Qadir shivered, lumbering towards who-knows-what as he attempted to warm himself up. He kept his head down as he blundered through the thin layer of white stuff. His eyes showed white as he rolled them at other horses or the sky where the small bits of something gently floated down. He didn't know what it was. He was convinced this was the end of the world, and he was about to die. He wasn't afraid of dying, per se, but he certainly didn't want to die this cold. And not with this shaggy winter coat weighing him down even more than usual.

Every once in a while he turned his head to glance over his shoulder at his dark coat. The white bits thinly covered his back. He wondered if this was how horses got their markings. Covered by cold, white particles and left to spread it to their children. He shivered at the mental image. Selenium, then. Did her mother give her the disease? Who had tainted Kenchiro with it? It didn't really make sense in the back of his mind, where he was still calm and collected, but he was too afraid of the stuff to concentrate on logic. He needed to find somewhere to hide.

He spotted a grove of trees, the white layer beneath them thin. It had been stamped down by other horses until the brown stalks of grass showed through. He paused under the clump, eyes darting wildly about. His heart still thundered heavily in his chest. He should have stayed on Salem with Selenium. Now he was doomed to die alone, afraid, hungry, cold, and with aching bones. The thought pushed him on towards a larger forest of trees, and he pushed through them. Here, the ground was mushy and nearly as unresistant as quicksand. It stuck to his hooves and unusually thick feathers.

But never mind the ground. He found a spot that was more stable than the area he had just slogged through. It was free of the white stuff, thanks to the density of trees in the area. He stayed there, trying to get his heart and breathing under control, grateful for this newfound safety.