The death of the unknown mare still hung heavy on her mind as she led Cullen further away from the shore and dense woodlands. The silence of the world around them and the lifeless bob of her pale head before it disappeared beneath the murky surface left a chill in her soul and were she honest, she doubted that she would ever be able to rid herself of it. She had seen death before; seen death plenty of times in the limp bodies of the tawny lions she had slain or the decaying remnants of a beast’s kill. None of that had ever bothered her. It was brutal true, but in some way, felt natural to her. What the dark stallion had done… that was something she did not even know how to describe. It was something altogether different.
The crisp zephyrs that buffet down from the mountain are the first to greet her, awakening her from the depths of her sobering thoughts and reminding her that she still had much on her own plate than to dwell in sorrow over the death of a stranger. With a toss of her head the lithe woman of moonwashed hues charges from the thinning shrubbery that marked the borders to the Peak. Fluted ears pitch forward as a scream of summons bugles from her lungs, calling forth the wraiths and ghosts that sought sanctuary in the freedom the Peaks offered. Long neck coils as her pale silver eyes turn back to glare at Cullen’s sulking form as he joins her. A smirk slides across her ashen lips as she snorts in distaste and flicks her long silvery tail towards him before continuing through the dense fescue and bluegrass. She halts her aching frame now on a high hillock, watching as the first few shapes slid into view.
”My sisters…” she begins, lifting her throat to let her words ring high over the stiff breeze that swirled around her.
”I have returned from battle with spoils to share…” she continues, pausing to cock her head towards the stand of grass that Cullen now occupied.
”Many like myself, have been wronged by Cullen and his band of bachelor stallions in the past. Many times he has sent his minions into the Peaks in search of pretty little trinkets to warm their beds of grass at night…” now the words are venom on her tongue, spat with disgust and fury. Raven tipped ears disappear beneath the silken tendrils of her mane as once more she turns her icy gaze towards the gathered faces.
”Let him taste the disgrace he seeks to chain us with.” she snarls.For a moment longer she pauses in silence, letting the words sink into the air around them and struggling to calm the storm of fury that burns within her. Finally, she exhales a slow breath.
”I bring him as proof that if you will continue to trust me, I shall not fail as your leader. I will continue to fight and do all within my power to remind the herds of the islands what we stand for… freedom!” she finishes, stomping her hoof onto the granite rock beneath her firmly.
”I have witnessed first hand the brutality of these stallions here and with the mountains blessing I shall stand for it no longer! No more will they take advantage of the weak or deal death’s blow. Those… those rights are reserved for the fates themselves!” she continues, nodding her head in determination as the ghastly scene at the shore tugs at her thoughts once more.
”This I promise you.” she finishes.
