Winter was soon to come to an end for the islands, but those who were new to Tinuvel wouldn’t know the northern island understood this. Snow still laid high throughout the forest and over mountains, great chunks of ice floated lazily in the bay, pushed this way and that by the tide. From time to time snow still fell, though it was a little less frequently than it had been weeks before. It was safe for the herd to leave the caverns and surrounding area near the hot springs, though Mariael warned those who hadn’t lived a winter on this island to do so with caution. She suspected the worst of the storms had passed but new her land could be fickle in its frigid weather.
Leaving Zevulun and others of her queensguard to keep watch on the herd members who were digging up snow and trying to find things to eat, Mariael made her way through her home. Every winter her herd survived and flourished in was one in which she felt triumphant in those she’d chosen to keep in her home. Only the strongest could survive such a place and Mariael would only have strength here.
A call split the air and Mariael frowned suspiciously, stopping in her tracks. Who had been fool enough to dare the winter waters? Had an outsider come to Tinuvel in winter? Surely this was important, for anyone to bring themselves here during such a time, unless they were new to the islands and hadn’t been prepared for what they walked into. She turned her path to retreat down toward the beach although, as she watched the trees of the forest thin, she caught sight of another of her herd making their way with purpose toward the fire-red figure in the distance.
It was Zevulun’s friend and the stallion who seemed to have an eye for Maziel. Mariael had watched him carefully as protective as she was of Maziel, but thus far he’d done nothing to show he was any trouble. The guarded way he approached this stranger made her narrow her eyes in thought…
Mariael’s loyalty stood with her family. If this stallion who’d come to the beach meant trouble for Paradiso, she would not hesitate to drive him back into those cold waters and refuse him shelter in her home. She pushed purposefully into the open air, her head held high. Ice clung to the hair on her legs and in tangled strands of her hair. Mariael was every bit of frost as her home was.
She approached the two, ears turned forward, in time to hear Paradiso’s voice. It was a tone she hadn’t heard him use when she’d listed idly to his conversations with Zevulun or Maziel, and it made her assess the situation more carefully. The name was familiar, however, and it tore through her like a shock. This was Shamwari? She looked toward the blazed-face stallion with renewed interest, studying him. Her father had spoken frequently of Shamwari and for a moment, Mariael thought of this stallion as one of the very few remaining connections to her father which existed on these islands.
Still, though, it was clear a member of her herd was not pleased by his arrival. Mariael looked between the two and settled her attention on Shamwari. “Is there an issue I should be aware of here?” She asked, her tone cool.
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