“Be smart, Klara.”
Those were the three words her mother told her. It was never to be careful or to be wary of strangers, but simply to be smart. Oswin did not deny her daughter her whims – now that Klara was old enough to graze and just a few months away from being a yearling – if Klara wished to explore, her mother allowed it. Being raised by the General of the Vulcans left Klara to know a lot of the way the world worked, though her mother’s lessons could have been viewed as bias by other horses. Klara didn’t know that as her mother was her only source of information, so she took what Oswin said as absolute truth.
Today was going to be the first day she left the Peak without her mother by her side. Klara looked out at the open world, the trees beyond the Peak’s foothills, and back at her mother with a grin. Oswin looked down at her daughter, hesitated for a moment, and then said, “Be smart, Klara.”
“Yes mama.” Klara said wholeheartedly, nodding her head before she looked forward again and took off, trotting with no set destination in mind. She and her mother hadn’t clung to the Peak – Oswin had shown her daughter a grand deal of Crossing Isle over the first few months of her life upon their return from Luthien, making certain Klara was familiar with the main island in case they were ever separated.
The Falls were deemed the safest and so Klara turned that direction, weaving through trees whose leaves had turned red, yellow, and brown before they were set to shed. Klara was fascinated with the changing of the world. Every new thing was observed with wide, open eyes. Her mother had told her when winter came; the ground would be covered in snow – which was white and cold. Klara looked around the wide open expanse of the Falls, trying to envision it covered in white, but simply couldn’t. It seemed like such a strange concept to her.
The young, nimbly-limbed filly struck out, moving away from the shadowed forest line and into the open expanse of the Falls, kicking up her hooves with a delighted squeal.
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