His favorite spot? It only took a moment before the exact location climbed into his head, a past and rambunctious three year old him racing across the beach with a particular chestnut tobiano leading the way. Tarrant smiled warmly and gave a small toss of his head, pointing to where the cliffs stretched out and framed the northern side of the island.

“In that cliff, with the tide out like it is, we’ll be able to climb across rocks and up a short height to where the gulls like to nest. There are hundreds of them up there!”

It wasn’t the gulls which made it Tarrant’s favorite place however and that realization crawled into his mind shortly after. A slight frown encompassed his features and he stumbled into a stop from his happy adventure type march that had been there before.

“Then again those birds can be very noisy, you probably wouldn’t be very excited about seeing them squabble about, eh?”

His neck bent, head turning as his green eye found her and held her expression quietly for a moment. No, definitely not hundreds of screeching birds for a first time experience on Tinuvel!

“Ah, got it!”

He turned them inland, away from where the beach rolled up the shore only to pull back out again in its endless cycle. Eventually the sand made way for dirt and small clumps of snow which had managed to stick at the last snowfall. Within a few weeks, maybe even a few days, Tarrant knew he would awake to see the Inlet covered in a soft blanket of white and the inland river frozen over in ice. Winter always hit Tinuvel the hardest yet those determined to make it a home had always done so with spectacular success. His ears flicked as Pulse spoke, her soft feminine voice comforting just as her presence was. Tarrant loved meeting new friends (which he considered everyone to be right away) and hadn’t traveled about with a face other than Wonka’s for quite some time.

“Not exactly, I was born on this island but not in this territory.”

Subconsciously his heart must have reached out for the Bay because Tarrant turned his head, eyes seeking out the mightiest peak that could be seen over Tinuvel on a clear day. Unfortunately the gray mist and thick clouds were hanging too low, covering him from seeing the final resting place of his father. The pain was still there as it had been nine years prior but like always Tarrant merely squashed it away. He wouldn’t dare become the party pooper of this little adventure!

“I was born in the Bay; Blizzard Bay is its nickname from some of the born folk here. Wonka’s mother though, she was born and raised here.”

His voice grew a touch sadder when he said it, but Tarrant hardly noticed, so used to talking of Adelaïda and not realizing just how bonded he was to her and how much his heart ached in her absence.

“And you?”

Tarrant questioned curiously, his eye turning back to Pulse as they walked into the woodlands which spread along the inland of Tinuvel in great numbers. Their steps were announced by the soft crunches of pine needles beneath their hooves and somewhere to their left the river gurgled along happily.

“What was the place like where you were born? Was it as wintry as this one?”

He smiled teasingly, turning to lock eyes with her once more before winding them about the trunk of a large sequoia and breathing the fresh scent of the cold woods deep within his lungs. The sound of the gurgling water grew louder and louder yet until they walked quietly into a clearing where the strangled rays of sun managed to peek through and shimmer against the earth below. The terrain was slightly rolling, coming off the side of a mountain and because of that, the river which flowed into the ocean and gave the Inlet its name had been made into a miniature four-foot waterfall. The pool it poured down into was crystal clear, tinted a dark blue and in its depths there were rocks of all colors winking back upward at them. There were thin strands of grass sprouting all about, hardly as nutritious as the stuff on the Crossing and soon to be buried beneath snow but it was a nice little area nonetheless.

“Eventually it will be cold enough for this entire waterfall and river to freeze. It’s not as impressively large as the falls are on Crossing when they freeze but it’s still a sight to see when the sun hits it just right.”