It had been in the snow that she had always felt at liberty, from the moment she had been old enough to learn to traverse the difficult surface. It was still a dangerous time and she knew to respect the frozen world just as much as she revelled in it. Even now, as she nimbly shifted from one side to other. She left little print as she moved, her hooves falling upon hidden tussocks of grass as she sought to shield her presence to others.
A habit, forged from necessity.
And Kalina knew he spoke, hearing his words of flattery but believing he was not like others might be, delivering honeyed words to her just to draw her in closer for the singular purpose of bringing her as close to him as possible. No, Kalina just gave her own brilliant smile in returning.
“The winter hides me well, and I am the most free,” she responds. “If you had a lighter coat, you may well be the same, as your light mane are already there,” she replies as she looks over his burnished coat, shining despite the cold and layer of warmth.
He speaks of his home and she has never known the kind of land he speaks of. She had come down from the high country, where snow gums grew and the grass was thick, dense and strong. Islands, was not something she’d ever thought of, nor heard of in such a way and yet she’d swum waters to new land. It had been strange, but was this whole world like it? Kalina twisted her head to the side, but laughed all the same.
“I don’t know much about caring for injuries, I am sorry to say, but I know injuries as such are those that show your dedication to what you hold dear,” she says with a soft voice.
His bow was one she did not expect but all the same, Kalina reciprocated in her own way as she lowered her head in a polite greeting, formal and contrite.
“I am called Kalina, named for the frost,” she speaks her name readily. “Tell me, Rougaru, is this place you come from… in, Atlantis was it? A good place?”