmistakable, but still confusion tainted her conscious. The smokey mare blinked, her head lifted with ears twisting above her crown. Was he really here? Or was she catching scents of the lynx pelt she still held onto with such a hindered heart? Narrowing her eyes, the princess turned on her heels and walked slowly from the midst of her cave. Briefly, she looked over her shoulder to see if she had disturbed anyone else, and confident that she did not she broke into a swift, gliding trot.

The sun burst into her pale eyes and she flinched slightly, her face twisting to shield itself from the bright rays. Her cloven hooves pushed off bits of ice and grass and rock, eyes scanning the valley before, in an instant, the familiar black figure of the young prince filled her gaze. The doctor's daughter halted, her heart beating rapidly for several beats before finally she calmed it beneath her fading black breast. He was back. Something close to joy, or what she remember as joy from her foalhood, sparked in the back of her brain and she burst towards Tamlin's strong body as fast as she could.

From parted jaws her neigh was high pitched and broken, a joyous trumpet, a friend's familiar call. "Tamlin!" Aviya moved towards him, her last few steps became leaping bounds and she did not stop herself from possibly crashing head first into him. She wished to press her forehead flat against his neck, take in his scent. Above all else, Tamlin had been her only friend. Her first memories of him were the same first memories of her mother. He had been there the day she was born, and they grew together.

And then he disappeared. The months of his absence had been cold, and she was only left with the parting gift of his lynx pelt, tucked so carefully next to the rock she slept near each night in the frozen wasteland the Edge refugees had sought refuge in. The lynx pelt had been her only connection, only memory, only friend for months; but, now, she had her Tamlin back. Taking a step back, a small smile broke the filly's cold face, her crystalline eyes glistening with something far from malice. "Tamlin," the princess finally breathed, taking relief in the name.