The black mare moved her way through the trees, careful to stay mostly in the shadows and avoid the sun light that had made it’s way through the canopy of leaves and to the forest floor. The ground was covered in oranges, yellows and reds as autumn made it’s appearance in the forested land. The leaves crunched under the hooves of the blanketed mare, and at first she had been annoyed, her sneaking along was no longer going to go unnoticed as she had planned. But now she let the more childish side of her take over and she went out of her way to step on the more crunchier looking leaves while still avoiding the sun.

She laughed to herself as she bounded into a pile of leaves that had piled up underneath the shade of a large oak. She hadn’t realized that there was a small dip that was hidden by the leaves and so the blanketed mare fell rather ungracefully into the pile, but all that did was make her laugh louder. It felt good to laugh, she hadn’t for so long. Not since she had first left. Chompy wasn’t exactly one that appreciated a good joke either.

Standing up, Nyx shook her body, leaves falling off her body before floating back down to the ground. There were some leaves that had tangled themselves into her mane and tail, but she ignored them, approving of the new decoration. Nyx continued to explore her new home, glad to be away from the ever watchful eye of Chompy, though she knew he probably wasn’t that far away from her. But for the time being, she was alone.

Raising her head, Nyx took a deep breath, trying to gather the scents of others that called this place home. She knew only of two that had the unfortunate luck of having Chomps as their leader, but she could smell others and she knew there were more. She whinnied loudly, before slinking into the shade of a tree to watch for their arrival. She needed allies here if this was going to be her home and she knew that the others probably felt the same.

---