"The quest was still fresh in my mind. Yes, it was time I got back to it, and it was far from over. I still had more to meet. I repeated my Patron God's words over and over and yet over again in my head so many times that I was sick of hearing it. Though I knew I would never forget, learning by now that my memory was very good, I only wanted to hear his voice again. What drove me to like him so much? Perhaps how he was made of fire, or how it healed that spotted dog's shoulder...Mauja? Yes, the tension between him and my father was relevant when we went out and play in the snow that one day, and I wondered why, and later on he would tell me. He had a heart made of frost, cold and icy like his home, where he had been kept all that time while I was looking for him. The Aurora Basin was far from a good place in my eyes, and it was there that housed all the tension between the herds. The Basin was the main reason for many troubles that not only hurt our home land, but the other two as well. Knowing this, even if I shouldn't, I headed north. North was a bad direction, and it might give me some input I had wondered about from time to time now that my father was back. Why was the Aurora Basin so bad? Perhaps I could speak to one of it's members, or get to know them so that I could tell the Sun God about them.

That's it! What a wonderful plan! I traveled through the thick forests, making way as I avoided playing with snow the small birds and mammals hiding about in it. Today was a day for focusing, and though I was cold enough by the time I reached a stopping point, it would only get colder if I continued on. From where I was, a meadow made of dried brown and tan grass covered my loud hoof steps as I moved slowly. I moved the way towards where I could see a thick blanket of snow, across a wide plain. There in the distance was a structure that looked to be made of ice, for it shone in the Frostfall sun, twinkling back and forth. And from there, out in the far out distance, was an large mountain and small group of mountains, and even without much thought I knew it to be the place of wrong doing, the place where those that are like me are tortured and possibly killed. I gulped, shivering, but not because I was cold from the chill of the wind or the falling snow. No, this chill was of what would await me in such a terrible place. I would not dare go further, for my Sultana, and not to mention my father, forbid me to go near it. No, this was close enough.

Now, to find a member of the Basin that would talk to me...

@[d'Artagnan]

And out of all the things I've done
I think I love you better now

It was stupid. Idiotic even! What kind of murderer returned to the scene of his crime a few days later?! Yet, d'Artagnan didn't care. He and Aramis travelled at a jogging pace up the difficult path, in his whirlwind of slaughtering a hornless he'd completely forgotten the reason he had gone to the fields that day in the first place. The Nightshade had wanted to go investigate for some more plants up here, his mind clinging to the various places and knowledge the Earth God had given him shortly after arriving in Helovia. He had found the knowledge quite useful so far and had to begrudgingly admit that the fatherly Earth Lord was perhaps the better of the four divines. It also meant he found himself regretting visiting the Moon for his quests, but he just couldn't help himself. He hated and loved her. He wanted nothing to do with her and everything to do with her. Was that really irrational? It wasn't like he had loved her from afar either, his relationship with her had become briefly intimate. Though he figured that was just a small thing for her ladyship. The fruit of their one wild night was the only link he had to her now and d'Artagnan didn't even want to think about Mesec. Everytime the image of his son entered his mind a mixture of feelings plagued him.

Guilt. Hate. Love.

He still didn't know why the boy had left, what had happened to push him so far? d'Artagnan had never hidden the fact he disliked what grew from his sides, maybe Mesec couldn't handle the ridicule from others. Maybe he had failed as a father. Most likely yes, he had. He had even gone so far as to tell Ophelia he was not his son anymore. There was feeling behind those words, but was that feeling for his son's seeming betrayal or his mothers? The Nightshade snorted, shaking his mind free of the jumble of thoughts that always confused him. He did not like to think of her, he loved Kou and was hugely thankful for her presence in his life. The shade smiled at the image of her pale slender form in his mind, those eyes so playfully wicked as he taunted and teased. Backing him into a corner where he couldn't run away from her alluring stare.

Lost in a beautiful daydream, he may have completely missed the filly if it wasn't for Aramis sudden urgent bark. Snapping to the present, d'Artagnan's mismatched gaze fell upon the foals dainty form. She looked to be a mix of chestnut and white, her hooves stained crimson with a horn poking out the top of her head. Irritation painted on his face, d'Artagnan began to walk towards the child, grumbling incoherently under his breath before speaking aloud, his voice annoyed and gruff. "Who are you?" He asked with impatience. All he wanted to do was search for poisons, but it seemed he was bound to keep running into little nuisances.