The ground crunched beneath their hooves, ice frozen over and snow drifts piled that hadn’t yet melted. Maziel walked slowly on account of her limp, but she was grateful her silent guide had stuck with her anyways. Cool shadows fell over her body and told her they’d entered the inland forest of the territory. They came to a stop shortly after and Maziel sighed, grateful to have the chance to rest her wounded leg. She tipped her hoof against the ground and leaned her weight off it, relief making the tight lines that’d been around her mouth go slack.
Her ears flicked as the stallion sighed. Sensitive as she was to what little she could read of him, Maziel felt she understood. They were waiting. He must have other horses in his herd, as a horse alone in Tinuvel’s winter was a dead one. Maziel turned to point her face toward where she could hear his soft breaths, intending to let him know she knew they were waiting and appreciated that they were resting when a call came from back within the forest. The sound didn’t last for long, cut short by (Maziel presumed) her presence being noted.
She very politely made to excuse herself from their conversation, but Maziel didn’t need to worry about speaking up and asking her to stay. The mare was observant, and as she asked, “Is everything okay?” Maziel sighed and shook her head.
“I was caught in a storm in the ocean and ripped away from my partner, that’s when this happened,” she said, making a point to carefully lift her wounded leg, her brown lips pulling tight in the process, then gingerly set it back down. “Your… stallion?-” she said it with a question, assuming, but thinking she surely must be assuming right “-found me on the shore and was trying to help me but,” Maziel flicked her ears and turned toward where she knew the stallion was. She reached out and softly touched his shoulder. A grateful, thankful touch. “It’s a little hard for us to communicate.” She concluded, smiling as she turned to point her face in the direction she’d heard the mare talking from last.
“I’m from a family who used to live in the Bay almost a decade ago, I’m looking for my sister Mariael. She’s very sick and I believe she came back to Tinuvel. It’s the only place I could think of her going.”
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