give a little, get a lot
Nadja was relieved that Shaydowfax had been the one to find her. She had known her hiding place was not a very good one, and that someone was likely to find her eventually, but in her state of mental and physical exhaustion she had decided to roll those dice. Luckily for her, Shaydowfax seemed gentle and genuinely concerned, and when the taller mare offered her support, Nadja leaned against her gratefully.
“My name is Nadja,” she said. Her voice was a little less weak, a little less shaky this time. She did feel better after her rest.
”It is good to meet you. And thank you, again. I think I’m able to fend for myself now, but… the company is nice.” She smiled a little bit. It felt like she had been alone for months, but in reality it was only a few days. Excluding her lost foal’s short time in her life, Nadja had been alone for maybe a month and a half. Her memories before that were hazy at best, and she decided again that it was not the time to reminisce on her old life. It was not the first time she’d pushed away those memories, it was certainly not the last.
She leaned against Shaydowfax for a moment more and then shifted her weight so that she could shake. It felt good to be standing again. She looked out across the field, spotting a handful of circles of grass that had been pressed down by the sleeping bodies of either horses or deer.
”Do you live here?” she asked Shaydowfax.
”I’ve seen a few horses since I arrived. You are the first to have spotted me, so I can’t speak for the friendliness of anyone else, but this place seems… fairly calm.” She couldn’t definitely say that it was safe, but she didn’t feel in danger yet.
”How big is this island?”
