It had taken her all night to work up the courage to follow the stallion into the water, and by then he was long gone. But Dynalia knew her way to Luthien. Home was calling to her. And when her hooves finally touched the shore, she bolted for the thick line of trees she could see waiting for her. Dawson’s scent was stale— had he moved on? It ceased to matter. The Forest was so close. Soon she was under the canopy and treading the sun-dappled ground once more. Here was home.

But something wasn’t right. She dropped her head to the loamy earth she walked and searched for spoor. What she found did not belong to her father, or any stallion she recognized. Dynalia threw her dark head up, ears swiveling atop her head as she surveyed the surrounding trees. It had been one —two?— seasons since her departure from the Forest, following on the tail of her sire as he swam the ocean. She had not seen him for what felt like eternity, and had assumed with the soft encouraging words of Dawson that her sire had returned to the Forest to wait for her there.

Dynalia had not considered that Kisei might not have returned home.

Her black lips quivered and she whimpered. This was not supposed to have happened. She had not spent those hellish seasons away from home only to return and discover Kisei was not there. Planting her hooves firmly beneath her body to evenly distribute her weight, Dynalia lifted her chin and called out for the lead stallion of the Forest. She could do this. She was Kisei’s daughter, a princess in her own right. She would discover what had happened to her father, and she would do it with dignity.