When she had first arrived at the foot of the mountain, she had glanced up in awe at the great stone structure that awaited her arrival. It had loomed overhead as she had climbed, and the very tip of it taunted her to find her way to the very top. Even some months later, she had yet to completely conquer the great slate beast, but she had found herself comforted at the thought of having a home that was safe and secluded. A base camp from which she would outsource all of her searches for her mother.

Even some months after she had arrived, wet and exasperated from the swim from the mainland to the fat common island that appeared to be brimming with strangers, she had yet to find neither hide nor hair of her mother. Yet still, she held hope that the woman was here, perhaps tucked away in some hidey hole in the middle of nowhere with her latest lover. That seemed to be something that Mother would do, Irvosat surmised whenever she thought of the likelihood of finding the grouchy old woman. Of course, it only made sense that Mother went on being just as her namesake deemed her to be- a mother to many children that were as of yet unknown to the painted mare.

While she had yet to amuse herself with disappointing thoughts of failure or the rueful idea that the grumpy woman had died, or worse, been killed, she had managed to find herself becoming more and more familiar with the surrounding area, lending to her knowledge of the path up the side of the mountain.

The sloping entrance to her home, whether it was the steep, uncut side of the mountain or the side with the softer incline and soil resting underfoot instead of rock or shale, was still a laborious activity. Naturally, once she (and no doubt the sooty buckskin standing across from her) had settled in, she did not find herself descending from her peak atop the world to find the other commoners of the island. With bright eyes, she smiles as Hemlock chuckles at the idea of there being a less tiresome path zig-zagging it's way up the face of the mountain.

“Ah, but the view is better on this side of the mountain.” She answers, all but admitting to the other mare of her admiration of their little perch above the clouds. Of course, there were glorious views of the world below offered up from all sides of the mountain, and Irvosat felt as though she had seen most of them- but of course she was more than willing to share them with her new friend. As Hemlock speaks again, Irvosat is still smiling that little smile and turns her head to look through some sparsely grown trees to peek at the sky that is slowly growing a pale blue in the distance. “Maybe we are. I think if we climbed high enough, we could touch the sky... but I haven't tried it yet.”

mare, palomino overo splash, ee aa nCr nO nSpl, and 15hh.