"There are some things you can only learn in a storm" .

The dun stallion dipped his head respectfully but not submissively. "My name is Cerauno. I'm looking for somewhere to rest." He could see the curiosity in her gaze as she took him in, but felt no judgement from her eyes. At some level, he simply understood that she was taking him in, evaluating him as a threat, but he felt exposed beneath her as she mused about his scars, his burns, his bites.

His pelt shivered as he shook off the feeling. It was her job to learn about newcomers. He respected that. He flicked his ears back as he heard a peal of laughter from behind him, and allowed himself to relax his posture a bit. Confirming that he had her permission, the stallion wandered off and started looking for a place to spend the night.

Preferably somewhere without too many other horses. Once on the outskirts of the Ridge, he began to truly search for someplace to rest. He hadn't encountered another horse in a while, and nodded to himself, satisfied that he was relatively isolated. Eventually, he stumbled across a large tree with a cradle at the foot. He guessed that there had been a large boulder at some point, and that something had caused it to move. Looking slightly downhill, he noticed a scattering of large rocks, and confirmed his theory. The roots of the tree had grown into the stone, fracturing it into pieces that eventually rolled away. He cocked his head, listening to the world around him. He noted the birds chirping, the buzz of the insects, and the soft babbling of a small creek hidden by brush and shrubs.
He cleared the rest of the area, nudging the rocks away from the foot of the tree and pulling mouthfuls of tall grass around him to soften the ground.
When he stepped back again, the dip at the bottom of the tree had been filled with soft grass, and the pieces of the boulder formed a protective circle around the front. Even in his choice of resting area he looked for security and comfort.
The sun hadn't quite started to set, but the shadows were gradually starting to lengthen. He choose to graze for a while before trotting to the bubbling creek to drink. His dexterous lips danced through the goundcover, picking each blade of grass before pulling up mouthfuls at a time. 'It's sweet,' he thought to himself as he chewed. A nice change of pace for once.
Even though the world was at peace around him, he still didn't let himself relax. After years of being prepared to fight or flee for every moment, it was going to take more than a few hours of quiet to get him to slip to complacency. But as the sun started to set overhead, he started to tire. He padded over to the bed he had made, and gently folded his legs under him. He lay on his side to avoid aggravating his latest wound, and started to close his eyes.

As he slept, a soft rain fell around him, but the large leaves of the tree above him shielded him from the drops. Before long, thunder rumbled gently in the distance. He shifted in his sleep, his body tensing once again. It was the large crash of thunder following a nearby lightning strike that woke him up. He bolted to his feet, his face scrunched up in agony as he pulled open the new skin that had formed over his bite. A familiar smell started to fill his nose. The smell of embers and smoke suffocated him. He started to pant, and swung his head from side to side, searching. There.
Flames had started to crawl up the trunk of the ancient tree that had sheltered him for the night. Without him noticing, the had started to circle him, leaving a ring only where he had pulled the grass off the ground, stopping at his circle. He reared in panic, then spun, trying to find an area he could escape. The tree behind him groaned, reminding him that the fire was slowly eating away at the bark.
He paced in a circle, working himself into a sweat between the heat and the panic before realizing he only had one choice. He backed himself against the trunk, steeling himself to repeat his worst childhood memory.

He broke into a gallop, tucking his legs under him as he leaped through the flames. He let loose a primal scream as the flames hugged his body, burning the already sensitive scar tissue on his front. Blood now poured freely from the wound on his back but he hardly felt the pain from his bite. The searing, burning sensation on his chest and face was too much. His vision wavered, and went dark the moment after his hooves touched the ground. He shook himself awake, and kept his stride. He continued to gallop. Anything to escape the flames. Anything to escape the pain.

The stallion was still dreaming. The thought of letting his guard down had allowed his darkest nightmare to happen again. And now, he was running blind. running from flames that didn't exist, and a past he wanted so badly to erase. But he didn't know the terrain. He kept stumbling, almost loosing his footing on the uneven ground. Panic drove him forward. He thought he was headed to the river, but now, he was barelling towards the very thing that gave the Ridge its name.

.