The altitude brought a sense of calm to the hard hearted mare. Or it might have been the aura of the cliff itself and the lingering presence of the long past leader. Adelheid felt at peace. Her ears even relaxed from their usual flattened state. Eyes rested on Feuerherza as the other mare listened to her and took in the view around them. In her relaxed state, Adelheid was more perceptive of the subtleties of her companion’s communication. The mare had shown interest in her stories before she had continued on with explaining the land.

Her companion smiled at her and reached out with her nose. Instantly Adelheid stiffened uncomfortably. Touch was not something that she was used to. Her trust in the other was evident when she did not run, bite, or even withdraw, but merely stood and took deep breaths to keep herself steady. At first she thought the mare simply touched her chest and thought ‘chest’ was a strange thing to name someone. She shook her head at her own foolishness and thought about it for a moment. Her chest had grown warm where she had touched it and her heart pounded hard against her flesh. Adelheid would never admit to the feeling having a possible friend stirred in her, but the thought of her heart was not a hard one to grasp. And it made more sense than just chest.

Heart? she asked, keeping to the solid and easy to grasp words as opposed to the strange feelings of companionship and affection.

Growing a bit more uncomfortable, she looked away to peer back over the cliff. Grasping for anything that would get her back into her comfort zone she backpedaled their conversation. There are a few trails to that cliff. She said, pointing back the lower shelf where her story of being caught as a youth had begun. When my friend and I got caught, we had taken the easier trail, trying to think we were brave. It was night and the stallions had snuck in. They said they had been invited, but if you are invited then there should have been a need to come at night… She trailed off bitterly for a moment before picking back up her story, knowing she had a point to this. One of them scared Ta-- my friend -- and she almost slipped off the ledge. At our cry half the Peak showed up at our defense. It startled Adelheid that she could not speak the name of her lost friend. Once more emotion gripped her and she tried desperately to smother it in her breast. There is a custom here. Stallions can be held as captives - trinkets. I had tried to claim these two as such, but my mother told me no. Her lips tightened at the memory and the twisted lack of justice. Her friend had been in pain, legs bloodied by the fall. She wondered what would have happened if Taika had fallen off the side of the cliff. The loss of a dreamer would have been a cruel fate for the world. We were not even a year old at the time. The stallions were escorted off the cliffs. I hope one day foals can sneak away here and only need to fear their mothers or another guardian finding them. She sighed off-handedly. Adelheid did not even like foals. She just thought they should be safe here. A shiver that might have been more than cold went over her body. When she glanced back at Herza she shifted again, still uncomfortable with the growing companionship that allowed her space to talk. Sorry… I don’t normally ramble… would you like to go back down?