The sun was high in the sky but the land held a nearly grey appeal to it. The heavy clouds that hung low in the sky blocked out any ray of light that tried to touch the snow covered landscape. But among the faded colors, a splash of color an emerged from the darkened shadows beneath a cluster of trees like a sun of its own. Peyton's golden buckskin frame had never been good at hiding her among her birth land. Even now as the snow fell in large flakes and settled upon her broad back and along the crest of her thick mane and forelock, she still could not hide away from prying eyes that might try to seek her out.
Worry for her father had sent her away from he herd; sneaking away when darkness had settled and her ever watchful mother had finally drifted off to sleep. Peyton was not known for the antics her sister always played; in fact, Peyton had always been the burr attached to her mother's side for fear of what might happen if she ever left it. The buckskin mare; no longer young enough to be called filly had never attempted such things before now and it was only because of the fear she felt for her missing family that out weighed the fear she had for the wolves that prowled the snowy landscape like the plague.
Peyton had recalled that her father had shared an alliance with their neighbors of the Inlet and she had wondered if maybe a business trip there had delayed him much longer than it should have. She was not quite brave enough to face the sea yet so she would start there. Yet as she crossed the border into the Inlet, it was not Dogun's scent that assaulted her nostrils; it was a new stallion's. He did not have the mixed scent of mare and foal lingering with his scent and although it was everywhere she could tell by the lack of a herd that he was possibly new. Sucking in a heavy breath as she tried to steel her failing courage, Peyton continued to walk through the snow knowing that sooner or later the stallion would find her or the large tracks her feathered legs left behind.
Peyton did not expect to be alone for long.
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