Falls

The waters that rushed to meet Kvothe and her kind stranger felt ice-cold where they caressed her skin.

But the slender chestnut did not balk, heartened by the reassurances of the chimeric stallion… even if his gentle touch left her inexplicably apprehensive. Once more she glanced back towards the Inlet’s dark and indiscernible landscape, her dark brown eyes probing for the familiar figure of her Prince, her everything. But Ironclad - possibly searching for their missing daughter - was nowhere to be found, and Pike needed her. With a shiver and a shuddering sigh, the Friesian mare continued forward in the wake of her would-be captor until the sea grabbed hold of them both, tugging them along like bits of flotsam left in the aftermath of a storm.

It was fortunate that the swim between Tinuvel and the Crossing’s northernmost edge was short; Kvothe was exhausted. But even so, she did not permit them to linger long enough to do anything but catch their breath when they arrived on the rocky shore. During these few moments, she curled her smaller form into Tyr’s muscular and imposing figure, her blunt teeth carving a divot into the soft flesh of one lip. As if he sensed her need in the subtle movements of her body, the patchwork stallion began to lead them along the edge of the shore - a decision that Kvothe did not question, though perhaps she might have if she’d been more familiar with the geography of the Crossing. As it was, she didn’t understand that they were toeing the boundaries of the Peak and its population of free-willed mares. Mares who would have recognized the danger that she had willingly placed herself in, and intervened.

By the time they reached the flatter and more open landscape beyond the base of the mountain, the auburn mare was almost stumbling from the weariness that weighted on every bone in her body. They stopped together at the base of a fall to rest, and drink at the dunalino’s encouragement. To Kvothe, even the clear sweet war tasted bitter on her tongue, like it was a well that had been poisoned by the acrid tang of her fear. And as soon as she finished, she began to search methodically, circling out from the pool as if it were the eye of calm in the midst of a hurricane. Around her, the Falls were coming to life, but in the chestnut mare only two things stirred - despair, and the growing sense that something was not quite right.

The stranger had started out in the opposite direction at first, as if to help Kvothe in her search. But when her dark eyes found him now, he was standing motionless only a short distance away. His mismatched eyes studied her with an intensity that she could feel like a physical presence; like an unwelcome touch. A shudder of unease traveled the full length of Kvothe’s spine, but she inhaled deeply and willed the irrational emotion away. That the stallion had even guided her here was an act of great compassion. Undoubtedly he was as exhausted as she - or more, having made the swim between the Crossing and her home twice. She could hardly fault him for needing a respite, particularly when…

She isn’t here,” the red mare spoke softly, trying to mask the heavy burden of anguish that hung from those words. "S - she must have wandered, maybe she went-” her thin body angled itself to the west, where a strand of pines huddled together like sentinels. “Or even-” Kvothe turned eastward now, her eyes combing an expanse of tall grass that had been leached of its color by the sun. Which way would Pike go? As tired as wretched as she felt, she couldn’t think. She could barely even breathe, and before she knew it there were tears dampening her cheeks, and quiet sobs seeking to escape from between the clenched barrier of her teeth.

It was bad enough to think of a child lost and afraid. But her thoughts turned to Ironclad as well - to the twin burdens of pain and panic that he, too, would be suffering. And would her Prince still treasure her as one of his own herd if she proved herself unworthy of the greatest gift he’d given her?

Letting the trembling pillars of her legs fold themselves beneath her, Kvothe slumped to the ground and abandoned the thin thread of hope that had taken her here.