I stood alone on the hill. That same one where the pony king had swept my heart away from my duties. He showed me what I had lost, what had been taken from me. The sadness of this fact tore my heart in two. I felt I could no longer function, my legs no longer holding my weight. How unfair life was, it takes and it takes until you are left with nothing but the flesh on your back. Stripped of those that you love, the ones left turning their backs on you.

I had lived my life the way my parents wanted me to. Perhaps not in the same way exactly, but I was still bound by duties. Duties given to me by someone else, duties I no longer felt the need to follow. I had been chained by their lies and deception, following the footsteps of a colt long gone. They made me believe he was dead, but I know he is not. The part in me that awoke at his birth is still alight, though dimmed and darkened, it still existed. He was alive, and I will find him again. I will find him.

A foal, skinny and small lay beside me. Pure black pelt, just like the dusk sky. His legs so long his muzzle couldn’t touch the ground when he stood. Part of me hated him, him and dögun, they kept me from my other son, the one whom kept my soul in the past. Lingering there, I never fully recovered from my losses, and I know I never will. The other part of me overpowered this hate. I loved this foal, Rökkur, with all my heart, and I felt great love for dögun. They were my everything, they were everything real that I had. Everything else was a hope, even a fallicy. But they were here, in the flesh, and they cared.

The warm breeze blew softly on Rökkur and I . His little eyes open and glanced at me. Spring was here, and so was my son, my second son, who would be loved just as much as my first.