The quiet that had permeated the Peak only grew somehow louder as the days stretched on. Seasons changed and Oswin remained atop the Peak, refusing to descend its path, watching as Filumena and Oswald left her often to explore on their own and she was stuck in the quiet misfortune of her somber thoughts. There was little enough vegetation to sustain her here, but she managed. Little brought her comfort, as if she had forgotten the meaning of the word entirely.

She was filled with a sort of bitterness. An anger at herself, at her shortcomings. At failing the Peak, her sisters (both the current ones and those who had to face war in her past absence), and her children, too. At times she lingered near the very sheer edges of the Peak’s summit, letting the wind whistle through her pale ears and rip angrily at her hair. She’d make herself sick peering over the edge and think…

Not today, though. Not tonight.

Oswin was tucked quietly in a small grove she had come to enjoy because of how private it felt. The way the rocks jutted up from the ground practically encased her, keeping eyes away from her if any of the few Peak mares left happened to be here tonight rather than down in the hills.

There was a beckoning whicker some hours after Oswin had taken to solitude. She didn’t recognize the pitch and, when lifting her pale face and rotating her ears to listen, didn’t hear anyone answer it back. Curiosity pulled at her hooves as she walked forward, almost as though the Peak itself moved her and she didn’t step on her own. Despite her listlessness, strangers would still come to the Peak and a sense of responsibility was inside her, wanting to be there to greet them, to inform them of what the Peak could be for them.

A thin, lanky red mare stood at the opening of the path, waiting. Oswin expected she was the mare who’d called into the Peak moments ago and made her way toward her.

“Have you come to seek shelter in the Peak?”

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.