it’s in the stars
it’s been written in the scars on our hearts
we’re not broken just bent

Feeling despondent and quite deafened by the barrage of confusion in his unsophisticated mind, Druid unusually failed to notice the suddenness of the interloper’s arrival. Fretfully he blew through his nervously pinched nostrils and the sound was sharp, though barely enough to crack the steady thrum of the Basin’s white noise. His lungs were not of that strength. It was the strange clean scent of the stranger that startled him firstly, too thin legs trembling all the more as the sudden realisation that he was not alone flooded his conscience, washing his mind clean so that he could then also find the rhythm of her pumping breath. In an instant the foal leaned back his ears so that the nestled as close to the matted oily strings of black hair as could be managed- a warning undoubtedly, and he frowned outwardly so that the hollowness of already unattractive face bluffed with belligerence.

"You don't gotta look so scared, y'know," A sharp penetrating voice insisted suddenly. Although the sound of it seemed to Druid to be delicate and unlike that of any he had previously heard, arrogant confidence lathered its tone and the pitch grated against the ungainly appaloosa’s fraying nerves. "It's just snow an' slush. It ain't gonna get you." It came again and he grunted ignorantly, with not the faintest idea about what she was referring to. Entirely uneducated and lacking any sort of social refinement, Druid stamped a tiny, round hoof in the direction of the persistent voice all the while licking his lips with dislike. Unfortunately the deep, slippery slush promptly swallowed his gesture and he slipped forward awkwardly, his body flushing rapidly with hot, burning fear. With no experience managing emotion or expression, or seeing such portrayed by others, the colt’s upset was sprawled in twisted bewilderment all throughout the fine muscles across his face.

"I'm Rhiannon!" The unfazed voice continued, though it was closer now as his taught hindquarters sought slowly and hesitantly forward to rebalance his tingling weight, post-slip. Names meant little when life had been so solitary, and while the irritated flicker of his small dark brown ears betrayed an inevitable level of curiosity and attention, the foal endeavoured to appear focused exclusively on his own security, be it in the company of this... voice, or in the unpredictable ‘snow’ the slush had been labelled as. "My papa's Crowley, the Weaver here, and my momma's Elizabeth, the Corporal. Who are you?" He sighed impatiently, though her perseverance and somewhat bothersome loitering tweaked mild reassurance into some instinctual crevice of his mind.

“Who are you...?” He repeated silently, and a memory unfurled itself quite abruptly so that he blurted gracelessly- “M...m...m...Mauja...” No image filtered down into the hollow gloom of his gaze, there had never been pictures in his world so his stunted imagination drew blank. The stallion’s warm, concerned voice did swell with the pulse drumming through his ears though, and he suddenly felt helpless and lost. Many months had been spent learning the labyrinth of forest which now seemed to be only a distant, forlorn memory, and now he was here. He knew not where here was though.

"What's wrong with your eyes?" Druid snapped out of the sullen nature of his consuming thoughts, as her curious question soaked against his easily eroded confidence. “W...W... What’s wr.. wr-ong with y...y...yo-ours... .” He retorted childishly, the broken fragments of his uttered oversensitivity spilling uncomfortably from his surly tongue. His blind milky gaze narrowed quickly, and his chin tucked as he issued a brisk conclusive snort. The colt was unsure what Rhiannon was talking about, what his eyes were, and what could possibly be wrong with them. He knew no different, nor was he aware that disability crippled his world. As an immature desire to find her reaction simmered through his unreserved, emotive face, one ear flicked forward towards her direction.


"Thinking. Speaking. Acting."