"If Love himself weep, shall not lovers weep,
learning from what sad cause he pours his tears?
Love hears his ladies crying their distress,
showing forth bitter sorrow through their eyes
because villainous Death has worked its cruel
destructive art upon a gentle heart,
and laid waste all that earth can find to praise
in a gracious lady, save her chastity."

Hazy, warm plumes of carbon dioxide escaped from the mare's flared nostrils as she stalked anxiously along the borderline of the Inlet. Worry fueled the panicked expression behind her eye. Macabre had no intention of ever returning to place where she watched her son die.

But here she was, shivering underneath autumn's brisk temperatures, her tolerance for Tinuvel's chilled terrain having been wiped clean from spending nearly a year away from this place. At one time, Macabre had considered the Inlet her home. Not because she belonged to Dogun, or because this was, in fact, the place where she gave birth to Shiraz. The Inlet became her home when she realized it was the first place she had felt safe enough to stay for more than a few nights at a time. Life was so different then. The mare had begun to trust again. She was willing to share part of herself with Dogun and take on the responsibility that comes with being apart of a herd. But then Dexter came along and ripped her from all of that.

And then Shiraz died.

She didn't want to think about it. She sure as hell didn't want to revisit the scene where Shiraz had lay, wheezing and staring blankly out into the world that had shown him nothing but cruelty. But the memories came flooding back the second the mare's hoof touched the hard and frigid earth of Dogun's homeland.

Their last interaction had been painful. It was hard for her to tell the Pony King to let her go. But she'd brought him nothing but anguish during her brief stint underneath his care. Part of her still believed that she was cursed and destined to bring down those around her. But she was still a creature, after all, and after months of being alone, she was craving the attention of another being. Of someone she could trust. Returning to Dogun after everything that had happened between though, made her feel guilty.

Perhaps she was here to make amends. She wasn't sure of her intentions. The worry building in her gut told her to flee - flee now before she had the chance to embarrass herself or be spotted by someone who would recognize her.