Like the dense jungles of her forest back home, the mountains and its hardy mares calls to her in a way that she could never ignore. Fierce. Daunting. Resolute. The monolithic peaks hold a steady gaze down upon the islands as though everything below were under their possession alone. The mare of rosy gray hues feels a sort of draw to them, a draw felt from the moment her stripped hooves once more touched down upon the soft sandy beach of the island chain. The Peaks. Even before the red dun mare had rushed to her defense against Cullen, Khar felt the stirring deep within her breast. The confirmation was made plain by the peak mare’s appearance and her assistance in driving back Cullen into the shadows. The mountains. She belonged there.

For a time after the little scuffle in the Commons, Khar lingers on the verge of sanity and dreams. She told herself it was a mere cold brought on from her lengthy swim in the ocean but she could not fool herself. Lust. Passion. Fires fueled by a mutual need and desire for satisfaction that could only be sated by a member of the opposite sex. He had filled that role perfectly, her stranger in the night. There were no questions asked, no charade of feelings and empty promises to be met with heartache and betrayal. Khar’pern told herself long long ago that she did not know these emotions anymore. She trained them from her bones and plucked the remnants of her soul from her body. It was mere passion that brought them together and in the end, like the raging fever that left her sweating and breathless, the morning saw clarity and healing.

The first rays of dawn awakened her to a clearer head, and the next an even clearer understanding. He did not linger nor did she, there was no need to claim one another or wish to bridle what had been wild and reckless. There were no tender touches or promises to be together again. What had been was what it was and aside from a whisper of her name as she disappears, that is all there was.

It was this that brought her to return to the peaks. Though already the lofty edges had claimed the life of one child of hers, she told herself it was merely because the girl had been sickly and doomed to a worse fate. Still, the flutter of growth in her belly rekindled her need for companionship and what better than the mountain mares? As her hooves touch the moss covered rocks and granite slopes, Khar feels a sense of relief flood through her, washing away the stains of transgressions and distant lands from her mind and body. A contented sigh escapes her nostrils as the red gray mare comes to a halt on an overlooking ledge, her pale silver eyes blinking away the bright sunlight that glared down through the scattering of clouds above. This was where she belonged.