She arrived at the Peak and was both heartbroken and thankful for its quiet. Perhaps her sisters were in the hills at the base, seeking shelter from winter and not wanting to draw out and pull attention. Maybe after she lingered a few days she would come across them again. Would she be lucky enough to see familiar faces? She hoped so.

But the quiet gave her time to stand alone and close her eyes and let the cold winter air whip across the Peak’s summit and sting her gold and white coat. It tugged wildly at her pale hair, moving her mane from one side of her neck to the next and wrapping her tail around her back legs. She let it wash over her like water and imagined she was being born anew, back into the place she’d always undoubtedly felt was home.

The Prairie would always be the place she was born, where her spindly legs stretched and grew muscle as she got older, running about with her siblings and causing playful, inconsequential mischief. But the Peak? The Peak and what it meant to her and how it felt was something else entirely. No other place felt like this.

A call pulled her from her mind and Oswin’s heart beat fast. Her eyelids popped open and she lifted her head, pale nostrils flaring to drink in the chilled air with the hope to catch the caller’s scent. She couldn’t - the wind was taking her smell to the mare rather than the other way around - but when she turned about she could see her standing there. Oswin called back to her and started forward, smiling and happy to see another face here.

As she drew closer she noted the youthfulness in the mare and realized quite quickly that she didn’t know her. Ah, well. The important thing was that she was here at all.

Oswin stretched her neck to exchange her breath and tucked her head back, smiling. “Hello,” she didn’t smell strongly of the Peak, but more of the saltwater ocean. Was she a Vulcan returning from a visit elsewhere? Was she new? Only visiting? The questions kept coming to Oswin and she held them at bay. There would be time enough for all that.

“I’m Oswin, a warrior newly returned to the Peak. Are you… Do you live here?”

oswin
this is as brave as I know how to be.
I know it’s gonna hurt you, but please… be a little proud of me.