I DON'T WORRY, WORRYING DON'T AGREE
THINGS THAT BOTHER YOU, NEVER BOTHER ME!

A devout follower should follow the Goddess of the Forest, for that is what followers were meant to do. It was why they were called followers. Why would they be called followers if they were meant to stay away from the Goddess of the Forest?

Talya, a devout follower of the Goddess of the Forest followed very happily, though at some distance. The distance was unintentional and had only occurred because she continuously became distracted by something new. A peculiar crunch of icy snow beneath her hoof or the peeking of the sun through the gray clouds above. Important things. She was not, by any means, trailing the Goddess of the Forest in a sneaky or suspicious manner (in fact, Talya seemed entirely incapable of such a plan of action).

Talya, nose stuck in a pine, giggling as every breath sucked in only the smell of the forest, went still with a sudden start. She jerked her head upright and whipped it around. Oh no! She’d lost the Goddess of the Forest! Dismay was alight in her bright blue eyes as she turned and started quickly down the path she’d last seen the Goddess of the Forest go. She trotted, keeping her mind pressed toward the hopeful sight of the bay, black, and frosty white mare.

When she found her, the Goddess of the Forest was not alone. Talya stopped at the tree line and peered openly, curiously at the gold figure who accompanied the Goddess of the Forest. It was as if her face was a calm pool of water which had experienced a particularly violent ripple. Something stirred behind her eyes – something like horror and heartbreak and fear – but her conscious mind quickly shut it out and she returned blank, dumb, and happy. Talya blinked a few times, staring at the gold mare.

“HELLO STRANGER! WELCOME TO THE FOREST!” She blurted loudly, clearly having no concept of an appropriate volume level, and turned a wide, simple smile onto the Goddess of the Forest.

“Goddess Persephone! Goddess Persephone!” Talya bounced suddenly like an excitable little girl, not like the two-year-old young mare she was about to become the following spring. “I was following you because that’s what I’m supposed to do but I got distracted. Did you know if you stick pine needles up your nose and breathe in, it smells like the Forest everywhere you go?” Talya looked very proud of her discovery. “If I leave I am going to do that so I always smell the Forest.”